Latest news with #Cvictus
Calgary Herald
29-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: Calgary's Cvictus sourcing coal for sustainable livestock feed
Article content Calgary-based Cvictus, a clean energy and biotech startup, is poised to transform the way the world's livestock is fed by providing a low-cost, low-carbon, sustainable alternative to fish or soybean meal — and it's doing it by tapping into an abundant resource: coal. Article content No, it's not digging it up. Cvictus is revitalizing a pioneering method of extracting beneficial gases to produce feedstocks such as methanol, from coal found deep within the earth's surface without mining. Article content Article content 'We have giant dreams and expectations for where this technology will go, but as a startup we can't feasibly employ the resources required to scale,' says Katrina Stewart, Cvictus director, biotechnology and carbon reduction. 'Academic researchers provide the innovation, expertise and drive we need to help move the needle forward on this exciting technology.' Article content Brought up in Calgary, Stewart earned her chemical engineering degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., before expanding her sciences understanding by spending a year in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she enjoyed studying for her Masters in Brewing and Distilling. Article content Article content Back home in Calgary she is converting that same drive in working with Mitacs-supported researchers to help Cvictus advance two separate, yet integrated projects. Article content On the clean energy side, they're contributing to commercialization of the company's large-scale hydrogen recovery platform at a cutting-edge facility near Red Deer. Hydrogen is produced from deep within a coal seam using patented technology that successfully sequesters carbon at the same time. Article content On the biotech side, Cvictus is tapping into cutting edge expertise at University of Alberta's Biorefining Conversions and Fermentation Laboratory under the supervision of professor David Bressler, and in consultation with experts who worked on the original technology.
CTV News
14-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Converting coal to animal feed: Local student researchers, biotech startup poised for a break-through
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta are working with clean energy and biotech startup Cvictus. (Supplied) An Alberta clean energy and biotech startup has teamed up with students at the University of Alberta to help advance research in the Agri-food industry and use coal to make animal feed. Cvictus, headquartered in Calgary, has been exploring how to revitalize an old fermentation process that converts methanol extracted from coal into a high-protein material used in livestock feed. With a program that connects companies with researchers in Canada, Cvictus and a handful of U of A students are exploring ways to improve methanol fermentation and recycle more of the liquid waste into food for animals. 'The product coming out of the fermenter looks like toothpaste before it's dried and turned into the single cell protein powder,' Domenic Marano, a U of A Master's student in bioresources technology, said in a press release. 'Back in the '80s, there was a process for recycling that spent liquid – which could be as much as 2.8 million tonnes of water per year – back into the fermenter. Our goal is to find a similar recycling solution for the new, modernized process.' Cvictus recently received a US$1.7-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the company says it is applying to use the funds to move the process to the university's Agri-Food Discovery Place where student researchers can work on feed trials. 'We have giant dreams and expectations for where this technology will go, but as a startup, we can't feasibly employ the resources required to scale,' Cvictus director of biotechnology and carbon reduction Katrina Stewart said in a statement. 'Academic researchers provide the innovation, expertise and drive we need to help move the needle forward on this exciting technology.' Marano says the opportunity to work as a student with industry professionals that are exploring emerging technology is incredible. 'Not only does it allow me to move through a simulated work experience with constant check-ins and meetings with industry, but I also get to watch the project come to fruition and be a direct part of that,' he said. So far, according to Cvictus, the student researchers have 'successfully conducted methanol fermentation at bench scale' like how sugar is used to make yogurt. Stewart added the next step is regulatory approval with trials on broiler hens and pigs set to start later this year. 'Technically, we could use any methanol source as feedstock for our process and it would still be beneficial to the agricultural industry,' she said. 'But the real gains come when we pair our ultra-low-cost, low-carbon upstream technology with the fermentation.' 'We truly aim to create carbon negative living.'
