By Mark Lowey, CESAR
University of Calgary students presented their studies on potential pathways to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions to close to 100 people from industry, government, non-governmental organizations and academia at a special event in Calgary.
Forty-eight students showcased their research posters at UCalgary’s Downtown Campus in December 2017, in the fourth annual event, titled “Pathways to Sustainability: Canada’s Energy Future.” The by-invitation event was organized by Canadian Energy Systems Analysis Research (CESAR) Initiative and jointly sponsored by UCalgary.
“These students have been doing exploratory studies, assessing how particular combinations of technology, infrastructure and behavioural changes could contribute to a credible, compelling pathway that will help Canada make its greenhouse gas commitments,” David Layzell, course coordinator/instructor, professor and CESAR’s director, said at the event.
“Some of these project ideas look pretty promising,” he said. “In other cases, the students have identified significant economic, environmental, technology or policy barriers to deployment.”
Data resources for the student projects were contributed by CESAR using, in many cases, data extracted from CanESS (Canadian Energy Systems Simulator), a technology-rich, economy-wide energy systems model developed by whatIf? Technologies Inc. in Ottawa.
Ten posters, each created by an interdisciplinary team of students, resulted from three months of research that included working with professional advisors from industry, government and non-governmental organizations. Each poster summarized the research insights the students gained on topics that encompassed:
• radio frequency technologies for oil sands extraction;
• transforming Alberta’s electrical grid using natural gas;
• hydrogen fuel cells for freight transport;
• deploying ‘made-in-Alberta’ oxy-fuel combustion technology;
• tapping natural gas pipelines to transport hydrogen;
• using renewable gas for industrial heat;
• the role of biochar and agriculture in reducing carbon emissions;
• impacts of shared autonomous vehicles on GHG emissions and cobalt reserves;
• technical potential of rooftop solar energy in Alberta; and
• adopting heat pumps in Ontario’s residential sector.
Excerpted from a longer article by the author, posted on CESAR’s blog site, at www.cesarnet.ca. Reprinted with permission.