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BACKGROUNDER

The CANMET Energy Technology Centre (CETC) Ottawa (Bells Corners), Ontario

CETC at a glance

The CANMET Energy Technology Centre (CETC) is one of Canada's premier organizations in the field of energy science and technology. A key research arm of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), CETC works with private and government partners to develop and deploy leading-edge energy products and processes for virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy. With a staff of about 475 people, CETC maintains world-class science and technology facilities in three locations:

• Ottawa, Ontario. Located in Bells Corners, a neighbourhood in the City of Ottawa, the Ottawa facility performs work in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner-transportation and fossil-fuel technologies.
• Devon, Alberta. The Devon facility is located about 20 km southwest of Edmonton in the heart of Alberta. It is the Government of Canada's primary research group for the development of fossil-fuel supply technologies and related environmental technologies, with an emphasis on oil sands and heavy oil.
• Varennes, Quebec. Varennes' mission is to encourage targeted sectors of the Canadian economy to use energy in a more sustainable manner and improve their innovation capabilities, with an emphasis on industrial and solar-electric technologies. Varennes is about 30 km from downtown Montréal.

Focus on the Ottawa facility

CETC–Ottawa develops a wide range of environmental energy technologies for applications in the following fields:

• Energy-efficiency improvements for industry, communities and buildings;
• Renewable energy, including solar, wind, small hydro and bioenergy;
• Alternative transportation fuels, including hydrogen and fuel cells, natural gas, ethanol, and electric and hybrid vehicles;
• Advanced low-emissions combustion technologies; and
• Clean coal and carbon dioxide capture (CO₂) and storage.

Current CETC priorities: Air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions

CETC–Ottawa is currently working to lessen the effects of two of our most pressing environmental challenges: air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

CETC is directing its efforts at developing three main technologies: clean energy, green solutions for traditional industries and energy efficiency.

Clean energy: Renewables, fuel-cell technology

CETC conducts research and development in renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, small hydro and bioenergy. These sources form an important part of Canada's low-emissions energy mix, and CETC's work helps to ensure their continued availability to industry.

Another promising means of generating clean energy is the fuel cell, which produces electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells are efficient and reliable, and have no air emissions at the point of use. CETC is now engaged in work at its Ottawa facility with Hydrogenics Corporation, a firm headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, to demonstrate how this clean technology can provide emergency backup power. The project is up and running and is expected to point the way to a clean alternative to the conventional generators that must now be put to use during power outages.

Green technologies for traditional industries

Renewables and fuel cells offer exciting options. However, owing to the continually growing demand for energy in a rapidly industrializing world, Canada must also look to finding environmentally responsible ways to extract and use its traditional energy sources — natural gas, oil and coal.

Coal can be made to burn much more cleanly. Clean technologies now in development will enable industry to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxides, nitrogen oxides, CO₂, air toxics and particulate matter. Canada, with more than eight billion tonnes of proven coal reserves and the technology to use it more cleanly, is in an excellent position to benefit from this immense energy resource.

Ultimately, however, the benefits of clean-coal technologies could well extend far beyond Canada's borders. Industrializing countries are now building coal-fired power plants at an astonishing rate.

Canadian technologies are poised to play a leading role in providing a way for industrializing countries to continue rapid economic development without clogging the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and air pollutants.

CETC's oxy-fuel vertical combustor, by replacing air with oxygen in the combustion process, is helping to find ways to reduce emissions from burning coal. The core technology, oxy-fuel combustion with CO₂ capture, involves burning the fuel in pure oxygen, as opposed to air. The result of this process is a CO₂-rich stream that can be easily processed to capture air pollutants and CO₂. With deployment of technologies such as the oxy-fuel combustion, as demonstrated in CETC's vertical combustor, Canada can responsibly continue to use its abundant fossil-fuel resources to produce energy and other commodities.

Energy-efficient technologies

One of the largest sources of untapped energy in Canada is the energy we waste. The best way to make use of it is to develop energy-saving technologies. CETC works at developing new technologies and techniques to make our houses and commercial buildings more energy-efficient as well as new approaches to better integrate renewable energy sources. These technologies are also important to Canada's energy-intensive industries such oil and gas, coal, aluminum, steel, paper and chemicals.

For example, researchers are learning how waste stack gases from the petroleum industry can be redirected back into operations, reducing both energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Through CETC's Flaring Test Facility, the work on flaring (the practice of burning waste gases through tall metal stacks) could significantly lessen the effects of some of the world's most harmful pollutants. An improved flare tip design, developed at this unique facility, stands to reduce methane emissions from solution gas flaring by 33 percent.

For more information, media may contact:

Inquiries from the general public - please call:
Telephone 1-800-O-Canada (1-800-622-6232)
Teletypewriter 1-800-926-9105
Facsimile 613-992-0792
Contact ecoENERGY

NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.nrcan.gc.ca/media.