Innovation Anthology #83: Clinical Scholar, Dept of Critical Care Medicine
Injecting carbon dioxide underground is a technology pioneered by scientists at the Alberta Research Council.
Not only can it be used to enhance the recovery of coal bed methane, it can also be used to reduce the amount of CO2 industry puts into the atmosphere.
The carbon dioxide can be captured from large emitters like coal fired plants or oil sands operations, transported by pipeline to storage sites, and then injected down old oil and gas wells where it will stay for millions of years.
This month, world experts like Nobel Laureate Dr. Stefan Bachu will meet in Calgary to talk about the social framework required to employ this technology on a global scale.
DR. STEFAN BACHU: This is three weeks away where the recommendations will be finalized and then they will go to the G8 leaders for consideration. And the focus is mostly on legal and regulatory frameworks, public education and acceptance of the new technology, intellectual property, transfer of rights, and financial incentives to move the technology forward. And these are basically the main barriers to large scale deployment.
Thanks today to The Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Bryan Yipp, MD,
University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2007-11-13