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BC Research Inc. is a Canadian process technology incubator, specializing in R&D, chemical process development, clean technology innovation, and technology commercialization. [1] BC Research Inc. (BCRI) is part of the NORAM Group, a vertically integrated group of companies under common Canadian ownership and located in the Vancouver, B.C area that specialize in the development, scale-up and full-scale commercialization of chemical processes. The group provides a wide range of services from technical consulting to complete, turn-key chemical plants. We have a 35+ year track-record in taking novel technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. Headquartered in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, BC Research operates primarily from their "Technology Innovation and Commercialization Centre" on Mitchell Island in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, BC.
BCRI focuses on the development of innovative chemical processes related to Clean Technology. Key areas of focus include:
BCRI has an extensive Intellectual Property portfolio of international patents and can work with partners to develop new technologies in a collaborative fashion.
BCRI's Technology Innovation and Commercialization Centre has a 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2) facility that containss a pilot plant development and operations area with 30 ft (9.2m) vertical clearance, wet laboratory space, state-of-the-art analytical chemistry equipment, engineering and design office space, as well as a machine shop and fenced outdoor piloting space. Technologies are scaled up from concept to pilot or demonstration scale in preparation for commercialization.
As part of the NORAM Group, BC Research works in the advancement of process and equipment technologies, in mature industries such as mononitrobenzene production, sulfuric acid manufacture, pulp and paper industry, green chemistry, water treatment, mineral processing, and environmental industry.
BCRI executes projects worldwide and works in close collaboration with other NORAM Group companies including: NORAM Engineering and Constructors Ltd, NORAM Electrolysis Systems Inc. (NESI), NORAM International AB, Axton Inc, and ECOfluid Inc.
Previously, BC Research occupied a scientific research and development company located at the BC Research and Innovation Complex at the south end of the University of British Columbia campus close to the TRIUMF particle accelerator centre. [2] This facility closed in November 2007. The company specialized in consulting and applied research and development in the area of plant biotechnology and environment, health and safety, process and analysis, transportation and ship dynamics.
The company can be traced back to 1944 as it developed from the non-profit BC Research Council to a private company in 1993, founded by Dr. Hugh Wynne-Edwards, Ph.D, DSc., FRSC, a member of the Order of Canada, who served as the founding Chief Executive Officer and developed the facility into an incubator in the fields of biotechnology, drug discovery and alternative fuel technologies.
In 2000, part of BC Research was purchased by Immune Network Ltd and was sold to Cromedica (now PRA International) in July 2001. Its plant biotechnology team was mostly spun off in Silvagen Inc. which specialized in clonal reforestation and which became a part of CellFor. In 1999 Azure Dynamics, a hybrid commercial vehicle systems developer, was formed with some of the transportation team and left the facility in 2004 having gone public in 2001 as Azure Dynamics Corporation. Radient Technologies, specializing in microwave-assisted cannabis extraction, purification and isolation, was also spun off in 2001 as a joint venture with Environment Canada. The remaining laboratory and consulting business functions continued under the name Vizon SciTec until August 2006 when CANTEST Ltd. announced its acquisition from BC Research Inc. which continues as a privately held technology holding company.
BC Research Inc. is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the NORAM group, a private, vertically integrated portfolio of businesses serving process scale-up, engineering, R&D, pilot plants, demonstration plants, modular plants, custom fabrication, and site assistance. In 2010, BC Research Inc. (BCRI), opened again for business in Burnaby, B.C under the NORAM Group of Companies. The Company continued to provide specialized consulting and applied research and development in an expanding number of different technologies and industries, including fluidized beds, storage of energy in batteries, fuel cells, electrochemical cells, corrosion testing and analysis, hydrogen, sulfur, chlorine, nitration, water treatment, and pulp and paper chemistry.
In 2017, moved to a newly constructed Technology Innovation and Commercialization Center on Mitchell Island in Richmond, BC to expand their capabilities.
Ethane is a naturally occurring organic chemical compound with chemical formula C
2H
6. At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is isolated on an industrial scale from natural gas and as a petrochemical by-product of petroleum refining. Its chief use is as feedstock for ethylene production. The ethyl group is formally, although rarely practically, derived from ethane.
Supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) is a process that occurs in water at temperatures and pressures above a mixture's thermodynamic critical point. Under these conditions water becomes a fluid with unique properties that can be used to advantage in the destruction of recalcitrant and hazardous wastes such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Supercritical water has a density between that of water vapor and liquid at standard conditions, and exhibits high gas-like diffusion rates along with high liquid-like collision rates. In addition, the behavior of water as a solvent is altered - it behaves much less like a polar solvent. As a result, the solubility behavior is "reversed" so that oxygen, and organics such as chlorinated hydrocarbons become soluble in the water, allowing single-phase reaction of aqueous waste with a dissolved oxidizer. The reversed solubility also causes salts to precipitate out of solution, meaning they can be treated using conventional methods for solid-waste residuals. Efficient oxidation reactions occur at low temperature with reduced NOx production.
