CALGARY -- Five research teams are currently attempting to develop usable items from waste product at a location east of Calgary as part of a project with a $7.5 million USD prize on the line.

The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition is underway at the Shepard Energy Centre where the groups are taking carbon dioxide and converting it into useful products including polymers for use in the plastics industry.

Among the creations are nano carbon tubes, fibres that can be used as a replacement for aluminum and steel in the construction industry. 

John Van Ham is the executive director of sector alignment and programs for Innotech Alberta,  a leading research and technology organization serving the needs of industry, entrepreneurs and the public sector.  He says the competition started with dozens of companies from around the world.

"It’s now down to 10 and we have five on site here and there will be five competing in the U.S.," explained Van Ham. "At the end of November, when the time line has passed, the XPRIZE foundation will announce a winner."

The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE inspires development of new CO2 conversion technologies to help solve climate change.

Teams are using emissions from the provinces newest natural gas power plant at the Shepard Energy Centre.  Flue gas is the end product that comes out of the stacks at the plant and has between four and six per cent CO2 by volume.

But that’s not a high enough concentration for some of the teams so a CO2 capture unit — designed in Switzerland and built in Edmonton — was shipped to the Calgary facility.

"We’re capturing the flue gas from that system, we’re bringing it through these pipes into the bays that we have for testing," said Van Ham. "The capture unit, it’s designed to take that flue gas and take it to a much more concentrated form."

Van Ham says a few years ago projects like this were never thought of. Carbon captured and storage was the standard where CO2 was sequestered underground. Smaller volumes were used in cement but what’s happening at Innotech Alberta’s Carbon Conversion Technology Centre turns it into an entirely new product.

"This is a site that many people around the world are watching and looking at," said Van Ham. '“We’ve had visitors from other parts of the world come and see what we’re doing here and now with this capture unit it just creates so much more capacity to do even more research and development on site."

Learn more about the CO2 project at XPRIZE