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Business Spotlight – Calgary Start-Up Innovating Carbon Capture

Published

4 years ago

7 minute read

Let me begin by saying that the ecosystem of tech and green entrepreneurs in Alberta never ceases to amaze me. Respect to our educational institutions and accelerator programs that are supporting start-up ventures grow and get to a stage of market validation. The difficulty for some may be immediate revenue, but the potential for their technology and benefit to our planet are the key differentiators as we move towards a new green economy here in Alberta. The conversation may stay polarized on whether keeping all our eggs in the oil and gas basket is our best foot forward, but there’s promise in this province to be the driving force behind a sustainable energy future. In 2016, renewable energy sources made up only 12.3% of the total energy generated in Alberta, four years on we now find ourselves advancing towards our 2030 goal with vast improvements from highly skilled individuals, the question is, who is doing all the hard work?

            (2020 Emerging Leaders – Roger Mah receives accreditation from Clean50 )

We spoke with Roger Mah, a Calgary entrepreneur who co-founded his company ZoraMat Solutions Inc. His company specializes in carbon capture, bio gas purification and natural gas efficiency improvements. While studying for his bachelor’s degree in Applied Chemistry from the University of Calgary, he spent over a year working in research and development as part of his degree in the Alberta Oil Sands. He mentions:

“It gave me perspective on the economic engine that drives this province. That was part of what pushed me towards my Ph.D at the University of Calgary.”

            (From Left – CSO George Shimizu, CEO Roger Mah and CTO Jared Taylor)

After finishing his Ph.D in Chemistry, he received the opportunity to do a non-traditional postdoctoral fellowship, allowing Roger to work for the CMC Research Institute. Nearing the end of his term with the CMC Research Institute, an opportunity emerged for Roger to take this technology from his Ph.D supervisors group out of the lab and implement it to a possible commercial application. With backing from GreenSTEM, Roger and his co-founders, George Shimizu (CSO) and Jared Taylor (CTO), armed with support, experience and education, founded ZoraMat Solutions Inc in January of 2019.

“It has allowed me to really put 100% of my effort and time into this company and give it real a shot…”

GreenSTEM is an entrepreneurial pilot program for science, technology, engineering, math masters and Ph.D. graduates. The 2-year program enables entrepreneurship and provides a two-year commercialization runway for “deep technology” companies involved in science based innovation. You can learn more about their support for entrepreneurs here.

Repurposing Carbon

Carbon dioxide is a commodity with some value. It is used, both directly and as a feedstock, by a range of industries and has been for over a century. Most CO2 used by industries today is a byproduct of fossil fuel processes, often from natural gas or coal-fueled plants. Just like burning fossil fuels, it transfers CO2 from the geosphere to the atmosphere. If CO2 that is pulled out of the air became more plentiful and cheaper, we could see the change by competing with earthbound CO2 . In theory, any industry that uses carbon from under the ground for fuel, beverages, directly in industrial processes, as a feedstock to create other products, could switch to air-captured CO2 if the appropriate chemical process is taken. Airborne CO2 emissions have a low concentration which can make capturing large quantities a challenge. ZoraMat’s solution is to capture CO2 as part of the industrial process, preventing CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

 

What is Zoralite?

Roger defines Zoralite as a ‘specialty chemical’, similar in look to flour. On a molecular level is where the real chemical innovation plays its part. Zoralite acts like a molecular ‘sponge’ to soak up CO2 from emissions in the presence of water, which works as a competitive advantage for their team. Zoralite can capture CO2 from wet industrial flue gas streams then release the CO2 by applying heat or vacuum. In the efforts to exemplify the processes using the ‘sponge’ analogy, Roger mentions:

          (Zoralite)

 

“Zoralite soaks up the carbon dioxide, similar to soaking up the grime from a pan in your kitchen sink. Then, what comes through is a clean dish or your treated gas. Then you can use a process to squeeze out that sponge. So for us, what we do is we heat it up or we apply a vacuum. And by squeezing the sponge, all of that dirty water comes up, or for us, a pure stream of CO2.”

 

 

A simplified analogy but an extensive process that has taken years to develop. This technology could play a major role in what we see as a collaborative effort moving into a new green economy while re evaluating our industrial energy efficiency. The team at ZoraMat is actively seeking partnerships to help scale this process for larger commercial use. If you would like to learn more about ZoraMat or Zoralite, check out their website here or to contact their team.

 

“A New Dawn Towards A Clear Blue Sky” – ZoraMat Solutions Inc.”

 

 

For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary

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Business

Taxpayer watchdog calls Trudeau ‘out of touch’ for prioritizing ‘climate change’ while families struggle

Published on November 23, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The prime minister told a G20 panel this week that fighting so-called ‘climate change’ should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.

Canada’s leading taxpayer watchdog blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being completely “out of touch” with everyday Canadians after the PM earlier this week suggested his climate “change” policies, including a punitive carbon tax, are more important for families than trying to stay financially afloat.

