
Capturing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and using it to decontaminate asbestos sites: that's the ingenious and doubly green idea behind Skyrenu, a technology developed by a student team from the Faculty of Engineering with theINRS and awarded in a prestigious international competition that could lead to a prize of 50 million dollars
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Valerie Millette | UDS Sherbrooke
Like about twenty other student projects around the world, Skyrenu is among the winners rewarded by the famous engineer and entrepreneur Elon Musk, who launched the competition. XPRIZE Carbon Removal.
The race to reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is firmly on, and student research at UdeS is among the leaders.
Rewarded on November 10 at COP26, the Faculty of Engineering team received a prize of US$250 for its invention. The amount will be used to refine the technology in order to qualify for the grand prize of $000 million that will be awarded by the Musk Foundation in 50.
If we are to keep global temperature rise below 2°C, we must achieve the goal of removing 10 gigatonnes of CO2 per year by 2060, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Skyrenu team will contribute to this colossal project in several scaling stages.
“Over the next 6 months, we need to get our machine to capture up to 1 kg of CO2 per day,” explains Alexandre Camiré, a master’s student in mechanical engineering and leader of the student team. “At the same time, our partner, INRS, will do a proof of concept for sequestering 1 tonne of CO2 per year. For phase 2 of our project, there will be a scale-up of the capture and sequestration of 10 tonnes of CO2 per year.”
All while aiming for the objectives set by the competition: to bring the technology to capture and sequester 1000 tonnes of CO2 per year in 2025 and demonstrate its capacity to eventually reach the scale of one gigatonne per year.

Using CO2 to neutralize asbestos waste
Once captured, the CO2 must be stored somewhere for millions of years or be used for its own purposes. This is called sequestration. The process used by Skyrenu is not only ingenious, but it also provides a solution to another environmental problem: asbestos waste dumping.
“In Quebec, we have billions of tons of mining waste, including asbestos in the Estrie region,” explains mechanical engineering professor Martin Brouillette, who leads the team. “Asbestos is the perfect material to react with CO2. In fact, carbon accelerates the degradation of asbestos, which then becomes inert. So we transform mining waste into simple gravel that can be used, for example, to backfill asbestos sites and restore the landscape to what it was 150 years ago.”
Skyrenu technology, patented in 2020, kills two birds with one stone: it helps reduce GHGs in the atmosphere that cannot be avoided (think of the aviation sector) and it recycles mining waste that is dangerous for the environment and for the health of the population.
What's more, the Skyrenu device runs on hydroelectricity, a green energy. All these factors combined have won over the jury of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, which opens up unprecedented opportunities for influence and development for the winning teams. In 2025, the final stage of the competition provides for a prize award totaling $100 million.
“It’s hard to close your eyes”
This is not Professor Brouillette's first invention. In recent years, he has notably developed medical technology to unclog arteries. His interest in environmental solutions is relatively recent:
“It’s my children who will pay the price for climate change,” says Professor Brouillette, who knew nothing about CO2 capture at the start of the project. “I wanted to do something. In 2018, I hired a student in his final year of a doctorate, Gabriel Vézina, and suggested that we find a solution to climate change together. That’s how the project started.”
Environmental concerns are also a priority for Alexandre, who was originally going into aeronautics: "After doing an internship with Professor Brouillette, I realized the magnitude of climate issues across the planet. It's hard to turn a blind eye... For me, it's very motivating to have this cause in mind and to be able to move things forward."
The second part of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition will take place in February 2022 and will be open to non-student teams (SMEs, start-ups, etc.). All selected teams (students and others) will compete for the grand prize in 2025.
Skyrenu technology is currently owned by TransferTech Sherbrooke, the Université de Sherbrooke’s valorization corporation responsible for protecting and marketing university intellectual property to high-tech companies. TransferTech is also responsible for identifying funding opportunities to support the development of inventions, as was the case with Skyrenu.
View the original article: https://www.usherbrooke.ca/actualites/nouvelles/environnement/details/46357