More Funding For Green Research

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Encana Corporation is supporting efforts by Saint Mary's researcher Dr. Jason Clyburne to develop a safe and inexpensive technology for removing carbon dioxide from industrial gases.

A Saint Mary’s University researcher looking at ways to safely remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial emissions is getting a helping hand from one of the region’s largest offshore players.
Encana Corporation, developers of the Deep Panuke project, has committed $119,000 to help Dr. Jason Clyburne further develop inexpensive designer chemicals - called ionic liquids - which have shown promise for the safe and efficient removal of toxins and environmentally hazardous substances from industrial processes such as burning coal.
“The affordable removal of carbon dioxide from gaseous industrial emissions is one of the holy grails in climate change research,” said Dr. Clyburne. “With Encana’s support, and earlier support by GreenCentre Canada (GCC) and Springboard Atlantic, we can now move from the lab and develop a prototype to see if what we think works, actually does.”
Earlier this year GreenCentre Canada, a national Centre of Excellence for developing and commercializing early-stage Green Chemistry discoveries, awarded Dr. Clyburne $25,000 in Proof of Principle funding toward the commercialization of his ionic liquids. Saint Mary’s partnership with GCC was further leveraged with the success of a second award of $30,000 from Springboard’s Proof of Concept and Patent and Legal funds.
Saint Mary’s University Industry Liaison Officer Gina Funicelli says the University is pursing patent protection that will lead to a license that puts the technology into the hands of industry to help curb, or even eliminate, CO2 emissions from their manufacturing processes.
Ionic liquids are specialized compounds that can trap CO2 from waste streams using much less energy than traditional scrubbing technologies. The CO2 can then be separated from the ionic liquid and stored, allowing the ionic liquid to be recycled to remove additional CO2 from the waste stream. Some ionic liquids are made up from tried and tested commodity chemicals that are inexpensive and easy to access, says Dr. Clyburne.
“If it’s not going to lead to an affordable solution in real life, what’s the point?
The move from beaker to breaking ground with an industrial demonstration unit could take three years. Along the way he said post doctorate and undergraduate students will become experienced in working with greenhouse gases, a vital skill in continuing to develop relevant chemistry to solve environmental problems.
Dr. Clyburne, who is also a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Studies and Materials, said the effort dovetails nicely with the The Maritimes Centre for Green Chemistry, recently established by the University to enhance the undergraduate research experience in Green discovery science.
“There are many environmentally relevant problems that can be solved using green chemistry. If we are successful, this will be a good demonstration that often the simplest solutions are the best ones,” he said.
Encana is financing the work as part of commitment to the province to create spin-off benefits from its Deep Panuke project by funding research, development, education and training.