In speaking to LifeSiteNews, Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) federal director Franco Terrazzano said Trudeau’s recent comments show his government “continues to prove it’s out of touch with its carbon tax.”

“Canadians don’t support the carbon tax because we know it makes life more expensive and it doesn’t help the environment,” Terrazzano told LifeSiteNews.

Terrazzano’s comments come after Trudeau told a G20 panel earlier this week that fighting so-called “climate change” should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.

Speaking to the panel, Trudeau commented that it is “really, really easy” to “put climate change as a slightly lower priority” when one has “to be able to pay the rent this month” or “buy groceries” for their “kids,” but insisted that “we can’t do that around climate change.”

Terrazzano said that the Trudeau government’s carbon tax in reality “impacts nearly all aspects of life in Canada by making it more expensive to fuel up our cars, heat our homes and buy food.”

“The carbon tax also puts a huge hole in our economy that we can’t afford,” he said to LifeSiteNews, adding that if Trudeau really wanted to help Canadians and “prove it understands the struggles facing Canadians,” then it should “scrap the carbon tax to make life more affordable.”

On Thursday, Trudeau, who is facing abysmal polling numbers, announced he would introduce a temporary pause on the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) for some goods.

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre this afternoon said about Trudeau’s temporary tax holiday that if he is serious about helping Canadians, he would cut the carbon tax completely.

“What a ridiculous gimmick. Bribing Canadians temporarily with borrowed money,” Bernier wrote.

“When the real solution is to stop growing the bureaucracy, cut wasteful spending, stop sending billions to Ukraine, eliminate subsidies to businesses and activist groups, stop creating new unsustainable and unconstitutional social programs, eliminate the deficit, and THEN, cut taxes for real. None of which he will do of course.”

As reported by LifeSiteNews, a survey found that nearly half of Canadians are just $200 away from financial ruin as the costs of housing, food and other necessities has gone up massively since Trudeau took power in 2015.

In addition to the increasing domestic carbon tax, LifeSiteNews reported last week that Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault wants to create a new “global’ carbon tax applied to all goods shipped internationally that could further drive-up prices for families already struggling with inflated costs.

Not only is the carbon tax costing Canadian families hundreds of dollars annually, but Liberals also have admitted that the tax has only reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1 percent.

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Business

UN climate conference—it’s all about money

Published on November 22, 2024

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Kenneth P. Green

This year’s COP wants to fast-track the world’s transition to “clean” energy, help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, work on “mobilizing inclusivity” (whatever that means) and “delivering on climate finance,” which is shorthand for having wealthier developed countries such as Canada transfer massive amounts of wealth to developing countries.

Every year, the United Nations convenes a Conferences of Parties to set the world’s agenda to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It’s the biggest event of the year for the climate industry. This year’s conference (COP29), which ends on Sunday, drew an army of government officials, NGOs, celebrities and journalists (many flying on GHG-emitting jet aircraft) to Baku, Azerbaijan.

The COP follows a similar narrative every year. It opens with a set of ambitious goals for climate policies, followed by days of negotiating as countries jockey to carve out agreements that most favour their goals. In the last two days, they invariably reach a sticking point when it appears the countries might fail to reach agreement. But they burn some midnight oil, some charismatic actors intervene (in the past, this included people such as Al Gore), and with great drama, an agreement is struck in time for the most important event of the year, flying off to their protracted winter holidays.

This year’s COP wants to fast-track the world’s transition to “clean” energy, help vulnerable communities adapt to climate change, work on “mobilizing inclusivity” (whatever that means) and “delivering on climate finance,” which is shorthand for having wealthier developed countries such as Canada transfer massive amounts of wealth to developing countries.

Some of these agenda items are actually improvements over previous COPs. For example, they’re actually talking about “climate adaptation”—the unwanted stepchild of climate policies—more this year. But as usual, money remains a number one priority. As reported in the Associated Press, “negotiators are working on a new amount of cash for developing nations to transition to clean energy, adapt to climate change and deal with weather disasters. It’ll replace the current goal of $100 billion (USD) annually—a goal set in 2009.” Moreover, “experts” claim the world needs between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion (yes, trillion) in “climate finance” annually. Not to be outdone, according to an article in the Euro News, other experts want $9 trillion per year by 2030. Clearly, the global edifice that is climate change activism is all about the money.

Reportedly, COP29 is in its final section of the meta-narrative, with much shouting over getting to a final agreement. One headline in Voice of America reads “Slow progress on climate finance fuels anger as COP29 winds down.” And Argus News says “climate finance talks to halt, parties fail to cut options.” We only await the flying in of this year’s crop of climate megafauna to seal the deal.

This year’s conference in Baku shows more clearly than ever before that the real goal of the global climate cognoscenti is a giant wealth transfer from developed to developing countries. Previous climate conferences, whatever their faults, focused more on setting emission reduction targets and timelines and less about how the UN can extract more money from developed countries. The final conflict of COP29 isn’t about advancing clean energy targets or helping vulnerable countries adapt to climate change technologically, it’s all about show me the money.

Author:

Kenneth P. Green
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
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