Innoventures Canada

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Innoventures Canada
I-Can

• I-CAN Centre for Conversion of Carbon Dioxide
• Chemrawn XVII ICCDU
• IX Conference on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Uses
• July 11, 2007

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What is I-CAN?
FP Innovations
NorCat
New Brunswick Research and Productivity Centre

• Canadas national applied research and technology
  commercialization organization
• Market based, business-like, public interest
• 300 million per annum - 80 industry
• 2100 staff
• 4500 customers
• Currently operates in 7 provinces and 15
  communities across Canada

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I-CAN members have an 80 year history of success

• Market oriented
• Strong business-oriented leadership
• Governed by independent Boards of Directors with
  strong business experience
• Connected to RTOs around the world
• Services for development, testing, prototyping,
  and commercialization
• Business-like
• Able to fund strategically, Canadian priorities
• Flexible, lean, unencumbered by bureaucracy
• Diligent results-based business practices
• Leading edge approach to commercialization
• Public Interest
• Create billions of dollars in economic impacts
• Triple bottom line - Social, environmental and
  economic
• Focused on critical proof-of-concept and
  demonstration stage
• Science based input to guide policy decisions
• Cross-sector and multi-disciplinary

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Background

• The world is a natural greenhouse CO2 is the
  basis for the organic life cycle. Plant life
  sequesters carbon, releasing oxygen that supports
  animal life. GHG also limit global heat loss and
  provide the environment in which life can be
  sustained.
• In the past century, GHG in the atmosphere rose
  more rapidly than ever before in recorded
  history. In the last few decades, global average
  temperatures began to rise quickly. Public
  consensus attributes the rise in temperature to
  GHG.
• GHG concentrations and global average
  temperatures have cycled over geologic time.
• Fossil fuel production and use emit large
  quantities of GHG into the atmospheric.
• The largest and most concentrated individual
  sources of CO2 are coal fired power stations oil
  sands projects gas processing, refining and
  upgrading petrochemicals pulp and paper
  cement/lime production and pipeline compressors.
• As the major source of Canadian hydrocarbon
  production, BC, Alberta, Manitoba and
  Saskatchewan collectively generate nearly half of
  Canadas GHG and are the obvious focus for any
  action to limit Canadian emissions. However, the
  installed capital in Western Canada is an
  enormous wealth generator for Canada, an
  investment whose value must be protected.

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Carbon Cycle
Photo- synthesis
Atmosphere
exchange through ocean surface
Living organic matter
rivers and ice to oceans
Living org. matter
WOW
DOW
Burning of organic matter
CO2 for weathering
Photosynthesis respiration
Fresh Water
Land Biota
polar
POM DOM
Rivers into continental basins
Oceans
Weathering erosion CO2 for weathering and
deposition
upwelling
dead organic matter
CaCO2 - rain
dead org. matter
POM
Fossil fuel
sediments
Inorganic matter segementation
Meta morphesis
Fossil fuel burning
uplift
Volcanic gases
sediments
igneous
intrusion
Basaltic Oceanic crust
Continental crust
Rocks
Seafloor spreading
erosion
pluming
subduction
mantle
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Potential CO2 Hubs
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GHG Technology Goal

• create, develop, adopt and adapt
  transformational technologies that will break
  hydrocarbon energys linkage with GHG emissions
  and change the way we look at sustaining fossil
  energy in a carbon constrained world.

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Six major categories of technology opportunity

• CO2 capture
• Syngas production from bitumen, coke or coal with
  CO2 capture
• CO2 sequestration
• EOR
• CBM and enhanced CBM
• Cleaner sources of steam and power for oil sands
  development
• Nuclear
• Electric drive trucks
• Process operational efficiency
• Reduced energy intensity associated with in-situ
  hydrocarbon production - chemical (Vapex),
  biological
• CO2 conversion
• Carbonate products
• Genetics for enhanced rates of carbon uptake
• Forest management
• Biomass based energy production
• Bio-fuels
• Waste to energy

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I-CAN Creates Value

• Weyburn/Midale CO2 Project
• Major international project. Provinces,
  universities and industry are also partners
• Phase 1 - long-term underground storage of CO2 is
  safe and secure
• Final Phase resolve technical issues and
  provide knowledge for CO2 storage guidelines
• Net benefits realized in the order of 500 million

