Carbon Management Canada CMC-NCE is a national network that funds research and promotes the transfer to practice of knowledge and technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in the fossil energy industry and other large stationary emitters. The reason is simple. Reducing carbon emissions is one of the biggest challenges of our times.
CMC-NCE is intent on contributing solutions that can be employed in Canada and around the world – because when it comes right down to it, we’re all in this together.
Carbon dioxide makes up a small part of the air we breathe, but it plays an important role. It’s a greenhouse gas (GHG) that helps hold heat in the atmosphere. Higher concentrations of CO2 and other GHGs are leading to an increase in average global temperatures, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels – to name a few effects.
Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) have the advantage of being reliable, abundant, low-cost and transportable. But they also add GHGs to the environment. As the world transforms to a low-carbon economy, ways must be found to produce, process and deliver fossil fuels with less emissions.
Industry is looking for ways to reduce the emissions released during resource extraction and production and CMC is helping to develop the solutions. We believe Canada can be a global leader in the development of GHG reduction technologies and our role is to move the country toward that success.
CMC has a diverse portfolio of researchers all working toward a common aim – reducing CO2 emissions. We fund research in disciplines ranging from engineering to biology to nanotechnology to genetics and geoscience. We also support researchers working in law, political science, business and communications.
CMC currently funds 36 projects for a total of $18 million. Research is assigned to four loose and sometimes overlapping areas:
Recovery, Processing and Capture: This stream is focused on reducing emissions in operations that extract and process fossil fuels and also in large-scale emitters such as mining and cement processing.
Emerging and Enabling Technologies: Researchers are looking for insights that will lead to breakthrough technologies in areas not traditionally associated with the energy industry – disciplines like biology, nanotechnology and genomics.
Secure Carbon Storage: Scientists in this theme are developing the technologies and measuring, monitoring and verification protocols to ensure CO2 can be securely stored.
Accelerating Appropriate Deployment of Low Carbon Emission Technologies: Work in this theme moves toward resolving the social, business, regulatory and policy questions surrounding the wide-scale adoption of new technologies.
At CMC we believe that innovative solutions will be found when people with different skill sets and world views come to the same table. We are working hard to build a diverse network that includes researchers and people in industry, government and NGOs.
The CMC network stretches across nine provinces and includes over 150 investigators working in 26 Canadian and one America university. We also have researchers from industry and government working on our projects.
In addition, CMC has been collaborating with groups in the United States, the UK, China, Japan and Australia. These include the Pembina Institute, the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, the International Performance Assessment Centre for the Geologic Storage of CO2, and the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.
To further foster creative problem solving and networking, CMC operates, with the International Performance Assessment Centre for the Geologic Storage of CO2, the Carbon Commons, an international online collaboration platform
CMC can only achieve its mandate of reducing carbon emissions if research is put into large-scale use. There are a variety of steps to successful transfer to practice and CMC supports its researchers as they move along that path
New technologies go through a number of stages before they are ready for market. One of CMC’s mandates is to help researchers move their ideas from the drawing board to the bench to demonstration projects and finally into large scale practice.
The network has on staff a commercialization expert who works with researchers to develop transfer-to-practice plans and will also coach them through the implementation process. And we encourage our researchers to find industry partners, sources of investment and other resources, so research can move from the lab into the world of practice.
CMC hosts regional, national and international forums, conferences and workshops designed to promote collaboration, problem solving and innovation between academia and industry. We also educate researchers and students on issues surrounding intellectual property, spinoff companies, entrepreneurship and innovation.
Today’s young researchers will help deliver the breakthrough solutions needed to help move the world into an carbon-constrained future. CMC is working to support and train early career researchers to take their place in industry and in academia.
CMC is enhancing the educational experience of the over 200 graduate and postdoctoral students working in our network. We offer courses, workshops and conferences. We provide networking opportunities with industry through various events and through the knowledge sharing network. We support the CMC Students’ Association, provide workshops and courses, will develop internships with industry, and are planning scholarships.
With respect to broader activities, CMC is working with industry and other stakeholders to identify skills gaps and labour demand in the area of carbon management.
