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Alberta has set an bold goal to be a carbon-neutral — web zero — economic system by 2050. Attending COP28, I had the chance to share among the net-zero vitality analysis taking place on the College of Alberta and deepen our world collaborations. As a worldwide chief in growing net-zero vitality options, UA has a key position to play in guaranteeing a sustainable and affluent future for Alberta’s vitality sector.
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Alberta emits much more greenhouse gasoline emissions than every other province in Canada (virtually double that of Ontario), primarily pushed by industrial emissions, together with oil and gasoline manufacturing. Attending to web zero by 2050 goes to require a concerted effort. In shut collaboration with trade and authorities, and constructing on a long time of management in vitality analysis, UA has launched a serious new analysis mission — Canadian Internet Zero Vitality Options (CANZES) — to develop the applied sciences Alberta might want to obtain web zero by 2050. We’re bringing collectively among the prime researchers on the planet to deal with one of many biggest challenges dealing with the globe.
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Attaining web zero would require growing new applied sciences and refining current ones to convey them to full-scale implementation. It should require main investments in analysis and billions of {dollars} of recent infrastructure. There is no such thing as a magic bullet — we want a multi-faceted and multidisciplinary method.
We’re specializing in 5 essential areas that shall be important for Alberta to realize web zero by 2050: carbon seize, utilization and storage (CCUS), hydrogen, essential minerals, resilient and good electrical grids, and land and water reclamation. In all 5 areas, we are going to leverage our experience in synthetic intelligence and quantum science.
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With two multibillion-dollar initiatives already underway (Air Merchandise and Dow Chemical), Alberta is dwelling to among the largest CCUS initiatives on the planet. Nevertheless, extra analysis shall be wanted to reveal financial feasibility at scale and technological maturity for a lot of CCUS methods. UA analysis is advancing point-source and direct air seize, together with geological storage. It consists of CO2 utilization (utilizing CO2 as uncooked supplies for different merchandise), which shall be important for growing next-generation applied sciences that cut back the price of CCUS. We’re additionally inspecting methods to construct public acceptance and belief, that are essential to the success of CCUS initiatives in Alberta and throughout Canada.
CCUS analysis will even assist Alberta capitalize on producing and utilizing clear hydrogen. When burned for vitality, hydrogen emits solely water, which implies it may be a serious supply of fresh vitality. UA analysis is advancing the entire spectrum of hydrogen analysis, together with manufacturing, transportation, storage and utilization. Combining CCUS with Alberta’s huge pure gasoline sources, together with Alberta’s quickly rising renewables (wind and photo voltaic), Alberta generally is a main world producer of fresh hydrogen. With a worldwide hydrogen market estimated to be value greater than $2.5 trillion by 2050, the potential for Alberta is big.
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As extra transportation strikes to electrical autos, the world urgently wants extra essential minerals, together with lithium, needed for battery manufacturing. UA analysis is exploring the best way to extract lithium from oilfield brines in Alberta, an alternative choice to conventional sources that’s present in onerous rocks around the globe, is expensive to mine and environmentally intrusive.
Electrical autos additionally imply enormous new calls for on {the electrical} grid. Renewable vitality techniques corresponding to photo voltaic and wind additionally create challenges in guaranteeing these vitality techniques are suitable with as we speak’s electrical grid. UA analysis is main the way in which in growing resilient and good electrical grids for clear vitality and zero-emissions autos.
Land and water reclamation are key challenges in growing sustainable vitality techniques. UA analysis is on the forefront of efficient, built-in and low-energy therapy methods for municipal and industrial wastewater.
In 1944, UA researcher Dr. Karl Clark developed the know-how to separate bitumen from sand, resulting in the primary industrial improvement of the oilsands in 1967. Over time, UA analysis has continued to help Alberta’s thriving vitality sector. That help has by no means been extra vital as we speak.
Merely imposing caps on carbon is not going to create a sustainable emissions discount plan. As an alternative, we will solely realistically meet our emissions targets by growing the applied sciences that may make web zero a actuality whereas sustaining entry to inexpensive and dependable vitality. CANZES shall be an vital a part of the trail ahead to the advantage of all Albertans and past.
Invoice Flanagan is president of the College of Alberta.
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