COSIA in the News
In Canada, oil sands companies are teaming up to try and reduce their environmental impact
The world's second largest country by area, Canada is also home to the oil sands, the third largest proven oil reserve on the planet, according to its government. The Canadian government adds that the oil sands are home to 166.3 billion barrels of the country's 171 billion barrels of proven reserves.
Read full storyCanadian companies on the road to carbon riches
Global initiative hopes to cool the planet by capturing carbon emissions and turning them into viable products. Canadians on the leading edge of technology revolution.
Read full storySupercluster initiative brings opportunity for economic diversification
The Trudeau government’s announced “supercluster” initiative presents tremendous opportunity for Alberta in three important areas — energy, agriculture and health care.
Read full storyMaterials and engineering: Rebuilding the world
NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE’s Marcius Extavour talks about Carbon XPRIZE semi finalist teams approaches, including what Montreal’s Carbicrete is offering. “Their pitch is 'I will save you money. I will reduce your emissions and I will feed those back into your product,'” he says. “That's a compelling argument.”
Civil engineer Mehrdad Mahoutian, Carbicrete founder, says the company hopes to create carbon-negative concrete blocks; the aim is to not only eliminate carbon dioxide waste from the production process, but also to capture and store extra CO2.
Alberta and Ottawa to help fund carbon conversion test facility in Calgary
The Alberta government and the federal government are each providing $10 million to help build a test facility in Calgary for technologies that convert carbon dioxide emissions into usable products.
Read full storyAnother Year, Another CAPP Investment Symposium
The annual investment symposium hosted by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Scotiabank wrapped in Toronto on April 12, leaving investors with a greater sense of optimism than was in evidence at this time last year.
Read full storyTailings Cleanup
What technologies are being used to clean up tailings ponds? Dan Wicklum, chief executive, at Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, shares his insight.
Read full storyCompanies seek to turn captured carbon into concrete, fish food and even toothpaste
It has been derided as an expensive excuse to burn coal. But now, carbon capture technology may be leading to new commercial uses that could end up in your mouth.
Read full storyIndustry taking environmental lead
As efforts continue for Albertans to move towards renewable and greener energy sources, that same push is taking place in the energy industry, itself.
Read full storyCutting CO₂ Emissions
Dr. Dan Wicklum, chief executive, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, joins the show. He talks about the Alberta government partnering with the federal government to accelerate the development of technologies, which could turn CO2 emissions into usable products.
Read full storyCompanies to create products from pollution at new Calgary research centre
Startups will develop technologies that convert carbon into everyday products, from toothpaste to concrete, at a new testing centre connected to a natural gas-fired power station in Calgary.
Read full storyNew centre will test ideas to turn CO₂ emissions into something useful
Calgary will be home to a new research facility that will test technologies aimed at converting carbon dioxide emissions into new products, like building materials, alternative fuels and commercial goods.
The Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre will be located at the Shepard Energy Centre, a new Enmax facility in the southeast.
Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance CEO Dan Wicklum on the Inevitability of Carbon-Neutral Oil
COSIA CEO Dan Wicklum explains why he believes a carbon-neutral barrel of oil isn’t just theoretically possible—it’s coming.
Ontario to support local teams competing for the Carbon XPRIZE
Ontario is taking a major step in the fight against climate change by making up to $2.5 million available to Ontario-based teams competing in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a global challenge to address climate change.
Paul Bunje, principal and senior scientist for NRG COSIA’s CarbonXPRIZE, “These competitors are aiming to make history with breakthrough technologies.”
CCUS: Utilizing CO₂ to Reduce Emissions
This article explores the basic approaches to dealing with carbon dioxide emissions, barriers to the adoption of existing CCUS technologies, and CCUS technologies under development today; and it describes the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and the capacity for such incentive prize competitions to create a lasting and meaningful impact on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Read full storyCOSIA an innovation leader
Dan Wicklum, Chief Executive Officer of COSIA gives an update on the Alliance’s impressive progress and its role in a multi-million-dollar international competition that addresses one of the biggest challenges — and opportunities — for fossil fuel producers in the years ahead.
Read full storyCarbon Capture With Beneficial Conversion Is Focus of Prize
The NRG and COSIA are sponsoring a four-and-a-half-year-long competition to award $20 million to the team that develops and demonstrates a process that captures the most CO2 — from either the Integrated Test Centre in Wyoming or a natural gas plant in Alberta — and then converts it into a high-value product — with a sustainable business model. The goal is not just to find one winner but to develop “a suite of technologies” for future development.
