CCEMC names 24 Grand Challenge winners; each awarded $500K

EDMONTON—Two dozen carbon mitigation projects from North America and the United Kingdom have won $500,000 each from an Alberta-based not-for-profit to further development and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Announced at the Zero 2014 conference in Edmonton, the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) named 24 winners from the first round of its $35-million international Grand Challenge.

The first round was looking for innovative carbon use technologies that “significantly reduce” emissions and create new carbon-based, value-added products and markets.

The CCEMC said it received 344 submissions from 37 countries.

“While efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions around the world are making progress we still need to pursue other strategies that can reduce emissions as global demand for fossil fuels grows,” CCEMC chair Eric Newell said in a statement.

“We applaud the leaders behind these projects who are taking action through developing new carbon utilization technologies.”

According to the CCEMC, there were seven winning projects from Canada, 14 from the United States and three from the United Kingdom.

Winners include private companies and post-secondary institutions, with work ranging from biofixation to chemical synthesis and fuels.

Round two of the Grand Challenge launches in September 2015, where five winners will each receive $3-million in funding.

A final winner from the top five will be chosen in 2018, receiving a $10-million grant to start a business that reduces GHG emissions by at least one net megaton in Alberta each year.

Round one winners:

• University of Maryland (U.S.)
• OakBio Inc. (U.S.)
• Industrial Microbes (U.S.)
• New Sky Energy, Inc. (U.S.)
• Skyonic Corp. (U.S.)
• Solidia Technologies, Inc. (U.S.)
• Blue Planet Ltd. (U.S.)
• CCm Research Ltd. (U.K.)
• Carbon Cycle United (U.K.)
• Archtech Inc. (U.S.)
• JRE Petroleum Services Ltd. (Canada)
• RTI International (U.S.)
• Liquid Light (U.S.)
• E3Tec Service, LLC (USA)
• Institute of Gas Technology (U.S.)
• University of British Columbia (Canada)
• Pioneer Energy LP (U.S.)
• University of California, Riverside (U.S.)
• Quantiam Technologies Inc. (Canada)
• McGill University (Canada)
• Robert Gordon University (U.K.)
• University of Alberta (Canada)
• Enerkem Inc. (Canada)

To find out more about the Grand Challenge and other CCEMC initiatives, log on to the CCEMC website.