University of Alberta | Clean Technology

NanoFab: micro/nanotech R&D, academic research & industrial projects. Largest centre of its kind in Western Canada; 1 of only 3 dedicated nanotech centres in Canada.
National Institute for Nanotechnology: some Canada’s quietest labs & most advanced equipment. Academic research environment with national research lab R&D activities.
Centre for smart transportation: autonomous vehicles, connected vehicle (CV) technology, smartphone-based CV technology. Smart infrastructure. Centre’s Active-Aurora project is Canada’s 1st connected vehicle test bed.

Future Energy Systems: developing new energy technologies & examining integration into current energy infrastructure. $75M CFREF program.
SCENEREI: UAlberta & Tsinghua (China’s best energy university) addressing need for sustainable energy solutions, with emphasis on issues/priorities in China & Alberta.
UAlberta-Tsinghua Joint Research Center for Future Energy & Environment: Tackling new energy sources/technologies that also minimizing impact on air, water & land. China-based and is 1st one with a Canadian university; & will be only one.
UAlberta & Germany’s Fraunhofer Society (€2.1B & 69-institutes, Europe’s largest application-focused research organization) tackling new energy technologies such as biofuels, storage batteries and alternative uses for CO2.
Bio refining Conversion Network: Industry/ academic collaboration focused on turning biomass into viable fuels/value-added products.

Forge Hydrocarbons: biomass interchangeable with petroleum fuels but has no metal, sulphur, nitrogen impurities like petroleum fuel. Forge’s fuels produce as much energy as crude-oil gas/diesel.
AdvEn Solutions: super-capacitor batteries that can store large amounts of energy, they charge and discharge in a fraction of time of the best commercial lithium ion batteries.
Quantum Silicon Inc (Qsi): Nano circuits for electronics. With these circuits, electronics will have longer battery life and use 1000X less energy than current electronics.
AltaCarbon: converts petroleum coke, main by-product of oil sands processing, activated carbon used for water treatment, air filtration, and mercury capture from flue gas emission. Petroleum coke has no real value to oil companies.

New energy sources/technologies: Biomass, bioenergy, geothermal, solar, wind, fuel cells, hydrogen fuel cells, CO2 consuming fuel cell, socio-economics. Researchers include: Jillian Buriak, Marc Secanell, David Bressler, Thomas Etsell, Jingli Luo, Amit Kumar, Wilsun Xu, Douglas Ivey, Vakhtang Putkaradze, Pierre Mertiny, Robert Wolkow, Steven Bergens, Martin Unsworth, David Nobes, Jonathan Banks.
Energy storage & efficiency: new battery technology, high capacity batteries, fuel cells, flywheels, nano electric circuitry. Researchers include: Jillian Buriak, Marc Secannell, Robert Wolkow, Douglas Ivey, Steven Bergens, Pierre Mertiny.
Bio-products not petroleum-based products: biofuels, bio plastics, adhesive (glue) from protein of spent hens or canola, polyurethane from canola oil. Researchers include: Jianping Wu, Jonathan Curtis, Xiaohua Kong, Amit Kumar.
Intelligent energy infrastructure: energy system modeling, smart grids, flywheels, reducing energy waste, renewable integration, energy efficiency & reliability, smart construction (reduces energy waste, cost and environmental impact), improved physical and cyber security systems, pipeline safety & integrity, ICT, wireless power transmission, autonomous vehicles & smart infrastructure. Researchers include: Ryan Li, Wilson Xu, Mohamed Al-Hussein, Pedram Mousavi, Amit Kumar, Vakhtang Putkaradze, Pierre Mertiny. Yuxiang Chen

University-industry research partnerships