Read full storyCarbon to Cupcakes: 6 Amazing Things We Can Create From Carbon Dioxide
How can a colorless, odorless gas be transformed into, say, shoes, bricks, or green fuels, as some are proposing? A lot of people are starting to ask how CO2 recycling really works or if it could become a full-fledged industry. CO2 conversion is real, and may be poised more than ever before to make a transformational leap forward.
Read full storyResearchers Aim to Put Carbon Dioxide Back to Work
Increasingly, scientists are asking, rather than throwing away or storing CO2, how about recycling some of it? At laboratories around the world, researchers are working on ways to do just that. The X Prize Foundation has created an incentive through the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a $20 million prize for teams that by 2020 come up with technologies to turn CO2 captured from smokestacks of coal- or gas-fired power plants into useful products.
Read full storyFor the greater good
Think of environmental excellence and oil sands is not the first part of the mining sector that would usually spring to mind. However, this might be about to change, reports Mining Magazine in a feature article on COSIA.
Read full storyHow competitors become collaborators to improve the environmental performance in Canada’s Oil Sands
Alliances like COSIA are a triple-win situation for large companies looking for innovative technologies, and small companies who can showcase their technology to a larger audience than they can typically access; and last but not least for the environment, says Cerahelix.
Read full storyRadical Energy Breakthroughs—Without the Risk
“… competitors become collaborators, sharing both ideas and resources in pursuit of the best solutions.”
What if we could turn a high-risk challenge into a low-risk opportunity—and in doing so, offer a future where the unintended consequences of the energy system are minimized while the core benefits are maintained? Doing so might be easier than you think.
One way we’re doing this is through the $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a four-year competition that challenges anyone from anywhere in the world to develop innovative approaches for converting CO2 emissions into valuable products.
Canada’s Top Energy Innovators 2016
In Alberta Oil’s list of the people, companies and technologies that are taking an unconventional approach to solving the energy industry’s biggest problems, COSIA and Members stand out for their innovation towards accelerating environmental performance in Canada’s oil sands. Molten carbon fuel cells, electromagnetically assisted solvent extraction, algae biodiesel and direct contact steam generation – just a few of the 814 distinct technologies COSIA members have shared through the COSIA alliance.
Read full storyNew research shows native Alberta algae can help detoxify tailings ponds
A research project underway at the University of Calgary aims to clean up oilsands tailing ponds by using native algae already found in them to do the job.
Read full storyCOSIA’s Carbon XPRIZE Is Breaking Records For New Idea Submissions
The carbon XPRIZE that Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) launched late last year is attracting record levels of interest from around the world, says retired Suncor Inc. executive Gord Lambert.
Read full storyDispatches from the Front Lines of Energy Innovation
It has been a busy couple of weeks for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. On two warm and wet days in Newark, NJ, a few dozen of the leading thinkers and doers in the CO2 utilization space gathered to discuss the current state and the path forward.
Read full storyTargeting Climate Change: The Solutions to CO₂ Emissions are Out There
We at XPRIZE take aim at the world's Grand Challenges and inspire people to solve them. Among these challenges, climate change stands as the one with perhaps the most overwhelming potential consequences and the power to impact literally everyone's lives. This is why we recently announced the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE to put a target on the back of climate change and invite people from everywhere to step up and offer real solutions.
Read full storyVerbatim: Dan Wicklum on the Carbon X Factor
As carbon capture projects in Alberta face economic and political impediments, COSIA’s chief executive seeks a $20-million idea to reimagine carbon as a usable product.
Read full storyParting shots from Shell Canada’s head: How Lorraine Mitchelmore wants to change the energy conversation
Lorraine Mitchelmore is stepping down at the end of the year from one of the top oil jobs in the country, and she’s not going away quietly. She’s worried about the way the environment-versus-the-economy debate has evolved, each side being only half right, unable to get beyond views that are blocking construction of new pipelines.
Read full storyCanada’s Oil Sands reaching out to innovation sector through ARCTIC Challenge
The Foresight Clean Technology Accelerator Centre and COSIA have launched the first ARCTIC Innovation Challenge, an invitation for companies to submit a proposal for the development of technologies to help improve the environmental performance of Canada’s oils sands reservoirs.
