| Water-use implications of low-carbon pathways in the oil sands. University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-09-20 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Assessing present and future water flows in Canada with a focus on the energy supply sectorsAbstract accepted for presentation at CWRA 2020, June 15-18, 2020, Winnipeg, Canada. (conference cancelled due to COVID-19). University of Alberta | Activity | 2020-06-15 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Development of long-term forecasting model to assess current and future water flows in Canada for energy supply sectors. | Activity | 2021-05-31 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis |
| Long-term integrated assessment of water and GHG impacts of a transition to low-carbon unconventional oil extraction.Long-term integrated assessment of water and GHG impacts of a transition to low-carbon unconventional oil extraction. NSERC/Cenovus/Alberta Innovates Associate Industrial Research Chair in Energy and Environmental Systems Engineering TAC Meeting University of Alberta | Activity | 2022-11-30 | Gustavo Moraes Coraca, Kumar, A., Matthew Davis |
| Water-use implications of low carbon pathways in the oil and gas sectorNov 3-6, 2019. [Conference Presentation] University of Alberta | Activity | 2019-11-04 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Water-use implications of low carbon pathways in the oil and gas sector University of Alberta | Activity | 2021-02-26 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Water-use implications of low-carbon pathways in the oil and gas sector University of Alberta | Activity | 2020-11-09 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Integrated assessment of water use and greenhouse gas footprints of Canada’s electricity generation and oil and gas sectors | Publication | 2020-01-20 | Ankit Gupta |
| Scenario-Based Assessment and Projection of Water Use for the Canadian Oil and Gas Sector and Several Low-carbon Technologies Available to the Oil SandsAbstract
The Canadian oil and gas sector is a significant contributor to Canada’s economy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water use. Society is increasingly focused on GHG emissions, and it is broadly recognized that GHG reductions in the oil and gas sector have an important role in Canada’s meeting its national targets. The oil and gas sector has set goals to reduce its GHG emissions by reducing the emissions intensity of its products. As the sector as a whole and the oil sands in particular are regionally significant water users, changes in sectoral activity or technological makeup due to these GHG emissions reduction options may have significant impacts on local water resources. There has been limited focus on the assessment of integrated GHG and water footprints of oil sands sector. This research is aimed at addressing these gaps.
This thesis describes the bottom-up modelling of long-term water use of the oil and gas sector under several production scenarios and long-term water-use impacts of several GHG-reducing technologies in the oil sands in order to develop integrated cost-GHG-water use impacts for those technologies. The Canadian Water Evaluation and Planning Model (WEAP-Canada) was expanded and used to project the long-term water use of six oil and gas subsectors in nine provinces. Nineteen rivers were considered, and water use was projected on an annual basis. The added features of the model include variable water-use intensities for several subsectors over the historic period, updated production scenarios, and additional baseline water-use data. The model outputs were validated using historic water-use data from 2005 to 2017, and the water-use projections are presented for 2020 to 2050.
Four water-use projection scenarios were established based on production projections from the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) and represent their reference case, the evolving climate policies scenario, a low oil and gas price scenario, and a high oil and gas price scenario. The reference scenario water projection showed an increase from the sector’s national annual water consumption of 317 million cubic metres (MCM) in 2020 to 409 MCM (+29%) by 2050. The subsectors with the largest contribution to this increase are natural gas and surface bitumen mining, which over this period increased their consumption by 30 MCM (+104%) and 18 MCM (+11%), respectively. The low and high price scenarios had a 2050 sectoral consumption of 278 MCM and 526 MCM, representing increases from the 2020 total of -12% and +65%, respectively, and differences from the reference case 2050 total of -32% and +29%, respectively. A fifth water projection scenario was established based on assumed changes in the future water-use intensity of individual oil and gas subsectors.