The Fischer–Tropsch process (FT) is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as syngas, into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperatures of 150–300 °C (302–572 °F) and pressures of one to several tens of atmospheres. The Fischer–Tropsch process is an important reaction in both coal liquefaction and gas to liquids technology for producing liquid hydrocarbons.
Ames National Laboratory, formerly Ames Laboratory, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa, and affiliated with Iowa State University. It is a top-level national laboratory for research on national security, energy, and the environment. The laboratory conducts research into areas of national concern, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration. It is located on the campus of Iowa State University.
Food engineering is a scientific, academic, and professional field that interprets and applies principles of engineering, science, and mathematics to food manufacturing and operations, including the processing, production, handling, storage, conservation, control, packaging and distribution of food products. Given its reliance on food science and broader engineering disciplines such as electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical, industrial and agricultural engineering, food engineering is considered a multidisciplinary and narrow field.
The sulfur–iodine cycle is a three-step thermochemical cycle used to produce hydrogen.
The California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) is a public-private partnership to promote hydrogen vehicles (including cars and buses) in California. It is notable as one of the first initiatives for that purpose undertaken in the United States. The challenge is which come first, hydrogen cars or filling stations.
Underground coal gasification (UCG) is an industrial process which converts coal into product gas. UCG is an in-situ gasification process, carried out in non-mined coal seams using injection of oxidants and steam. The product gas is brought to the surface through production wells drilled from the surface.
Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) is the national chemical research institute for the Republic of Korea. It has performed research & development and public infrastructure services in chemistry and related convergence technologies. KRICT was established in 1976 and is a National Research Council of Science & Technology member. It is located at 141, Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.
Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation is a Canadian based Renewable Energy Company which specializes in fast pyrolysis, a process which creates a product named bio-oil. Its only other residue is char.
Mark Holtzapple is a chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on technologies that improve sustainability.
The milestones for carbon capture and storage show the lack of commercial scale development and implementation of CCS over the years since the first carbon tax was imposed.
NanoScale Corporation was a private US corporation, located in Manhattan, Kansas. It was founded by Dr. Kenneth J. Klabunde in 1995, as Nantek, Inc., to further develop and commercialize certain intellectual properties of Kansas State University. In January 2001, the Company’s name was changed to NanoScale Materials, Inc. They were reincorporated in July 2007, as a Delaware corporation, with the current name NanoScale Corporation. NanoScale worked with a variety of private, commercial, and government customers. NanoScale developed, manufactured, and sold nano-crystalline metal oxides and other materials for a wide array of applications, including odor neutralization, hazardous chemical neutralization, and environmental remediation. Scientists affiliated with NanoScale Corporation have collaborated to write, and publish, many scientific papers and publications in the subjects of material science and advanced chemistry nanotechnology. They closed down following wire-fraud.
Electrochemical engineering is the branch of chemical engineering dealing with the technological applications of electrochemical phenomena, such as electrosynthesis of chemicals, electrowinning and refining of metals, flow batteries and fuel cells, surface modification by electrodeposition, electrochemical separations and corrosion.
Food physical chemistry is considered to be a branch of Food chemistry concerned with the study of both physical and chemical interactions in foods in terms of physical and chemical principles applied to food systems, as well as the applications of physical/chemical techniques and instrumentation for the study of foods. This field encompasses the "physiochemical principles of the reactions and conversions that occur during the manufacture, handling, and storage of foods."
Ralph Landau was an American chemical engineer and entrepreneur active in the chemical and petrochemical industries. He is considered one of the top fifty foundational chemical engineers of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the 75 most distinguished contributors to chemical enterprise. He has published extensively on chemical engineering and holds a significant number of patents.
Carbon Engineering Ltd. is a Canadian-based clean energy company focusing on the commercialization of direct air capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.
Exxon donor solvent process (EDS) is a coal liquefaction process developed by Exxon Research and Engineering Company, starting in 1966. The process converts solid coal directly to liquid synthetic fuels which could be used as a substitute for petroleum products. The process does not involve an intermediate step of coal gasification. Exxon operated a pilot plant in Texas from 1980 until 1982.
Bruno Georges Pollet BSc(Hons) MSc PhD FIAHE FRSC, is a French electrochemist and electrochemical engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy, a full professor of chemistry, director of the Green Hydrogen Lab and member of the Hydrogen Research Institute at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in Canada. He has worked on Hydrogen Energy in the UK, Japan, South Africa, Norway and Canada, and has both industrial and academic experience. He is a prolific scholar, collaborator, and mentor. He is also regarded as one of the most prominent Hydrogen experts and one of the Hydrogen "influencers" in the world.
Monolith Inc. is an American chemical and materials producer based in Nebraska. The company is known for being the first company to use methane pyrolysis to split natural gas into carbon and hydrogen gas on a commercial scale. The carbon resulting from the process is converted into carbon black. The company is building a plant where the hydrogen gas from the process will be converted to anhydrous ammonia. Monolith was founded by Robert Hanson and Pete Johnson in 2012, in Redwood City, California.