NEWS

November 1, 2012
Congratulations to the University of Calgary iGEM team for placing as a finalist in the Americas West Regional Jamboree, Cornell University for placing as a finalist in the Americas East Regional Jamboree and CINVESTAV-IPN-UNAM MX (Mexico) for placing as a finalist in the Latin America Regional Jamboree.

Congratulations to Queens University and INSA de Lyon (France) who have also qualified to advance to the World Championship. Good luck to all five teams competing at the iGEM World Championship Jamboree at MIT!

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The Oil Sands Leadership Initiative (OSLI) is about new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking. One of the challenges OSLI companies recognize is that new solutions to known challenges don't always come from within the industry. To truly create step-changes in energy, OSLI is seeking visionary new ways of approaching its challenges through the application of emerging technologies.
"They're doing what it took teams of researchers ten years to achieve... and they are doing it over a one-year time frame."

Vincent Saubestre
OSLI Executive Director
We are taking the challenges of efficient and effective oil extraction and environmental management to university students around the globe and we're challenging them to apply their skills and perspectives to our processes. That's what New Ideas is all about; challenging and supporting others who address our needs in unique ways, whether it be utilizing waste streams like CO2 or mobilizing bitumen with microorganisms.

New Ideas and iGEM

This website features the work and ongoing projects of student teams conducting synthetic biology research through the MIT iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines) competition. To date, OSLI has engaged iGEM teams from ten different universities in five countries to try and address oil sands challenges.

Oil Sands Challenges

The Canadian oil sands, located in northern Alberta, contain the second-largest recoverable oil reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia's). The oil sands are an important, secure and reliable energy source for North America and abroad, but their sustainable development presents challenges.
Breakthrough energy-saving processes are sought to reduce the environmental impacts and improve the mobilization of oil. Biological processes are particularly attractive, since bitumen itself is the result of past biological activity, where microbes utilized the majority of oxygen in the oil leaving a longer chain hydrocarbon that is more difficult to breakdown. Bitumen is a heavy viscous form of crude oil, with a consistency similar to peanut butter at room temperature. The vast majority of the oil sands deposits are too deep to surface mine so the bitumen is recovered in situ by injecting steam and solvents to reduce its viscosity so it flows into producing wells. A smaller
percentage of the oil sands lie within 75 meters from the surface and the bitumen is extracted using hot water and chemicals. Ninety percent of the water from mining operations is reused and the remaining 10 percent (mixed with fine clays, small amounts of hydrocarbon and other compounds) goes into tailings ponds to settle. A common way of recovering this bitumen is to burn natural gas to produce steam, which is injected into the reservoir to heat and loosen the bitumen so it flows into producing wells. A smaller percentage of the oil sands resource lies within 75 metres of the surface. These deposits are mined and the bitumen is extracted using hot water and chemicals. Typically,
90 per cent of the water from mining operations is reused and the remaining 10 per cent (contaminated with fine clays, small amounts of hydrocarbons and other compounds) go to tailings ponds. After bitumen is recovered, it is either pre-processed (called "upgrading") which burns more natural gas, or a diluting agent is added so the product can be shipped via pipeline for further refining.


Opportunities

Opportunities for application of synthetic biology in the oil sands
  • Microbes and algae that feed on carbon dioxide (CO2) and turn it into a valuable product such as food or fuel
  • Microorganisms that generate hydrogen
  • Microorganisms that detect and destroy waste
  • Microorganisms that produce polymers or other chemicals to coagulate fine tailings
  • Bioremediation
  • Bacteria that could upgrade the bitumen in situ producing lighter hydrocarbons
  • Novel biosensors
  • Microbes that process biomass into biofuels or electricity
  • Biological solution of the breakdown of bitumen-saturated oil-based drilling mud
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New Ideas Showcase

Take a look at how students teams worldwide are developing innovative synthetic biology solutions for oil sands challenges. Projects range in application from bioremediation and biofuel production to the detection and mobilization of bitumen and other chemicals in the oil sands.
OSLI is always looking for innovative solutions from unexpected places. If you want to get involved, please contact us at: newideas@osli.ca

2012 Projects

This year, OSLI funded eight iGEM teams from five countries. Students came from universities in Canada, France, Mexico and the United States.
View iGEM Wiki's
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