Cleantech innovation
SolarPass nanotechnology, which is activated by sunlight to break down hard-to-degrade organic compounds in oil sands process water and act as barrier for volatile gases.
Advancing a full suite of tools to help decarbonize the oil sands
Tackling climate change will require unprecedented collaboration and technological innovation – and Canada’s oil sands industry has spent the last decade working on a template for both.
Pathways Alliance, representing Canada’s six largest oil sands companies, is building on a unique model of collaboration among competitors – to share human resources and intellectual property as it pushes forward with the technologies it is developing and deploying to reduce emissions and achieve its net-zero goal.
“A heightened focus on reducing emissions has brought Pathways Alliance companies together to pool resources and collaborate even more closely,” says Wes Jickling, vice-president, technology development for Pathways Alliance, a collaboration between Canadian Natural, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy, which together operate approximately 95 per cent of Canada’s oil sands production.
“It’s a very Canadian kind of collaboration: where competitors work together more closely than in any other industry in the world, and we’re entirely focused on achieving common goals related to the environment and clean technology.”
Industry leaders recognized more than a decade ago that it is in everybody’s interest to work together when it comes to protecting the environment. In 2012, competing companies came together to create Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) – now the innovation arm of Pathways Alliance, which was formed in 2021.
Since 2012, these companies have conducted about 1,200 environmental research and clean technology development projects together, helping shrink the industry’s environmental footprint on land, air and water.
This track record – and billions of dollars already invested in research and development by member companies – helped give Pathways Alliance the confidence it could tackle the enormous goal of achieving net zero by 2050. The group is now doubling down on its aim to accelerate cleantech innovations that hold significant potential.
“We are making strategic investments in a number of promising clean technologies,” says Mr. Jickling. “We need a range of solutions since no single technology will be able to solve the entire emissions challenge in Canada or in the oil sands.”
Projects range from the massive – such as multi-billion-dollar carbon capture infrastructure projects – to the micro, working with the smallest of nanoparticles to reduce GHG emissions, he adds.
The big three: carbon capture, natural gas decarbonization and steam reduction
A substantial reduction in emissions – of 10 to 12 million tonnes per year of the Pathways companies’ current total oil sands emissions – will come from implementing a foundational carbon capture and storage (CCS) network by 2030. This amounts to about half of the group’s total emissions reduction goal of 22 million tonnes annually by the end of this decade. The proposal would eventually tie in more than 20 oil sands facilities – 14 to start – where greenhouse gas emissions would be captured, transported and stored safely and permanently deep underground in the Cold Lake region of Alberta. It’s estimated in later phases of the plan that up to 40 million tonnes of CO2 could be sequestered annually. The project will also accommodate other industries in the region interested in capturing and storing CO2 emissions.
This CCS network would be one of the world’s largest projects of its kind, using proven technology that Canada’s oil sands industry has helped advance.
However, Pathways Alliance is looking beyond the current technologies that are available and seeking to develop the next generation of clean technologies to drastically reduce oil sands’ emissions. Further advancements in CCS technologies are emerging as a big priority, explains Mr. Jickling. “There are a lot of CCS technology options already available for commercial use, which Pathways companies will be deploying to achieve their 2030 goal. At the same time, we are working hard to develop new CCS technologies that are more efficient and cost effective. We aim to prove out the next generation of CCS technologies that we could use beyond 2030.”
Pathways Alliance is also exploring the use of molten carbonate fuel cells, which could use flue gas from steam generators to capture waste CO2 and generate clean power.
The benefits from advancing these technologies go far beyond applications in the oil sands, Mr. Jickling adds. “Carbon capture is going to be a big part of the net-zero plan for many industries.”
Carbon utilization, or carbon conversion, has also been on the radar of Pathways companies. In 2015, the COSIA-NRG Carbon XPrize was launched by several members, calling on the world’s innovators to design a technology that can convert a high volume of waste CO2 into high-value products. Applications poured in, and shortlisted carbon conversion technologies were demonstrated at the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre in 2020. The winner of the Carbon XPrize was a Canadian cleantech company named Carbon Cure, whose technology significantly reduces the GHG emissions in concrete production.
“Pathways companies saw in carbon conversion technology a huge potential for fighting climate change early on,” Mr. Jickling says. “As a country and globally, we’ll need technologies that convert waste CO2 into valuable products. Canada’s oil sands were very keen to work with the XPRIZE Foundation to create global momentum and profile for this exciting but very young family of technologies. We’re excited about this generation – and the next generations – of carbon conversion technology.”
Another priority area for Pathways Alliance focuses on removing a high percentage of carbon from natural gas streams prior to combustion. “We are evaluating early-stage technology in natural gas decarbonization. It’s a promising area of research, not just for us but for any industry using natural gas,” says Mr. Jickling.
