Federal government invests in new U of A fuel technology

Edmonton - The Harper government announced federal support Friday for ongoing research into a new alternative fuel technology.
MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca Brian Jean announced a federal investment of $970,000 in the University of Alberta’s plant to pilot a fuel process called lipid to hydrocarbon technology.
The plant would take agricultural materials normally treated as waste and considered to be of little value, such as vegetable oils and animal fats, and convert them into fuels and other chemicals.
“We’re using our money to invest in our future,” Jean said. “Someday the oil will run out and we have to have other things in order to supplement that.”
The plant would be able to provide some of the same products currently extracted from a crude-oil refinery, without needing the non-renewable fossil fuel. Gasoline, diesel and other transportation fuels, lubricants and specialty chemicals, plastics and polymers could all be made using the technology, said Kelly Maher, program director of development for the Biorefining Conversions Network at the U of A.
“The potential applications are limitless, depending on what you want to make,” Maher said.
The next two years of the project will use the federal government’s funding coupled with a $891,522-commitment from the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency to get the pilot running. Once the testing is complete, Maher hopes to get private investment.
“Hopefully within five years, we’ll have a full commercial facility built on this technology.”
The project is spearheaded by the U of A’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, which has been working on the technology for the last nine years. The plant will be located at the U of A’s south campus.