We know we’re all connected and part of something bigger. That’s why Suncor continues to look for new ways to address carbon emissions and the global challenge of climate change.
The prize
The $20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is designed to accelerate new technologies to convert CO2 emissions from coal and natural gas facilities into valuable and useful products. The prize is a global initiative, operated by the XPRIZE Foundation and sponsored by NRG and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA).
Suncor is one of eight participating COSIA member companies involved in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE.
The partnership
The COSIA sponsorship is a COSIA Joint Industry Project (JIP) funded by eight of COSIA’s member companies. The JIP is led by ConocoPhillips Canada along with participating members Canadian Natural, Cenovus, Devon, Imperial, Nexen Energy ULC, Shell and Suncor.
The project
The NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is structured with two technology tracks, one at a natural gas facility and one at a coal-fired power plant. The competition has a four-and-a-half year timeline. The first phase is a nine-month team recruitment period, followed by two testing phases. Two $2.5 million purses will be awarded for each track at the end of the second phase, and two $7.5 million prizes will be awarded at the end of the third, final phase.
Potential CO2 reuse technologies will be tested at two facilities. The natural gas track portion of the competition will use an emissions stream that is similar to what Suncor produces as a by-product at our In Situ operations and Oil Sands base plant steam and power generators, so it has the potential to result in technology solutions we can directly apply to our business.
Why it matters to Suncor
We all want to do everything we can to manage CO2 emissions.In addition to the numerous technologies we are pursuing to reduce our environmental impact, we hope that the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE is one more effort that could provide new commercial-scale solutions that we can apply to our own operations.
If a team of innovators from around the world can dedicate their resources to figure out a way to reuse emissions and convert them into something of value it will be a huge step for Suncor, the oil sands industry and the global climate change challenge.
We’re excited to partner with COSIA and be part of this exciting effort to address one of our toughest issues.