Contest aims to create carbon fibre from bitumen

Alberta Innovates and the Clean Resource Innovation Network (CRIN) announced that Phase II of its Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge has launched following by the wind up of Phase I.

The international challenge is a three-phase competition to accelerates the development, and large-scale production, of carbon fibre derived from Alberta’s vast supply of bitumen. In total, 19 teams – from across Canada, the United States and Australia – participated in Phase I, several of which were able to produce strands of carbon fibre from Alberta bitumen.

In Phase II, teams will focus on producing larger volumes of carbon fibre with improved performance, as well as managing the sulfur and metal content in asphaltenes. Phase II of the challenge is a $5 million competition, supported by $3 million from CRIN through via Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), plus $2 million from Alberta Innovates.

The competition is open to technology developers, industry (including small, medium and large size enterprises), industry associations, research and development (R&D) organizations, post-secondary institutions, not-for-profit organizations and government research labs. A webinar on Phase II will be hosted on March 23, 2021 to inform applicants of all the program details.
https://cleanresourceinnovation.com
https://albertainnovates.ca