In Canada, the Ontario Centres of Excellence announced the 20 semi-finalists for Ontario’s Solutions 2030 Challenge – – a global call for innovators to propose solutions to help Ontario industry reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. Boston-based Catalytic Innovations made the list for their development of a non-biological, electrically-driven reactor for the production of ethanol from CO2. California-based Opus 12 also made the list for their CO2 electrolysis technology that converts CO2 into carbon-based products, such as syngas, ethylene, methane, or ethanol depending on the catalyst being used. The proposed project would be the development of a commercial prototype system. The company has validated the technology and has attracted the attention of major energy companies.
The competition is a three-phase, three-year program to identify and accelerate the development of technologies that have a high potential to help Ontario industry meet 2030 emissions reduction targets. The top eight teams from Phase 1 will be invited to participate in Phase 2 and will be awarded up to $250,000 per team to support costs related to their participation. The winning team could get up to $3 million to bring their transformative technology to market.