9:30 - Shale Gas Development: The Use and Protection of Water

Development of shale gas and other hydrocarbon resources in low permeability formations requires large-scale hydraulic fracturing, usually carried out with water-based fluids.  The panel will discuss how water needs can be met and how the technology is evolving.

The impact of many wellbores, some of which may be inadequately sealed against gas seepage, is another water issue arising in intensive shale gas development.  The panel will discuss the current understanding of gas seepage along wellbores and identify research and development needs in to protect shallow groundwater from invasion of natural gas.   

Mel Ydreos, EnergyVantage and International Gas Union, Toronto ON

Assessment of international developments and current trends and the impacts on energy supply mix.

Maurice Dusseault, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON

Horizontal drilling and massive staged hydraulic fracturing technologies, usually based on aqueous fluids, have been developed over the last 15 years, and are being used to develop Canada's low-permeability shale gas (SG) resource.  Typical water requirements, saline water use, and the options for treating and re-using the flow-back fluids from the fracturing treatment are outlined and placed in the context of local water availability. 

Beth Parker, University of Guelph, Guelph ON

Almost all data on SG and groundwater interactions come from domestic wells, which are inappropriate instruments for determining impacts or general baseline conditions.  There is a need for the hydrogeological community to work with the oil and gas community to develop rigorous methodologies for monitoring in a modern contaminant hydrogeology scientific framework. This includes both migration pathway assessment and mobility evaluation in changing or altered environments, both in granular and fractured media, and for species such as stray methane and fracturing fluid chemicals. Given the current state of the science, much additional work lies ahead to refine general and site-specific conceptual models, and ground-truthing with data is needed to identify and quantify the important processes. 

Richard Jackson, Geofirma Inc., Ottawa ON

Energy well integrity is the key to public acceptance of unconventional oil and gas development in North America. Without improved standards of well completions it is likely that seepage of hydrocarbon gases to shallow groundwaters and emissions to the atmosphere facilitated by poor well completions will cause a continuing crisis in public confidence in the hydrocarbon industry.

12:00 - The Need For Innovation in Energy Storage

Is there a role for innovative and advanced electrochemical energy storage in Canada? This panel will discuss the promise and potential of novel electrochemical solutions to deliver safe, reliable and high-performance energy storage in stationary and motive applications.

Zhongwei Chen, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON

An innovative rechargeable battery could create a greener future by storing power from a smart grid or driving the next generation of electric cars. The battery is made possible with a unique nanomaterial that acts as a catalyst to drive energy. Such a zinc-air rechargeable battery, which could be on the market within a year, may one day be used to store energy generated by solar collectors and wind turbines. The use of zinc in batteries is nothing new, this has been used for many years in the one-time-use batteries in hearing aids. The challenge is making a zinc battery rechargeable.

Rob Harvey, Hydrogenics, Toronto ON

Power-to-Gas: The convergence of the electrical grids with the natural gas distribution/storage infrastructure increases the flexibility for managing intermittent renewable supplies. Renewable Natural Gas, Power-to-Gas (PtG) and other gas-based energy storage solutions offer the ability to improve the economic and technical management of surplus off-peak power, and intermittent renewable energy.  New, adaptive infrastructure like electrolyzers allows simultaneous grid stabilization, seasonal storage of bulk power, geographic transmission of energy and dispatchable regeneration of distributed renewable energy.  This is achieved by bridging the electricity and gas-pipeline infrastructure together. This has near-term potential because much of the existing energy infrastructure exists.  Renewable gases, like PtG conversion of renewable power to hydrogen, is just optimizing the existing gas distribution and electricity network capabilities to limit waste and exports to harvest more renewable energy.

Michael Fowler, University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON

Repurposed PHEV Battery Packs as Energy Storage: LiIon batteries are a leading technology being applied in electrified vehicles, with very widespread commercialization by major automotive manufacturers expected over the next decade there will be number of package coming out of vehicle service. At end-of-life use in a vehicle LiIon batteries, with proper assessment of battery SOH and SOC, these packs may be applied to second use applications such as stationary back-up power. To add this repurposing to the battery's life-cycle requires development of assessment methods for ongoing in-service LiIon battery SOC, and of strategies for battery pack management strategies and re-packaging.  There is also a need to assess changes to Charge Efficiency to see if they will be effective in the second use application.