This aligns with the industry’s objective to decrease the use of natural gas, for example, for generating steam. For in-situ oil sands production, steam is injected into underground wells, where it warms the bitumen so it can be pumped out. “We consume a lot of natural gas to produce steam,” says Mr. Jickling. “But what if we could achieve the same results by injecting additives – including light hydrocarbons such as propane, which can then be recovered and recycled – to use less steam?”
Another area of focus is the blending of hydrogen with natural gas to produce steam, effectively replacing a percentage of natural gas in steam generators with the cleaner burning fuel, he notes. “Such technologies are very much part of our plan, especially if we can reach a point of cost efficiency and technical capability.”
Other key technologies
In addition to efforts related to “the big three,” Pathways companies are evaluating and implementing several other technologies.
To reach net zero, all sources of emissions – big and small – need to be addressed, says Mr. Jickling. “On the one hand, there are massive infrastructure projects like carbon capture, electrification of mining operations and natural gas decarbonization. On the other end of the scale, there are projects to deal with smaller sources of emissions, for example, small amounts of greenhouse gases coming from some tailings ponds.
“We are exploring different monitoring technologies to get as accurate an understanding as possible of how much is emitted,” he notes. “We need that accurate baseline to gauge the effectiveness of new approaches and technologies designed to reduce fugitive emissions. One innovator we’ve been working closely with over the past few years is a company called GHGSat out of Montreal, whose technology is deployed on satellites to provide us with real-time, high-resolution data on greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands facilities.”
Beyond the measurement of GHG emissions, Pathways companies are working with other Canadian innovators to develop technologies to reduce these emissions.
“For several years, we have been working with a cleantech startup company out of the University of Toronto called H2nanO. It is developing a nanotechnology called SolarPass, which is activated by sunlight and could break down organics and prevent emissions from tailings ponds in oil sands mining operations.”
Other areas of interest for Pathways Alliance include assessing the feasibility of using geothermal energy in oil sands processes, the viability of using small modular reactors for supplying zero-emissions energy for various oil sands applications, and more.
Collaboratively taking technologies to the finish line
By collaborating on the development of new clean technologies, Pathways members have been “generating a lot of activity and excitement in the world of innovators, cleantech entrepreneurs and the technology community,” says Mr. Jickling. “We are showing the way towards the development of next-generation clean technologies.
“We’re learning a lot, both from what works and what doesn’t work. There is shared interest in Canada becoming a world leader in any of these technologies.”
Undertakings at this scale must be approached collaboratively. Beyond bringing together the collective resources of the Pathways companies, the group also extends considerable effort to form relationships with other players in the research and innovation ecosystem, such as universities, incubators and accelerator facilities, as well as all levels of government.
“We are partnering to accelerate the time it takes to bring these technologies to where they can make a difference. You simply cannot do it alone,” he explains. “Developing these solutions takes a lot of science, effort and money.”
Between 2012 and 2021, the six Pathways companies invested more than $10-billion in technology research and development. Going forward, with anticipated co-funding support from governments, Pathways Alliance plans to invest more than $24-billion before 2030. Approximately $16.5-billion will support the proposed CCS network and $7.6-billion will go towards other major emissions reduction projects and technologies.
“We are collaborating with a wide range of partners – including provincial and federal governments – on many of these projects,” says Mr. Jickling. “When we show that these technologies work, it’s very likely they could be widely applied by other industries. And the resulting technology companies can market their solutions, build strong Canadian cleantech businesses, and achieve a bigger impact on emissions reduction both in Canada and abroad.”
Building on a track record of success
Mr. Jickling says that while the industry has made tremendous progress and environmental performance improvements in the past decade, it must continue to raise the bar. “We realize that it’s the next decade – and the decades after that – that matters more. That’s why we’re increasing our collaboration through the Pathways Alliance to reduce GHG emissions while continuing to work on water technologies, land reclamation, biodiversity conservation, tailings management and environmental monitoring.“
By working together, identifying and capitalizing on synergies, and avoiding duplication of efforts, participants are “hitting new levels of collaboration and building capacity at an impressive pace,” he says. “This industry is full of engineers, technical experts and environmental scientists, who have the technical abilities to push diverse and promising technologies forward. And several hundred of those people are working to help ensure the success of the Pathways Alliance project.
“We know we can go farther and faster when we go together.”
The Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre is a world-class facility designed for research, demonstration and scale-up of carbon capture technology.
ABOUT
Pathways Alliance brings together Canada’s largest oil sands producers – operating about 95 per cent of the country’s oil sands production – to collaboratively address climate change. By working together with governments, the organization has an ambitious plan to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil sands operations by 2050 and help Canada meet its climate goals.
More information at pathwaysalliance.ca.
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