Parker: Calgary-based NanosTech set to rework oilsands trade

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Calgary-based expertise firm NanosTech is ready to rework the Alberta oilsands trade.

The corporate emerged from the College of Calgary’s Alberta Ingenuity Centre for In Situ Vitality, dedicated to growing modern catalytic options to probably the most urgent challenges dealing with the power trade at the moment.

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NanosTech was co-founded by CTO Pedro Pereira-Almao and a gaggle of scientist colleagues as an power transition firm to assist producers meet the challenges of local weather change. His companions are serial entrepreneurs who’ve efficiently taken rising applied sciences to market.

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We’re lucky to have such a distinguished scientist as Pereira-Almao right here in Calgary. He has held the NSERC industrial chair in Catalysis for Bitumen Upgrading on the U of C’s Schulich College of Engineering, and has been engaged on upgrading applied sciences for greater than 30 years. For the previous 18 years he has labored on in situ upgrading and different expertise schemes, from CO2 conversion to renewable fuels.

Born in Venezuela, Pereira-Almao studied at a Venezuela tech college earlier than incomes his bachelor of science and doctorate in chemistry-catalysis at Université de Poitiers. He returned to Venezuela to work with Petróleos de Venezuela — the state oil and fuel firm — as heavy oils processing and analysis supervisor, after which turned a postdoctorate fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory on the College of California, Berkeley.

Again dwelling, he labored in analysis and growth with the Venezuelan oilsands, which he says are wealthy in heavy oil, similar to Alberta. In 2002 he attended the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary and, when issues turned politically uncomfortable in Venezuela, determined to maneuver right here.

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He arrived in 2003 and joined the College of Calgary as a professor specializing within the conversion of hydrocarbons and carbohydrates, from C1 to heavy oils, upgrading heavy oils from partial/subject to in-reservoir.

As full professor within the college of chemical and petroleum engineering, he led analysis tasks primarily based on nanoparticle and catalyst-based nanotechnologies growth, co-founding Litus and Carbonova Corp. and quite a few different cleantech startups, in addition to NanosTech.

Since retiring from his duties on the college, Pereira-Almao has concentrated extra totally on NanosTech, which is poised to revolutionize oil manufacturing by considerably decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions whereas slicing manufacturing prices. He has led a imaginative and prescient of Calgary changing into a nanotechnology innovation hub and has contributed to creating it.

Vorsana Environmental, a world chief within the commercialization of waste administration expertise that converts waste into transportation fuels and makes use of captured CO2 in quite a few high-value merchandise, acquired NanosTech in 2021. Vorsana takes care of the funding facet of the enterprise whereas NanosTech concentrates on being the expertise growth arm.

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Earlier this month it obtained important funding from the Alberta authorities; $5 million from Emissions Discount Alberta, and $500,000 from Alberta Innovates.

With funding secured, NanosTech is gearing up for a pilot demonstration in northern Alberta with a outstanding oilsands producer, paving the way in which for industrial growth. It’s anticipated to be operational by the tip of subsequent 12 months, though the corporate is in talks with a number of smaller producers to expedite the deployment of the groundbreaking expertise within the province.

The advantages are anticipated to be nice.

Presently, bitumen restoration charges are modest, water use and emissions are excessive, and transportation and refining prices are further.

NanosTech guarantees as much as 35 per cent lowered emissions, enhanced financial efficiency of between $5 and $8 per barrel, improved oil restoration and lowered diluents that can unencumber pipelines and scale back prices.

It’s time for change. NanosTech’s transformational, catalyst and noncatalyst-based applied sciences speed up the evolution, making power extra environment friendly and cleaner for folks and our planet.

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Notes:

World funding supervisor Realterm, which focuses on the transportation trade and at present manages greater than $11 billion in property, has introduced the most recent growth to its world transportation logistics actual property platform with the acquisition of the Airfreight Logistics Centre, on land leased from the Calgary Airport Authority. The centre encompasses 5 Class-A industrial buildings totalling 502,065 sq. toes on Aero Drive N.E., straight adjoining to the airfield. “With direct entry to the tarmac and proximity to very important transportation routes, the acquisition amplifies our presence within the Calgary space and is a singular alternative to fulfill the wants of the quickly rising airport group,” stated Alexi Lachambre, vice-president of investments at Realterm.

David Parker seems often within the Herald. Learn his columns on-line at calgaryherald.com/enterprise. He might be reached at 403-830-4622 or by e mail at [email protected]

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