Calgary Alberta – August 8, 2016 – Steeper Energy Canada Ltd., a Danish-Canadian clean-fuel company, and MITACS will support development of the upgrading of Hydrofaction™ Oil into drop-in biofuels. The $250,000 collaboration will be carried out at the University of Calgary and University of Alberta from December 2016 to November 2017.

Hydrofaction™ is Steeper Energy’s proprietary hydrothermal liquefaction technology that converts low value biomass residues to renewable crude oil using supercritical water and homogeneous catalysis. Steeper Energy Canada (SEC) is focused on identifying optimal pathways for upgrading Hydrofaction™ Oil into renewable diesel and jet fuels. Amidst plummeting crude oil prices, such renewable fuels still command attractive ‘green’ economic premiums as well as policy support for their climate and rural development deliverables. This project focusses on Hydrofaction™ Oil upgrading though hydrotreatment and steam catalytic cracking. Upgrading has been identified as critical for the commercialization of Hydrofaction™ by three engineering design studies. Through this Project, SEC will be extending an existing collaboration with Prof. Pereira’s Research Group at the University of Calgary and Prof. McCaffrey at the University of Alberta along with their world class equipment and expertise in hydrocarbon catalysis.

Additional information on MITACS is available at https://www.mitacs.ca.