Ethylene is an important building block for the chemical industry and is most widely produced at global production scale of 200 million metric tonnes. As a typical chemical feedstock, ethylene is used to produce plastics, consumer goods, solvents, paints, among many others. Ethylene is predominantly produced by steam cracking which is run at very high temperatures and releases up to 2.7 kg CO2 eq./ kg of polyethylene produced. In Alberta, the production of ethylene and derivatives results in more than 4.5 million tonnes CO2 eq.

This project aims to develop a sustainable approach to produce value-added products from waste and biomass. The industrial partner (Enerkem) uses municipal solid waste and other biomass to produce syngas, which is further converted to methanol or ethanol. Currently, the company seeks to enhance this capability by producing other value-added chemicals. One of the key steps in the desired technology is the production of methyl acetate.

The catalytic CO2 reforming process provides a sequestration alternative that holds promise for a viable solution for dealing with industrial gaseous effluents containing greenhouse gases CH4 and CO2. The process converts these gases to syngas (CO and H2) which can be used for synthesis for high value chemicals. The catalyst for the dry reforming process has been developed by Enerkem and is being scaled up by an industrial partner for implementation in an industrial sized reactor.

Gasification of wastes (either urban waste or residues from forest and agricultural operations) at large scale is a challenging operation because of the heterogeneity of the feedstock. Enerkem has addressed such challenge via its state-of-the art Bubbling Fluidized Bed (BFB) technology coupled with secondary Cracking and Reforming that results in high conversion of Carbon to syngas and a quality of the Syngas that makes it suitable for Catalytic Processing. The Enerkem approach provides a sustainable alternative to both landfill and incineration.