Read full storyOilsands seen as part of a low carbon future as industry makes environment a bigger priority
With new governments in Ottawa and Edmonton making the environment a bigger priority, pressure is mounting on Canada’s oilsands industry to reduce its impact on the climate, land, and water. But Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) said Wednesday its self-imposed goals are already ambitious and its collaborative model is working.
Oilsands industry reports advances in water use per barrel while output rises
The amount of water used to produce a barrel of oilsands crude fell by more than 30 per cent from 2012 to 2014, according to an industry group, a period in which statistics show production rose by nearly 400,000 barrels per day or 22 per cent to 2.2 million bpd.
Ewart: XPrize looms as an X factor in the quest for GHG innovation in the oilsands
Seven of Canada’s biggest oilsands producers are funding the latest XPrize contest for innovative thinkers to spawn ideas to address the issue of carbon dioxide emissions globally by developing new technologies. The two winning teams will have their innovations tested at a coal-fired power plant and a natural gas-fired power plant in North America.
Read full storyCanadian oilsands group helps launch $20M XPrize on carbon emissions
Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance is hoping the research competition will find new ways to address carbon emissions, instead of an outright reduction.
Read full story$20 Million Carbon XPrize Contest Takes on Climate Change
Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have long been recognized as one of the major drivers of climate change. A new competition is offering $20 million in total prize money to teams that can find ways to turn those carbon emissions into something useful, instead of treating them as pure waste.
Read full storyXPrize’s $20m carbon recycling award aims to cut fossil fuel emissions
The idea of capturing carbon emissions and turning it into something valuable has long intrigued scientists, businesses, politicians and environmentalists alike. But it’s never proven economically viable. Could the XPrize change that?
Read full storyXPrize competition offers $20M to reduce carbon emissions
Contest designed to spark innovation that will help the oilsands industry with its CO2 problem
Read full storyXPrize contest rewards innovator who can turn carbon emissions into asset
Oil sands producers are throwing their weight behind a new race to convert carbon emissions into a usable product through XPrize, the high-profile American non-profit organization more often associated with commercial space travel or lunar rover technology.
Oilpatch R&D spending should not be negotiable
As the commodity price slump persists and companies look at where dollars can be shaved, their attention is inevitably turning toward research and development budgets as a potential source of savings.
Read full storySustainability is not a buzzword. It’s the future for Canadian business
In 2014, the Network for Business Sustainability assembled the leading Canadian companies committed to business sustainability and asked: What are your greatest challenges? What we learned was both surprising and exciting.
Read full storyOil sands improving on environment, but new technology takes time: World Heavy Oil Congress
It’s a seemingly small thing, the matter of a dozen or so degrees difference in the water temperature during one part of the lengthy and complex process of squeezing oil from Alberta bitumen. But it’s saving energy and shaving a significant amount of greenhouse gases from the production of every barrel.
The latest ideas on improving the environmental performance of Alberta's oilsands are being presented at the World Heavy Oil Congress this week in Edmonton.
Canada’s Top Energy Innovators 2015
From environmental reclamation to operational excellence, Canada’s Top Energy Innovators are pushing hard on their industry’s leading edges.
Read full storyIsraeli, Canadian companies to share oil, environmental know-how
Under a new agreement, Israeli research companies will be working with major oil companies on oilsands environmental issues under the Canadian Oilsands Innovation Alliance (COSIA).
COSIA, a select group of 13 leading oilsands producers, announced Monday it approved associate membership for the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (CIIRDF), a government-funded agency which promotes collaborative research between companies in both countries.
Gord Lambert on the oil sands: Canada could be ‘a resource-development economy that is an engine of innovation’
In a six-week series of interviews, Canadians with a variety of experiences discuss the major challenges our country is facing and how best to address them. This instalment deals with increasing the innovativeness of our economy.
Gord Lambert, executive adviser for sustainability and innovation at Suncor Energy Inc., was interviewed on July 17 by Monica Pohlmann, a consultant with Reos Partners.
