Innovation Anthology #153: Team Leader, Tailings R & D
Hydrogen is the fuel of the future. Using steam at temperatures over 1300 degrees Celsius, oil sands material can be converted into hydrogen. This process is called gasification.
But current technology is energy intensive and has lots of problems.
At COSI, the Imperial Oil-Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Oil Sands Innovation, Dr. Murray Gray hopes his research will change that.
His work is focused on catalysts.
DR. MURRAY GRAY: By adding catalysts to the bitumen components, we think we can significantly drop the temperature and make the process of gasification more economic. So we’re doing experiments in the lab to add different catalyst additives. These are mostly naturally occurring salts that are very cheap, things like potassium carbonate and sodium carbonate which are very inexpensive and non-toxic, but they speed up gasification reaction and allow us to make hydrogen from materials like bitumen much more cheaply potentially, if we can get that temperature down.
According to Dr. Murray Gray, hydrogen could replace natural gas as a fuel in the oil sands production process.
Thanks today to Alberta Ingenuity
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Jim Lorentz,
Syncrude Canada Ltd, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Alberta Ingenuity
Established in 2000, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund supports science and engineering research of the highest calibre, to create a prosperous future for the province of Alberta. It draws funding from a $1 billion endowment established in 2000 and managed by the Government of Alberta to build the capacity for innovation, especially in areas with long lasting social and economic impact.
Among its many programs, Alberta Ingenuity supports graduate students and university researchers, industrial research and commercialization partnerships, and has established several Centres and Institutes.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, Alberta Ingenuity was restructured and absorbed in the new agency Alberta Innovates Technology Solutions.
Program Date: 2008-07-22