Dr. David Lynch, P.Eng. Dean of Engineering at University of Alberta 

Dr. David Lynch, P.Eng. Dean of Engineering at University of Alberta

People are quite energized when I describe what’s happening at the University of Alberta. Over a thousand researchers collaborate here on this one major topic: the responsible development of our oil sands.

Every one of these researchers has, in most cases, several advanced degrees in engineering, in science areas and other areas. It’s the only way you get to the better solutions faster because these are major, challenging topics. If any of these things were easy, we would have done them forty years ago.

We do two types of research. One would be improving existing processes. The other type would be looking for breakthroughs that would completely change a process - here’s what’s happening, how do we do it different, how do we do it better and faster in a different way? Less impact on the air, less impact on the water, less impact on the land. How can we improve all of those things?

Part of our work is saying, how do we continue to reduce that amount water that is required? That used to be ten barrels, it’s been brought down, in the best of practices, now to around two barrels. In the Oil Sands in the next twenty years, I see entirely new breakthrough technologies being implemented.

Technologies like the extraction of oilsands without using water, the non-aqueous extraction technologies. People want to believe and have the hope that we can make things better, that we are making things better, that there are those developments underway today that will address the issues that people can see in front of them today.

And when they hear and see what’s happening at the University of Alberta on these major energy environment developments focused on the Oil Sands, it actually for many people really instills a sense of hope.

There can be a prevailing thought that nobody’s working on these challenges and my response is nothing could be farther from the truth.