Last year, Alberta Innovates received $10 million from Prairies Economic Development Canada’s Regional Innovation Ecosystems program to establish a specialized production and testing facility to commercialize technologies which convert locally-sourced bitumen into carbon fibre.
This month, the Edmonton-based facility officially opened its doors.
Carbon fibre, famous for being several times stronger than steel at the same weight, is considered a high-potential material in key sectors like mobility, energy, defence and infrastructure, with applications such as motor vehicles, wind turbines, aerospace advances, pipelines, and fuel cells.
Mike Mahon, chief executive officer of Alberta Innovates, considers carbon fibre innovation “a key pathway to a net-zero emissions future.”
“At Alberta Innovates, we don’t just see carbon fibre as a material,” he says. “We see it as a catalyst.”
Mahon describes the material as “a conduit for cleaner energy, smarter design and resilient systems.”
A major downside of carbon fibre, however, is the material’s high cost of production.
The new facility, located on Alberta Innovates’ InnoTech campus grounds in Edmonton, aims to help tackle this problem by offering industry access to pre-commercial-scale production and testing as well as expertise in hydrocarbon processing and carbon fibre development.
“Alberta is … establishing the Canadian market for carbon fibre products,” says Brian Jean, who serves as Minister of Energy and Minerals for Alberta.
It is Canada’s only industry-accessible, fully integrated carbon fibre test facility, from feedstock preparation to final fibre production.
It is also the only facility in the world that uses bitumen from Canadian oil sands, which is significantly less greenhouse-gas-intensive than traditional feedstock.
“This new Carbon Fibre Processing Facility will turn Alberta’s vast bitumen reserves into world-class carbon fibre, opening new markets and creating new opportunities for our province and the Prairie economy,” remarked Eleanor Olszewski, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada.
The facility’s first clients will be finalists from the $20M Alberta Innovates Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge competition: Fibernx, a carbon fibre company that is relocating from British Columbia to Alberta in order to be one of the facility’s first clients.
“One of the main challenges innovation faces is the gap between laboratory research and commercialization, often due to the lack of pilot-scale infrastructure,” says Yasmine Abdin, President & COO of Fibernx.
“One of the main challenges innovation faces is the gap between laboratory research and commercialization, often due to the lack of pilot-scale infrastructure,” explains Abdin. “This facility allows us to validate our current manufacturing processes on a larger scale and identify the adjustments needed for real-life production.”
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