Grant: Alliance Grants

The overarching goal of this Alliance partnership between the Berlinguette Group (UBC) and TOTAL (an international energy company) is to demonstrate coupled CO2 capture and conversion. The project will result in the design and construction of the first ever multi-cell bicarbonate electrolyzer stack (a device that produces useful chemicals from CO2 capture solutions) that is integrated with a CO2 capture unit. This carbon capture/conversion unit will provide TOTAL and the academic community with data obtained under conditions that are representative of those needed for operation at an industrial scale. The Alliance project will also train young Canadian scientists and engineers for careers that contribute to growing the renewable energy and carbon-tech economy. The long-term vision is to commercialize an end-to-end CO2 capture and utilization technology that uses CO2 and renewable energy to produce fuels and precursors for chemical manufacturing industries. This approach has the potential to create a multi-trillion-dollar industry that would transform CO2 from an environmental liability into an economic asset. Canada is poised to be a global leader in this effort because of Canadian's strong academic and industrial expertise in the fields of electrolysis and reactor engineering, as well as the commitment of federal and provincial governments to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases such as CO2. Canada also has the renewable resources (hydro/wind) needed to eventually power the first commercial bicarbonate electrolyzers, and is therefore a desirable location for future scaling, testing, and demonstration of a CO2 capture and conversion technology.