Transforming waterscapes into landscapes focus of new U of A research program
Oilsands tailings ponds, and how best to reclaim them, are the focus of a new industrial research chair announced Monday at the University of Alberta. Engineering professor Ward Wilson has been named the NSERC/COSIA Senior Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Tailings Geotechnique. Wilson’s research is aimed at advancing the rate at which oilsands tailings ponds can be reclaimed. Tailings ponds currently cover an area of more than 130 square kilometres in northeastern Alberta. Remediating them has presented many challenges for oilsands companies.
Read full storyCOSIA: the oilsands industry’s “silver lining”
It has been more than two years since the companies representing almost 90 percent of Canada’s oilsands production launched their joint effort to accelerate environmental performance improvement, and on the surface it may not seem like much has been achieved. But it has. And more importantly, it will.
It has been hard to know what to expect from Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) because let’s face it; something like this has never been done before. Understandably, the group has also been somewhat leery to boast about its progress without having achieved concrete, major successes. But the foundations that have been laid and the multiple projects that have been advanced over the past two years are incredibly meaningful.
Facing escalating pushback, Canada’s oil sands industry goes on the offensive
Faced with increasing opposition to oil sands development and production, Canada’s oil sands industry is “fighting back” in the form of COSIA—a 13-member organization that has announced its first voluntary performance goal to reduce fresh water consumption by 50% by 2022. Formed in 2012, COSIA has aided in the development and sharing of 777 technologies designed to accelerate environmental improvement in Alberta’s unconventional deposits.
Read full storyCanadian oil sands group delays setting greenhouse gas-reduction goals
On Tuesday, Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) pledged to halve the amount of fresh water used for oil production, part of its 3-goal commitment to improve the environmental practices of the oil sands industry. While delaying a previous commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions due in part to regulatory and legal challenges in implementing new technologies, the 13-member group remains committed to improving the industry’s environmental accountability.
Read full storyOilsands alliance sets water use targets
Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) has announced it has set its first major target in improving the environmental performance of the oil sands industry. COSIA highlighted its commitment to cutting the use of fresh water in production; the first official target with specified deadlines since its inception in early 2012. However, goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions have been delayed due to complex legal frameworks; speakers Dan Wicklum (CEO – COSIA), Lorraine Mitchelmore (President- Shell Canada), and Suncor CEO Steve Williams have reiterated the commitments of the 13-member alliance to continue working towards cutting these emissions.
Read full storyOilsands alliance sets water use goals, but GHG targets proving tougher
Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) has announced it has set its first major target in improving the environmental performance of the oil sands industry. COSIA highlighted its commitment to cutting the use of fresh water in production; the first official target with specified deadlines since its inception in early 2012. However, goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions have been delayed due to complex legal frameworks; speakers Dan Wicklum (CEO – COSIA), Lorraine Mitchelmore (President- Shell Canada), and Suncor CEO Steve Williams have reiterated the commitments of the 13-member alliance to continue working towards cutting these emissions.
Read full storyOil-Sands Operators Set Goal of Cutting Water Consumption
The 13-company industry group COSIA is countering criticisms of environmental practices by pledging to lower the amount of fresh water used in bitumen processing by 50% by 2022. Oil-sands producers aim to match (and, ultimately, overtake) the greenhouse-gas emissions of conventional crude operators. This target is the first environmental performance goal for COSIA; the group also plans targets for land and tailings from mining.
Read full storyOil sands producers aim to cut water usage by 50% by 2022
The 13-company industry group COSIA has pledged to lower the amount of fresh water used in bitumen processing by 50% by 2022. This target is the first environmental performance goal for COSIA, which was founded by oil-sands producers to share technology.
Read full storyWaste water: Striving for zero
Canada’s oil and gas industry is aiming to drastically reduce the use of water required in the oil sands. The ultimate goal: reducing the need for new process water to as close to absolute zero as scientifically possible.
The technology behind the efficient extraction of resources from the oil sands is steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).
Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project, Alberta, Canada
The Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project, being developed by Shell as part of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) in Alberta, Canada, is the world's first commercial-scale CCS project planned for an oil sands operation.
Read full storyCaribou projects to help boost herds
A series of projects focused on bolstering the dwindling number of woodland caribou in Alberta and B.C. appear to be providing both dramatic results and some optimism about the future of caribou in Western Canada. South of Fort McMurray an experimental caribou recovery project, led by Nexen Energy on behalf of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, is underway testing a predator exclosure: a large, fenced area designed to keep predators out.
