Joule A Bergerson

The University of Calgary | HBI · Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

A pressing challenge facing the aviation industry is to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the face of increasing demand for aviation fuels. Climate goals such as carbon-neutral growth from 2020 onwards require continuous improvements in technology, operations, infrastructure, and most importantly, reductions in aviation fuel life cycl...

Early evaluation of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) pathways in terms of cost and emission reductions is critical in guiding future R&D and commercialization. However, such evaluation is challenging due to varying technology readiness levels (TRL) of pathways, unavailability of cost and emission data for new technologies and uncertainty of per...

Carbon conversion technologies are gaining interest as a solution to utilize captured CO 2 and contribute to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This work provides technology developers with a systems-level...

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) of early-stage technologies can provide valuable insights about key drivers of emissions and aid in prioritizing research into further emissions-reduction opportunities. Despite this potential value, further development of LCA methods is required to handle the increased uncertainty, data gaps, and confidentially of ear...

Natural gas based hydrogen production with carbon capture and storage is referred to as blue hydrogen. If substantial amounts of CO2 from natural gas reforming are captured and permanently stored, such hydrogen could be a low-carbon energy carrier. However, recent research raises questions about the effective climate impacts of blue hydrogen from a...

Natural gas based hydrogen production with carbon capture and storage is referred to as blue hydrogen. If substantial amounts of CO2 from natural gas reforming are captured and permanently stored, such hydrogen could be a low-carbon energy carrier. However, recent research raises questions about the effective climate impacts of blue hydrogen from a...

Natural gas (NG) produced in Western Canada is a major and growing source of Canada’s energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions portfolio. Despite recent progress, there is still only limited understanding of the sources and drivers of Western Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We conduct a case study of a production facility based on Seven G...

With the continued climate crisis, there is increasing recognition for the important of sustainabilityeducation in engineering. At the University of Calgary, we are developing a program in Sustainable Systems Engineering to address this need. Systems thinking and sustainability are intrinsically linked, as in order to comprehend the wicked challeng...

Alternative hydrogen production technologies are sought in part to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity compared with Steam Methane Reforming (SMR), currently the most commonly employed hydrogen production technology globally. This study investigates hydrogen production via High Temperature Steam Electrolysis (HTSE) in terms of GHG e...

Natural gas is an energy carrier of predominant significance for today’s electricity and heating sectors. However, science heavily discusses the actual environmental burden of natural gas mainly due to the uncertainty in up- stream methane losses during its extraction and transportation. In this context, numerous technologies pave the way for the p...

Photosynthetic microorganisms, such as algae, are sources of bioproducts. Because they require only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to grow, they have potential for future mitigation of CO2 emissions. However, inefficient growth of these organisms remains an issue for realizing these emission reductions, primarily in terms of photosynthetic eff...

Natural gas based hydrogen production with carbon capture and storage is referred to as blue hydrogen. If substantial amounts of CO2 from natural gas reforming are captured and permanently stored, such hydrogen could be a low-carbon energy carrier. However, recent research raises questions about the effective climate impacts of blue hydrogen from a...

The authors are founding team members of a new effort to develop an Open Energy Outlook for the United States. The effort aims to apply best practices of policy-focused energy system modeling, ensure transparency, build a networked community, and work toward a common purpose: examining possible US energy system futures to inform energy and climate...

Life cycle assessments can help to inform decision-making about greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction opportunities but are often not embraced by stakeholders associated with industries where study results are highly scrutinized and often contentious. This project was motivated by stakeholder interest in understanding open source life cycle model...

Life cycle assessments can help inform decision-making about greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction opportunities but are often not embraced by stakeholders associated with industries where study results are highly scrutinized and often contentious. This project was motivated by stakeholder interest in understanding open source life cycle models (...

Photosynthetic microorganisms, such as algae, are sources of bioproducts and pharmaceuticals. As they require only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, they have potential for future mitigation of CO2 emissions. However, inefficiencies in the growth of these organisms remains an issue for realizing these emission reductions, primarily in terms of p...

As the Canadian oil sands industry continues to evolve, so do challenges associated with the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In recent years, the industry has turned its attention to the development of partial upgrading technologies that reduce the viscosity of oil sands bitumen so it can flow through pipelines without adding diluent or...

Although the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with Canadian oil sands have been investigated in recent years, questions remain regarding the source and impact of variability in emissions in this industry over time. This study combines publicly-available data from the fifteen largest operating in situ extraction projects, i.e., c...

Integrated carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is appealing for in situ production of fuels and chemicals. Here, we propose and subsequently assess an integrated electrochemical CCU process and compare it with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) route from economic and environmental perspectives. This analysis reveals that under a baseline CCU scen...

