Can Science Save The Oilsands?

Falling oil prices and bad PR have hammered the oil sands. Out of all that bad news may rise a new era in innovation

FORT McMURRAY, ALTA.

Dr. Guigard, an associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Alberta, is trying to prove it can do the same for the Athabasca oil sands. This is not a mere science experiment: Lab modelling has shown that her process uses virtually no water, and less than a third of the energy spent today on bitumen extraction.

That makes it not only a potentially huge step up from an environmental point of view, it could also help redraw the economics of the oil sands.

There’s only one problem. To prove the technology, Dr. Guigard needs to build a small pilot operation, and that will cost $1-million. She’s spent a year banging on the doors of the energy companies that stand to gain the most from what she is developing.

They have all declined.

Globe and Mail