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Selecting an Agenda

• Capture, storage, efficiency and alternative
  energy approaches are well in hand
• Canadian research leads the world in many areas,
  including carbon dioxide in geological storage
  and energy resource recovery.
• Industry is actively working to reduce energy
  intensity and increase efficiency
• Bio-mass energy technology is well-proven
• CO2 conversion is the major outstanding
  opportunity with great potential

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Choosing a platform
CO2 light chlorophyll O2 nCxx

• CO2 sequestration in plant and tree biomass has
  been widely studied. These applications are
  poorly suited for direct utilization of CO2 from
  concentrated industrial sources.
• Fixation of CO2 through photosynthetic algae
  shows promise for producing renewable bio-fuels
  and biomaterials in temperate regions.
• Micro-algal mass cultivation has the potential to
  convert concentrated streams (flue gases)
  directly into micro-algal biomass that can be
  processed and fractionated to produce value-added
  chemical compounds.
• Algal biomass is 46 carbon
• Goal is to convert upwards of 100 million tpy

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Integrated bio-reactor and bio-gas generator
CO2
Fertilizer
N, P, H2O
Hydrogen
Methane
Fertilizers Animal feeds Biopolymers
Bio-fuels
Bio-prods
Carbonates
Natural Health Prods Chemicals
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Critical Cost Targets

• Algae production 10/tonne
• Bioconversion 10/tonne
• H, CH4, bio-fuels
• Average product price 25/tonne

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Technology Issues

• Algal genetics and productivity
• Strains, separation, growth requirements
• Pond design and operation
• Light transmission, CO2 distribution and
  containment
• Harvesting and Bio-flocculation
• Conversion to biofuels and other products
• Bacteria selection, extraction, conversion

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Research Partners

• ARC
• Algae characterization and genetics,
  bio-processing, bacterial digestion
• CO2 Solutions
• carbonate enzymes
• CRIQ
• recycling, CO2 capture, heavy metals,
  hydrogeology
• ITC
• design, controls, etc
• SRC
• bio-reactors, Kaolin processing, fermentation,
  algae characterization and genetics

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Hawaii Algae Production
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Microalgae Biofixation References

• 1. Bio-fixation of CO2 and GHG gas abatement with
  micro-algae US DOE, January 2003 2.
  Application of Algal photo-bioreactors for CO2
  sequestration - NRCan, May 2006
• Micro-algae grow suspended in water and convert
  water, CO2 and sunlight into O2 and biomass.
  Studied for over 50 years for food and feed
  production, wastewater treatment, generation of
  bio-fuels, nutritional supplements and recently
  for CO2 capture from flue gases.
• Algae advantages include direct use of CO2, high
  productivity (currently well above 100 tonnes per
  ha per year), high nutrient contents and ability
  to grow in brackish, saline, clay, salty and
  other conditions.
• Capital costs estimated at about 100,000 per
  hectare.

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Cost and Schedule

• 50 million over 5 years to develop technology to
  deployable level
• 12 to 20 million federal
• 12 to 20 million provincial
• 12 to 20 million industry
• 400,000 for developing research and business
  plan completion fall 2007
• Pilot plant operational by 2009
• Commercial scale (5 million plus tpy)
  demonstration project timing TBD

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Funding Partners/Supporters

• Industry
• Committed - Shell, Epcor, Graymont, Nexen,
  Suncor,
• Potential - Transalta, NB Power, Sask Power,
  Sask Energy, 3M, CNRL, EnCana, XTrata, North
  American Oil Sands
• Provincial Governments
• Committed - Alberta (AERI, LSI), Quebec
• In Discussion - Saskatchewan
• Federal Government
• Committed - NRCan
• In Progress - TEAM, Industry Canada, SDTC
• Other potentials
• US DOE, IEA, Energy INet, GE Ecomagination, CO2
  Solutions
• Supporters and Interested Parties
• CAPP, ACR, Conrad, CGA

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The benefits

• Leadership
• establish Canada as the international leader in
  bio-conversion and utilization of carbon dioxide
• High Impact
• deploy at least one process involving chemical
  and/or biological conversion of CO2 to
  value-added products by the end of 2010
• potentially reduce CO2 emissions by 100 million
  tonnes per annum by 2012.
• Timely and cost effective
• Takes advantage of existing capacity and
  infrastructure
• Reduces duplication and overlap
• Builds a new Canadian industry

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• Thank you