Canada's Minister of Natural Resources and Minister for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario, Greg Rickford, announced funding of $26.8 million Canadian dollars to support jobs and the development of clean technologies in Ontario, Canada. Approximately $21 million is targeted for photonics-based projects while the remainder funds non-photonics projects. The funding was provided by the government of Canada though Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)'s SD Tech Fund [trade mark].
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The SDTC-funded projects and affiliated companies include the following:
Grafoid – Low-Cost, High-Quality Graphene from Graphite
Environmental Benefits: Climate Change (primary)/Clean Air (co-benefit)
Economic Sector: Energy Utilization
SDTC Investment: $8,121,000
Total Project Value: $24.7 million
Graphene is an impressive natural material derived from crystalline graphite with applications in medicine, electronics and energy storage, power generation (such as fuel cells and solar cells), aerospace, computer chips, next-generation transportation, construction materials--and more. So why is this nanomaterial not where it needs to be? Simply because it is expensive to produce, largely owing to the high temperatures needed. Grafoid has developed a low-cost, environmentally sustainable method that produces high-quality MesoGraf [trade mark] graphene at room temperature, enabling a 90% reduction in the amount of energy used as compared with the market-dominant method. Furthermore, the process optimizes the reuse of reagents with a net reduction in wastewater production.
Consortium Members includeGrafoid, Focus Graphite, Graphite Zero, and National University of Singapore.
OTI Lumionics – OLED Lighting Pilot Production Line
Economic Sector: Energy Utilization
Environmental Benefits: Climate Change (primary), Clean Air (co-benefit)
SDTC Investment: $5,700,000
Total Project Value: $17 million
Organic LED (OLED) lighting is a market in its infancy, but the potential is staggering. In fact, most industry analysts project the market to grow to a more than US$1 billion in sales by 2020. OLEDs are thin, lightweight and flexible light sources that illuminate an area more efficiently than other sources, including LEDs. However, the current cost to produce OLEDs is too high. OTI will lead a project to engineer and install an operational OLED pilot production line capable of producing high volumes of OLED lighting panels. The line will demonstrate the economic and technical viability of OTI’s production technologies.
Consortium Members includeOTI Lumionics, 3M, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, NSG-Pilkington, TE Connectivity, Teknion, and Lumentra.
Ranovus – Energy-Efficient Data Centre Interconnect
Economic Sector: Energy Utilization
SDTC Investment: $4,250,000
Total Project Value: $14.3 million
The energy required for datacenters is huge—accounting for 2% of the world’s electricity consumption and 1.5% of the global carbon footprint—and it continues to grow at a rapid rate. Today, there are no power-efficient, cost-effective and scalable solutions to support impending future bandwidth requirements. Ranovus brings together technologies, including a state-of-the-art quantum dot laser and silicon photonics, to streamline the way data flows through a data center. The resulting 100 Gb/s transceiver module can be integrated in a data center, reducing its cost of doing business eight-fold and its power consumption four-fold.
Consortium Members include Ranovus and the National Research Council of Canada.
Polar Sapphire – High-Purity Alumina
Economic Sector: Energy Utilization
SDTC Investment: $2,650,000
Total Project Value: $8 million
Sapphire—harder than any other natural material with the exception of diamond—is already used to make high-strength glass for windows in pressure vessels and scientific instruments. The cost of sapphire glass, however, has prevented its wider use in applications such as consumer electronics. This cost constraint could change with the development of a new process to make high-purity alumina that is then used in the production of synthetic sapphire. The Polar Sapphire process significantly reduces the energy required to produce the high-purity alumina. The environmental impact of using this alumina for conversion into sapphire could significantly reduce GHG and air pollution particulates in Canada and around the world.
Consortium Members includePolar Sapphire, McMaster University, and Jaco Corporation.
Non-photonics projects include the following:
Kelvin Storage – TMES SDTC Project
Economic Sector: Power Generation
SDTC Investment: $2,800,000
Total Project Value: $8.6 million
GaN Systems – Low-Cost Gallium Nitride Power Devices for High-Efficiency Industrial Battery Chargers
Environmental Benefits: Climate Change (primary)/Clean Air (co-benefit)
Economic Sector: Transportation
SDTC Investment: $2,188,000
Total Project Value: $6.6 million
Ionada Incorporated – Marine Clean Air Membrane Scrubber
Environmental Benefits: Climate Change (co-benefit)/ Clean Air (primary)
Economic Sector: Transportation
SDTC Investment: $1,100,000
Total Project Value: $3.5 million
SOURCE: Government of Canada; http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=936699
