InnoTech Alberta’s journey into carbon capture began with a challenge. More specifically, the Carbon XPRIZE, a global competition launched in 2018, seeking ways to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into marketable products with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As the Canadian host, we welcomed five of the Carbon XPRIZE finalists to demonstrate their technologies in Alberta using flue gas from a natural gas-fired power plant. A major obstacle quickly emerged: while many of the competing technologies required CO₂ at 99 per cent purity, flue gas contains only four to six percent CO₂.
We made the bold decision to build a CO₂ capture plant to convert the flue gas into a usable concentration for the competition. The resulting first-of-its-kind facility at the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre (ACCTC) could capture up to six tonnes of CO₂ each day.
InnoTech Alberta launched its own carbon capture, utilization research program using the experience and knowledge gained from hosting the XPRIZE.
Client-centered Collaboration
Today, we are a key enabler of this economic sector. Our facilities and experts have earned an international reputation for helping companies validate, de-risk and commercialize their carbon capture technologies.
“We try to be the organization that can help turn ideas into a real-world process,” says Aref Najafi, InnoTech’s Manager of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Decarbonization. “We can take it to the lab, do the proof of concept, scale it up, make it a pilot plan, and de-risk—all the way from Technology Readiness Level 2 to 8.”
With nearly a decade of experience in the ecosystem, InnoTech has supported the growth of many companies, including Carbon Upcycling and Mesoscale Energy Halcyon (MEH) Canada Inc., who’ve shared their stories.
Carbon Upcycling
Carbon Upcycling develops technologies that use carbon dioxide and industrial byproducts like steel slag and clay to create lower-carbon cement replacement materials.
The Calgary-based company first connected with InnoTech and the ACCTC when it was a competitor in the Carbon XPRIZE. When the competition ended, Carbon Upcycling stayed at the ACCTC and its relationship with InnoTech continued to grow.
The partnership eventually helped Carbon Upcycling find its current trajectory.
Like many XPRIZE contenders, Carbon Upcycling’s processes relied on high-concentration CO₂. The company began considering how its technology would perform with lower concentration carbon sources in the months that followed.
With our support Carbon Upcycling gained access to the necessary infrastructure at the ACCTC and successfully demonstrated a strong performance using flue gas (approximately 4 per cent CO₂) directly, marking a significant milestone in the relationship between the two companies.
“That made us a full-stack carbon capture utilization company because we showed really good performance of our materials and really good CO₂ uptake through mineralization,” says Madison Savilow, Director, Marketing, Carbon Upcycling.
Access to the ACCTC’s infrastructure allowed the Carbon Upcycling team to move beyond laboratory research and demonstrate its technology at commercial pilot scale. The ACCTC proved itself as both a testing ground and a launchpad for growth, allowing Carbon Upcycling to expand its operations, attract new clients, and grow its business.
Company leaders regard the ACCTC as more than a research facility. Its technical expertise, industry connections, and infrastructure have helped transform promising innovation into commercial reality.
Today, Carbon Upcycling is working with the Ash Grove Mississauga Cement Plant, one of Canada’s largest cement facilities, to utilize CO₂ emissions and locally available industrial materials to produce low-carbon cement and cement-like products at commercial scale.
Mesoscale Energy Halcyon (MEH) Canada Inc.
For most people, Alberta’s dramatic temperature swings between seasons are something to endure. For MEH Canada and MEH Italy, they have become an unexpected advantage.
MEH specializes in technologies that utilize carbon dioxide from industrial emissions streams and produced waters, with a particular focus on handling variability in feedstocks and operating conditions.
Drawing on experience from projects across Italy, Greece, Denmark, and Ontario, the company came to Alberta to see how its systems respond to the 80-degree temperature shifts between the summer heat and winter cold, as well as more impacting swings of 20-30 degrees between day and night. Rather than controlling every aspect of the environment, MEH designs its processes to accommodate changing conditions, making the ACCTC an ideal place to test performance.
“We scaled at an extreme rate—about a thousand-fold—within a year of entering the ACCTC, due to the opportunity to trial leads generated from nanoscale experiments at particle accelerators,” says Dr. Kun Tian, CEO, MEH Canada and MEH Italy.
Company leaders credit that progress, not only to the infrastructure available at the ACCTC, but also to the collaborative culture fostered by the InnoTech team.
For MEH Canada, the value of the ACCTC goes beyond equipment and facilities. The company describes the centre as a place where innovators can push technologies to their limits, gather critical performance data, and gain confidence that their solutions can succeed in environments around the world. The supportive personnel were of particular importance for MEH, coming from so far afield yet feeling welcomed and “at home” with the Innotech team at the ACCTC.
“The ACCTC is unique worldwide and that’s coming from people that are continually oscillating between very diverse locations around the world,” says Dr. Prof. Gregory Chass, Chief Technical Officer, MEH Canada. “It is unique worldwide for the scale, the people, the facilities, the ability to pressure cook or break things on purpose to find the limit and make mistakes. It is an absolute gem and jewel and should be evolved and used as a blueprint for worldwide installations of centers like this.”