Canada has committed to the Paris Agreement and aims to reduce its emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. One of the Canadian provinces with a significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Alberta due to its fossil fuel extraction, electricity generation from coal-fired power plants, and the transport sector. In this paper...

Changing market demand and increasing environmental regulations challenge the refining industry to shift crude slates and reconfigure production processes while reducing emissions. Yet sellers and buyers remain unaware of the carbon footprint of individual marketable networks, and each crude oil has different specifications and is processed in diff...

Direct Air Capture (DAC) separates carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air either chemically or physically. As such, it could be a potential climate mitigation tool when paired with geological sequestration of CO2 or downstream conversion to produce lower-carbon products. In this study, we conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the greenhouse gas (...

Reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry is a critical climate action policy tool in Canada and the US. Optical gas imaging-based leak detection and repair (LDAR) surveys are commonly used to address fugitive methane emissions or leaks. Despite widespread use, there is little empirical measurement of the effectiveness of LDAR progra...

How oil sands bitumen is produced (through mining or in situ methods) and how the crude is processed (either upgraded to synthetic crude oil, SCO, or diluted to produce dilbit) result in a range of crude properties with distinct downstream emissions. Previous life cycle studies of the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities of transportation fuels derived...

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a promising alternative to coal to mitigate the greenhouse gas (GHG) and particulate emissions from power, industry, and district heating in China. While numerous existing life cycle assessment (LCA) studies estimate the GHG footprint of LNG, large variation exists in these results. Such variability could be caused by...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) analysts are increasingly being asked to conduct life cycle‐based systems level analysis at the earliest stages of technology development. While early assessments provide the greatest opportunity to influence design and ultimately environmental performance, it is the stage with the least available data, greatest uncertai...

A better understanding of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity of upgrading oil sands bitumen is needed to inform industry and government decisions related to climate change mitigation. We develop an enhanced version of the Oil Sands Technologies for Upgrading Model (OSTUM 2.0), a life cycle-based model that estimates energy use and GHG int...

This study updates the Petroleum Refinery Life Cycle Inventory Model (PRELIM) to provide a more complete gate-to-gate life cycle inventory and to allow for the calculation of a full suite of impact potentials commonly used in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. Prior to this update, PRELIM provided results for energy use and greenhouse gas emissio...

Fuel economy standards, driver behavior, and biofuel mandates, are driving a decline in the Gasoline-to-Diesel ratio (G:D) in U.S. refineries. This paper investigates the GHG implications associated with two methods available to shift refinery output: 1) refinery operational changes and 2) input crude slate variation. This analysis uses an open-sou...

In this study, we analyze and then evaluate four methods for siting more than one Power Transmission Line (PTL) simultaneously. Specifically, we look at (1) the least cost path (LCP) inside a macro-corridor, (2) the simultaneous definition of two routes (3) many routes inside a macro-corridor and (4) non-corridor routes generation. We apply the met...

We present a statistically-enhanced version of the GreenHouse gas emissions of current Oil Sands Technologies model that facilitates characterization of variability of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with mining and upgrading of bitumen from Canadian oil sands. Over 30 years of publicly-available project-specific operating data are employ...

Producing, transporting, and refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel accounts for ∼15 to 40% of the “well-to-wheels” life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of transport fuels (1). Reducing emissions from petroleum production is of particular importance, as current transport fleets are almost entirely dependent on liquid petrole...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used in this chapter to compare the environmental impacts and economic viability of alternatives to diesel fuel shipments to the Galapagos Islands. Two alternative energy mix options are analysed and compared on GHG emissions with current diesel and gasoline imports using LCA. Results suggest that Jatropha biodiesel h...

Calgary is a city of more than one million people, with a GDP of more than $100 billion a year and total annual expenditure on energy of $2.6 billion a year. As a city, Calgary is committed to reduce its 2005 level of carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. This report examines the economic case for Calgary switching to a more energy efficient and lower c...

Global oils are diversifying. This underscores the need to compare the greenhouse gas (GHG) implications of different petroleum sources and their pathways. The Oil-Climate Index (OCI) conducts such a “crude-centric” lifecycle analysis of GHGs from a barrel of oil through the value chain—from production, transport, refining, all the way to complete...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with extraction of bitumen from oil sands can vary from project to project and over time. However, the nature and magnitude of this variability have yet to be incorporated into environmental life cycle studies. We present a statistically enhanced life cycle based model (GHOST-SE) for assessing variability o...

Previous transportation fuel life cycle assessment studies have not fully accounted for the full variability in the crude oil transport stage – e.g. transporting a light crude through a high-diameter pipeline, vs. transporting a heavy crude through a small-diameter pipeline. We develop a first principles, fluid mechanics-based crude oil pipeline tr...