Read full storyCanada’s oil sands: The steam from below
New technologies are being used to extract bitumen from oil sands
Read full storyYedlin: GE's information-sharing ideas could accelerate innovation in oilpatch
Sometimes all it takes for perspective to be restored is to hear someone like Jeff Immelt, the chairman and chief executive of GE, talk about his fundamental belief that the challenges facing the energy sector can be solved with technological innovation.
Read full storySuncor partners to build $165-million water technology research centre
Suncor Energy and five partners have announced they will build a $165-million water technology development centre at Suncor’s Firebag oilsands facility north of Fort McMurray.
Read full storyCan Canada's worst polluters lead the battle against CO₂ emissions?
Canadian oil producers have been pilloried for their role as environmental polluters. But with increased carbon taxes on the horizon, yesterday's villains may become tomorrow's heroes.
Read full storyCOSIA: Some progress made in environmental innovation, but breakthroughs will come later
Nearly two years after Canada's oil sands sector launched the biggest effort of environmental self-improvement on the planet, setting up Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), the good news is that it has nailed down a structure to fast track technology development, has started sharing best practies, and is as committed as ever to delivering results.
Read full storySome progress in oil sands tech sharing, but still much to do: COSIA
Forget herding cats. The head of the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance says when it comes to getting 13 oil sands companies to share technology with each other, “these are lions and tigers.”
But COSIA has made some progress since it was formally launched 21 months ago, CEO Dan Wicklum said Tuesday, though he admits there is still a ways to go.
GE Canada Investing in Technology and People to Accelerate Environmental Performance of Alberta Oil Sands
GE Canada announced a second phase of investment to develop technology that addresses environmental performance in the Alberta oil sands. GE will partner with Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) member companies to undertake joint technology projects focused on greenhouse gas emissions and reduced water consumption.
Read full storyDCSG R&D to make SAGD greener
A project involving the CanmetENERGY Ottawa Research Centre and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) is developing a high-pressure, oxygen-fired direct contact steam generation (DCSG) technology that’s intended to replace conventional steam production.
Read full storyOil sands development – 4Ps of an enlightened approach
The good news is that there is an emerging group of oil sands CEOs who get the importance of public trust to earning and retaining their social license. Their thinking is evolving beyond a purely competitive corporate culture into one that embraces collaboration as well.
Read full storyHow to price a barrel of water in the oil sands
After spending the past year sharing technologies and innovations, the alliance is finalizing industry-wide targets that are expected to involve higher water recycling rates and reduced water intensity per barrel over a fixed period.
Read full storyA Big LEAP Forward - COSIA takes reforestation to an all new level
The association has taken bold steps alongside their partners in the provincial government and the forestry industry to turn the process of simply reclaiming a land disturbance into the act of restoring the ecological integrity of the region.
Read full storyCOSIA member announces new project to reduce CO₂ emissions
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is building an algae-based processor in order to recycle greenhouse-gas emissions to produce biofuels and other products such as fertilizer for land reclamation.
Read full storyCOSIA searches for environmental breakthroughs in the oil sands
“Dan Wicklum, COSIA’s chief executive officer, said the environmental wins are beginning and the structure is in place for major breakthroughs.”
Read full storyYedlin comments on New York Times editorial
Deborah Yedlin comments on Homer-Dixon’s piece from the New York Times discussing controversial issues affecting Canada’s energy sector.
Interview with Dr. Garry Scrimgeour, director of COSIA's Land Environmental Priority Area
Dr. Garry Scrimgeour, Director of COSIA's Land Environmental Priority, discusses COSIA's efforts to accelerate the pace of improvement in environmental performance with science and innovation journalist Cheryl Croucher.
Read full storySyncrude tailings management demonstration project gets go-ahead
“For almost 20 years, thick, toxic sludge has poured into Syncrude’s tailings pond, the leftovers from the massive oilsands mine just off Highway 63, north of Fort McMurray. But not for much longer.”
Read full storyCOSIA attracts attention from responsible investors
“A coalition of 49 investors representing $2 trillion in assets, including investments in companies that operate in Canada’s oil sands, Monday called on those companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of their operations.”
Read full storyCOSIA starts dialogue with ethical investors
“Ethical investors say oilsands industry must cut environmental risks.”
COSIA in the Globe and Mail's “The Future of the Oil Sands Report”
“COSIA aims to help make Canada an undisputed global energy leader.”
Read full story