Science and Technology for Canadians

Streaming Video - Windows Media Player | RealPlayer | Windows Media Player and RealPlayer Help

For more information, please visit the web site Clean Technologies .

Transcript of Video:

Narrator:

The power to run our world comes at a price to the environment. Reducing the output of carbon dioxide and other emissions from power generation and industrial sectors is a key goal of the Government of Canada’s climate change strategy. One likely solution is cutting edge research and development into capturing CO2 and toxic particulates such as nitrogen oxide and mercury. The plan is to stop emissions at the stack before they can damage the atmosphere. Various methods are being tested in government labs now. This gasifier shows great promise for drastically reducing emissions during the generation of electric power.

John Marrone, Director - Canmet Energy Technology Centre, Natural Resources Canada:

In that process, we use coal under pressure with steam, to produce a relatively clean synthetic fuel rich in hydrogen and carbon monoxide. That relatively clean stream is then burnt to generate electricity and the heat from that process is then recycled to form steam into the first process, so it’s very efficient, it’s twice as efficient, typically as a regular power plant.

Narrator:

Complementing these capture strategies is a massive research project to store carbon dioxide underground. Located near the town of Weyburn in Canada’s prairie heartland of Saskatchewan, scientists are injecting 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into an old oil reservoir. Some of the CO2 is pushing oil to the surface– some of it is stored underground forever. It’s good for the environment in that greenhouse gas does not escape into the air and contribute to global warming.

Dr. Carolyn Preston, Natural Resources Canada:

If you’re using in enhanced oil recovery, you’re pumping it underground to push oil out of the ground and you’re recycling the co2 because it comes up with the oil. And you pump it back under the ground again to improve the recovery in a field that is starting to reduce production.

Narrator:

The Weyburn monitoring and storage project is a joint venture of the Government of Canada, the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. Early results indicate great success.

Malcolm Wilson, Director - Project Development, Petroleum Technology Research Centre:

What we have here is a made in Canada solution to a problem that’s affecting people regardless of where they are in the world. We can show quite categorically that it’s safe to store carbon dioxide under the ground - that we can make a difference to climate change and that as we do this we can recover more oil - which is going to have benefits to people wherever they live.

Narrator:

These clean technology projects share a common vision. They all look to balance the energy and economic requirements of this world with the need to provide a healthy environment for future generations.

If you are interested in using the latest Canadian technologies or are developing new clean energy technologies, the Government of Canada invites you to contact us to explore how we can work together.