Electricity consumption in buildings is highly variable on time scales of seasons, hours, minutes, and even seconds. Yet, energy performance in building sustainability standards and rating systems is typically assessed in terms of total annual energy use, cost, and/or GHG emissions. Given that in North America buildings account for between 45 and 7...

This analysis explores the implications of technology options for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) surface facilities on cost, energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water consumption. Water integration in the form of distributed effluent treatment system design as well as heat integration considerations are the basis of this study. Cost...

The oil sands industry in Canada is under increasing pressure to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water consumption. As a consequence, new trade-offs are emerging that require an integrated analysis. This paper applies Process Integration (PI) tools to investigate opportunities to improve efficiencies in the steam assisted g...

A petroleum refinery model, Petroleum Refinery Life-cycle Inventory Model (PRELIM), that estimates energy use and CO2 emissions was modified to evaluate the environmental and economic performance of a set of technologies to reduce CO2 emissions at refineries. Cogeneration of heat and power (CHP), carbon capture at Fluid Catalytic Cracker (FCC) and...

The National Energy Technology Laboratory produced a well-to-wheels (WTW) life cycle greenhouse gas analysis of petroleum-based fuels consumed in the U.S. in 2005, known as the NETL 2005 Petroleum Baseline. This study uses a set of engineering-based, open-source models combined with publicly available data to calculate baseline results for 2014. An...

A life cycle-based model, OSTUM (Oil Sands Technologies for Upgrading Model), which evaluates the energy intensity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of current oil sands upgrading technologies, is developed. Upgrading converts oil sands bitumen into high quality synthetic crude oil (SCO), a refinery feedstock. OSTUM’s novel attributes include: the...

Significance The growth of production from tight oil plays such as the Bakken and Eagle Ford has prompted public interest in understanding the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and freshwater consumption associated with these resources, specifically with regard to hydraulic fracturing and flaring. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive life cycle ass...

This study analytically examines the effects on profitability of using an emissions cap-and-trade policy. A game-theoretic Cournot model with two competitive firms producing goods, along with undesirable emissions, for a single market is investigated. Production costs are non-linear and product demand is price-sensitive. First, relationships are de...

Buildings account for about 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in North America (Deru, 2010), and zero carbon and net zero buildings (NZBs) have the potential to virtually eliminate their net GHG emissions from operations by replacing energy consumption from fossil fuels with renewably produced energy (usually electricity) on a net annual basis....

Phototrophic microorganisms have been proposed as an alternative to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) and to produce biofuels and other valuable products. Low CO2 absorption rates, low volumetric productivities, and inefficient downstream processing, however, currently make algal biotechnology highly energy intensive, expensive, and not economically com...

Current building energy and GHG emissions assessments do not account for the variable performance of the electric grid. Incorporating hourly grid variability into building assessment methods can help to better prioritize energy efficiency measures that result in the largest environmental benefits. This article proposes a method to incorporate GHG e...

The estimated cost of reducing carbon emissions through the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in power systems vary by a factor of five or more across studies published over the past 8 years. The objective of this paper is to understand the contribution of techno-economic variables and modeling assumptions to explain the large variabil...

Forecasts suggest that production of bitumen from oil sands reservoirs will increase by a factor of at least 2.5 times over roughly the next 15 years. Although a significant economic benefactor to the Canadian economy, there are challenges faced by oil sands operators with respect to greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption. For the Athabasca...

Western Canadian oil sands reservoirs are among the largest petroleum accumulations in the world. Given original oil viscosity up to 5,000,000 mPa-s, these oils are currently recovered from these reservoirs using steam which heats the oil to ~250°C with reduced viscosities <10 mPa-s. A key issue faced by thermal recovery processes is the uniformity...

This paper explores a solar mixed-use community that combines residential and commercial buildings. The pilot location of this study is Calgary, Canada (52°. N), representing northern, cold climate. Energy performance of the neighbourhood is estimated in terms of energy consumption and generation potential by means of building integrated PV systems...

While new technologies are being developed for extracting unconventional oil, in the near term economic benefits and footprint reduction can be achieved by enhancing the energy efficiency of existing facilities. The objective of this work is to evaluate energy efficiency opportunities for in situ extraction of Canada’s oil sands resource using pinc...

Sustainable building rooftop technologies, such as white roofs, green roofs, and photovoltaic(s) (PV) panels, are becoming increasingly implemented as a result of their associated environmental benefits. Studies of these rooftop technologies are often located in hot climates and do not assess their full environmental consequences. Further, current...

This study explored the feasibility of using residual biomass to both mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and remediate water contaminated by hydrocarbons. Using produced (process-affected) water from Canada’s oil sands operations as a case study, activated biochar (ACB) was found to have a higher affinity to organics than activated coal and re...

