Back in 2015, the NRG Carbon XPRIZE was launched as a $20 million prize and one of the winners, one of the winners secured $10 million with its proposal of expanding its commercialization of CO2 utilization technology for the global concrete industry.

With this funding, an initial pilot project was launched with partners including InnoTech Alberta, and COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance), an alliance of 13 oil sands producers, representing 90 percent of production from the Canadian oil sands. The project was piloted in at a Calgary based facility, Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre, with Sancon assigned as commissioning and operational support. During this pilot project, Sancon provided them a project manager on-site to support the daily operations and start-up of this facility. 

Thanks to this partnership, Sancon developed a close relationship with the organization who introduced our organization to a new technology in the carbon capture space. Sancon was able to navigate the complexity of working with public energy company, existing facility and working with an Alberta energy association to achieve better project outcomes. 

Since the completion of this project, Sancon has solidified itself as a leader in emerging technologies in the carbon capture space both in Alberta and globally.

About XPRIZE

Founded in 1995, XPRIZE is the leading organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prizes in five areas: Learning; Exploration; Energy & Environment; Global Development; and Life Sciences. Active prizes include the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, and the $7M Adult Literacy XPRIZE.

About COSIA

COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance) is an alliance of 13 oil sands producers, representing 90 percent of production from the Canadian oil sands. COSIA’s vision is to enable responsible and sustainable development of Canada’s oil sands as a global energy source while delivering accelerated improvement in environmental performance through collaborative action and innovation in areas of greenhouse gases, land, tailings and water. Since COSIA’s inception in 2012, member companies have shared more than 777 environmental technologies worth over $950 million. Find out more at www.cosia.ca and follow on Twitter at @COSIA_ca.