WEAP-Canada was then integrated with the previously developed Canadian Low Emission Analysis Platform (LEAP-Canada) model to allow the water-use impacts of several oil sands low-carbon technologies to be projected. Nine low-carbon technologies were considered, and their previously developed adoption rates across three carbon price scenarios were used alongside newly introduced water-use intensity parameters to estimate each technology’s annual water use under each carbon price. The cumulative 2020-2050 marginal water consumption by pathway ranged from +753 MCM (increased consumption) in the hydropower-electrolysis pathway, to +4 MCM in the biomass gasification pathway, to -182 MCM (decreased consumption) in the SAGD cogeneration pathway. An indicator representing the amount of water consumed to achieve GHG emission abatement for each pathway showed that between +188 m3/tCO2e (hydropower-electrolysis, increased consumption), +1.04 m3/tCO2e (biomass gasification), and -2.49 m3/tCO2e (SAGD cogeneration, decreased consumption) is required. The effects of several carbon price points between $0/tCO2e and $50/tCO2e were also quantified.
These results provide clarity on how technology and production outlook changes occurring in the sector will affect the less addressed but important measure of water use. This information ultimately provides a range of watershed-resolution annual water use information for the sector and quantified relationships among several environmental impacts of low-carbon technology options for industry leaders and policymakers. | Publication | 2023-02-23 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick |
| The Development of a Technology-Explicit Bottom-Up Integrated Multi-Regional Energy Model of CanadaThe Development of a Technology-Explicit Bottom-Up Integrated Multi-Regional Energy Model of Canada, MSc Thesis, University of Alberta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2017. | Publication | 2017-09-14 | Matthew Davis |
| Oil’s cost on water: bottom up modelling of Canada’s oil and gas sector water use and the effect of commodity price University of Alberta | Activity | 2020-11-23 | Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, Ankit Gupta, Kumar, A. |
| An integrated assessment framework for the decarbonization of the electricity generation sector University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-04-15 | Ankit Gupta, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Assessment of greenhouse gas mitigation options for the iron, gold, and potash mining sectorsKatta AK, Davis M, Kumar A. Assessment of greenhouse gas mitigation options for the iron, gold, and potash mining sectors, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019 (in press). University of Alberta | Publication | 2019-10-08 | Anil-Kumar Katta, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| Analysis of Canada’s water use: Tracing water flow from source to end useThis study provides estimates for disaggregated water use by regional subsectors and uses Sankey diagrams to depict the water flow from the intake to consumption and discharge. The study uses a bottom-up method in the oil and gas and hydropower sectors and top-down methods in the residential, commercial and institutional, manufacturing, mining, agricultural, and power sectors. Surface and groundwater are considered separately. Water use in the year 2017 was analyzed for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic Provinces, and the Territories. Water-use intensities were also calculated by region and sector. A total of 40 billion m3 of water use is traced from source to either discharge or consumption. New disaggregated data is developed provincially and by sector for oil and gas, mining, and power generation. Water use in the oil and gas sector was disaggregated into 5 subsectors, with oil sands surface mining in Alberta as the largest consumer with 138 million m3 of water consumed. Hydropower was estimated to consume the most water out of all sectors, with 3393 million m3 of water consumed. Alberta was also found to have the largest consumptive water use per capita. University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-11-09 | "Nikhil Agrawal", Thomas Edward Lamont Patrick, Matthew Davis, "Ahiduzzaman M", Kumar, A. |
| Development of disaggregated energy use and greenhouse gas emission footprints in Canada's iron, gold, and potash mining sectorsDevelopment of disaggregated energy use and greenhouse gas emission footprints in Canada's iron, gold, and potash mining sectors, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2020, 152: 104485. University of Alberta | Publication | 2019-10-05 | Anil-Kumar Katta, Matthew Davis, Kumar, A. |
| How to model a complex national energy system? Developing an integrated energy systems framework for long-term energy and emissions analysis University of Alberta | Publication | 2019-04-23 | Matthew Davis, "Md. Ahiduzzaman", Kumar, A. |
| The development of a framework to assess long-term water supply and demand projections for integrated assessment of environment impacts for the energy sector University of Alberta | Publication | 2022-05-01 | "Anum Dar", "Thomas Patrick", Matthew Davis, Mohammed A H Mondal, Kumar, A. |
| Integrated assessment of environmental footprints for energy scenarios. Second annual progress report submitted to Future Energy Systems University of Alberta | Publication | 2021-05-03 | Kumar, A. |