Unconventional gas reservoirs have complex storage and transport properties that are difficult to characterize and are dynamic. The large internal surface area of nano-scale organic pores gives them the capability to store adsorbed gas along with free gas, with the amount of free gas storage changing as a function of adsorption/desorption. Further,...

Stricter emissions requirements on coal-fired power plants together with low natural gas prices have contributed to a recent decline in the use of coal for electricity generation in the United States. Faced with a shrinking domestic market, many coal companies are taking advantage of a growing coal export market. As a result, U.S. coal exports hit...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of greenhouse gas emissions is often used to compare products in the global crude market. While Alberta's oil sands face particular pressure to improve performance, a lack of consensus on methods, data, and assumptions specific to the LCA of products derived from crude oil weaken such comparisons. This paper investigates...

Solar photovoltaic (PV) is a rapidly growing electricity generation technology. The increasing penetration of this technology is facilitated by incentives and public policy support that are being offered by various jurisdictions. There are various options for installing photovoltaic systems, rooftop and ground mounted systems being the two common o...

A method combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and real options analyses is developed to predict project environmental and financial performance over time, under market uncertainties and decision-making flexibility. The method is applied to examine alternative uses for oil sands coke, a carbonaceous byproduct of processing the unconventional petrol...

A petroleum refinery model, Petroleum Refinery Life-cycle Inventory Model (PRELIM) which quantifies energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with the detail and transparency sufficient to inform policy analysis is developed. PRELIM improves on prior models by representing a more comprehensive range of crude oil quality and refinery configurati...

Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with two major recovery and extraction processes currently utilized in Alberta's oil sands, surface mining and in situ, are quantified. Process modules are developed and integrated into a life cycle model-GHOST (GreenHouse gas emissions of current Oil Sands Technologies) developed in prior work....

Developing long-term carbon control strategies is important in energy intensive industries such as the oil sands operations in Alberta. We examine the use of cogeneration to satisfy the energy demands of oil sands operations in Alberta in the context of carbon management. This paper evaluates the role of cogeneration in meeting Provincial carbon ma...

A life cycle-based model, GHOST (GreenHouse gas emissions of current Oil Sands Technologies), which quantifies emissions associated with production of diluted bitumen and synthetic crude oil (SCO) is developed. GHOST has the potential to analyze a large set of process configurations, is based on confidential oil sands project operating data, and re...

Does carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) make sense in the oil sands?

Concerns regarding resource availability and price volatility have prompted industries to consider replacing natural gas (NG) with an alternative fuel. The oil sands industry utilizes large amounts of NG for the production of steam, electricity, and hydrogen, and several "replacement fuels" are currently being considered. A life cycle framework is...

Oil sands operations are playing an increasingly important role in North American oil supplies. Extracting and processing bitumen from oil sands is an energy intensive process that requires both electricity and steam which are usually sourced through fossil fuel conversions. This energy intensity (and associated CO2 emissions) as well as the rapid...

The magnitude of Canada's oil sands reserves, their rapidly expanding and energy intensive production, combined with existing and upcoming greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions regulations motivate an evaluation of oil sands-derived fuel production from a life cycle perspective. Thirteen studies of GHG emissions associated with oil sands operations are re...

The life cycle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with the production and use of transportation fuels from conventional and unconventional fossil fuel sources in Canada and the USA are investigated. The studied pathways include reformulated gasoline and low sulphur diesel produced from oil sands, oil shale, coal and natural gas, as well as r...

More than 50% of electricity in the U.S. is generated by coal. The U.S. has large coal resources, the cheapest fuel in most areas. Coal fired power plants are likely to continue to provide much of U.S. electricity. However, the type of power plant that should be built is unclear. Technology can reduce pollutant discharges and capture and sequester...

Using four times as much coal in 2050 for electricity production need not degrade air quality or increase greenhouse gas emissions. Current SOx and NOx emissions from the power sector could be reduced from 12 to less than 1 and from 5 to 2 million tons annually, respectively, using advanced technology. While direct CO2 emissions from new power plan...

Environmental life cycle assessment is often thought of as cradle to grave and therefore as the most complete accounting of the environmental costs and benefits of a product or service. However, as anyone who has done an environmental life cycle assessment knows, existing tools have many problems: data is difficult to assemble and life cycle studie...

We examine the life cycle costs, environmental discharges, and deaths of moving coal via rail, coal gas via pipeline, and electricity via wire from the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming to Texas. Which method has least social cost depends on how much additional investment in rail line, transmission, or pipeline infrastructure is required, as well...

This thesis evaluates the cost and environmental tradeoffs of current and future electricity generation options from a life cycle perspective. Policy and technology options are considered for each critical time horizon (near-, mid-, and long-term). The framework developed for this analysis is a hybrid life cycle analysis which integrates several mo...