EKONA (with 3 friends, Kate, Selena, Ace) (some photos have been removed due to issues with confidential reasons)
Today I experienced, who and what my father works with, This is a company called Ekona.
Ekona is a Engineering company that works on producing H2 (hydrogen gas) with a machine that uses Methane Pyrolysis to create this H2, with a byproduct of C (carbon)
RUNDOWN OF OUR DAY
The company’s VP of business first briefed us on how the the global GHG emissions are destroying Earth, and how we need to hit net zero by 2050 (you might have heard of this online or on TV) and our goal for 2030 is to hit 19-23 GtCO2e (gigatons of CO2) every year.
Next we had a tour of the whole building, I loved the vibe it gave off, the open and spacious feeling. The company feels like a tight knit group
friends and geniuses working together to solve this issue that’s slowly killing us.
(photo redacted due to confidentiality)
( above, Workbench for testing valves.)
Here is a photo if my dad and his coworker explaining this machine.
after we got a tour of the work shop we headed outside where we met more engineers who showed us about the machine that will in the future save us all.
(photo redacted due to confidentiality)
(above, PMP Reactor)
The PMP Reactor, held in the reactor bay is low-cost, non-catalytic, scalable and most importantly mitigates carbon fouling (lessens carbon emissions)
(photo redacted due to confidentiality)
(above, a testing area for one of the most important parts of the reactor)
Lots of pipe work, pressurized gasses and electricity make this masterpiece work. It helps dial in on the exact measurements needed for the part needed.
afterword we had a snack <33
Now after all that touring we had to settle down and get some work done!
above we have a photo of electrolysis (splitting water and hydrogen in two) happening, this is a science experiment that was guided through the seven steps of engineering, they go as follows.
Seven steps of engineering
- Find the problem or the question
- Brainstorm
- Design, Draw, Share our ideas
- Approval, Review, Double check
- Build, Make, Do
- Test
- Improve it, Make it better
first me and my friends got to work, in front of us stood 7 materials we had to find out how to use these to have this reaction happen, so we started to brainstorm.
Then we drew our ideas and shared amongst each other.
We had our designs approved by our head scientist (The chief of engineering), after we started to construct our designs exactly, not missing one step.
Then comes the testing phase, if one of our experiments worked and another one did not we find out what worked and adjust accordingly to the one that dose not.
Then we made it all very efficient, so that the reaction would occur faster.
Lunch time!!
We had pizza.
That’s it just pizza, it was really good though.
Over all I really enjoyed this work space and the thing that would motivate me to wake up everyday to go work there is the fact that Ekona is doing something to change the world, one bit at a time; and if I can help in anyway it would be worth waking up every morning to go there and change the world. At the work place I heard lots of machining and engineers chatting, running around the place putting the PMP reactor together. I saw the office where people coded the software and I saw the 3D printers working at making a component. I smelt practically nothing, the chemicals that they work with are odorless (hydrogen) so besides the reaction with the electrolysis (which smelt like vinegar because we needed to add a base to the battery acid that we made) everything else smelt really clean and orderly. I felt a sense of community with the people that were around me and the people that I worked with.
10/10 I would go there everyday
extra notes that I took just incase you want it 🙂
EKONA
Methane Pyrolysis solution for clean hydrogen
Greenhouse effect is a natural process where natural gases trap the sun’s heat in the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere
Greenhouse effect is natural. Everything that grows comes from the energy trapped in the greenhouse. Infrared energy bounces in the blanket.
Life is producing too much greenhouse gases, especially humans.
Must be produced and absorbed, Carbon cycle.
Carbon cycle is a natural balance of carbon fluxes into the environment and stored by the ocean and land.
Humans produce CO2, but there are too many humans. Producing too much CO2 for the planet to absorb
Mars has 72% CO2 concentration.
We look for oxygen out whack. If there is water vapor, it means that there is something going on.
GLOBAL GHG EMMISSIONS
CO2 released into the atmosphere by industry and fossil fuels dominate global GHGs
Cows emit 4% of the greenhouse gases
Seaweed company, seaweed has benefits to cattle. It reduces the emissions from the cows.
by eating less meat, you can reduce greenhouse gases.
Cement and steel industry releases 21%
Transport 14%, Other energy 9%
Rapped increase in the last fifty, especially since 2000.
CO2, CH4, N2O, goes up, planets temperature goes up.
IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE
Positive feedback loops
Warmer temperatures -> More sunlight absorbed by earth -> Less and Less snow
This needs to be a worldwide project.
We are at 50 Gigatons a year
+1.5 Degrees consistent
Net zero by 2050. 2030 ambition gap 19-23 GtCO2e
The world pumps out two hundred mountain Everest sized clouds of greenhouse gases
FOUR PILLARS FOR GHG MITIGATION
- Efficiency and Conservation
- Fuel switching
- Decarbonize Electricity (ex. Wind turbines)
- Decarbonize Fuels (liquid & Gas)
EKONA POWER INC.
Value
– Clean 90% fewer GHG emissions than incumbent SMRs
-Low cost, cost parity or better with incumbent SMRs
-Scalable, suitable for large-scale, industrial applications
-flexible, deployed where NG infrastructure exist
Investors
-bed*-Mitsui & CO.-Suncor-Cenovus-Continental
Funding
– British Columbia- CRIN – NRC – IRAP
TECHNOLOGY ANYLYSIS
Methane Pyrolysis + Carbon Storage (NG)
Methane Pyrolysis + Carbon Value Generation ((NG)
PMP Reactor
Pulsed Methane Pyrolysis (PMP)
PMP Reactor Design Concept
PMP reactor is non-catalytic, low-cost, scalable & mitigates carbon fouling`
PMP Test System Status
– assembly and integration behind schedule, but satisfactory progress since work could start inside the lab
-commissioning once integration is complete
– Sub-system/component pre-commissioning
It was great going with you! Thanks for inviting me 🙂