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Dark Matter Materials’ breakthrough innovation – a low-cost, earth-abundant, non-toxic catalyst – is proving to efficiently produce hydrogen, recycle plastics, clean wastewater, enable solid state batteries, and more
A chance discovery in a Canadian university lab is poised to be a catalyst for global change – literally.
It all started in 2022 when University of Alberta chemistry researcher Dr. Robin Hamilton was searching for a better way to convert bitumen to synthetic crude oil and unintentionally stumbled upon a chemical reaction that was unbelievable at first: he simply put a low-cost, non-toxic and plentiful material in water, and hydrogen started bubbling to the surface at room temperature.
The remarkable finding led to the launch of Dark Matter Materials Inc., a spin-off of nanomaterial manufacturer Applied Quantum Materials (AQM) that Hamilton co-founded with AQM CEO Dr. David Antoniuk and University of Alberta professors Drs. Jeff Stryker and Jonathan Veinot to further investigate the compound.
Their made-in-Canada nano catalyst has several breakthrough applications, from supporting low-cost, environmentally friendly production of hydrogen and ammonia or creating a closed loop circular economy for polyester recycling, to efficiently powering solid state batteries or effectively breaking down all types of plastics, including PVC, nylon, polyethylene, Teflon and Kevlar. It also has the potential to turn oilsands tailings ponds into clean water with hydrogen gas as a fuel byproduct.
“We’re amazed at what this material can do,” said Antoniuk, whose team has already successfully filed two patents with three more pending and are in active discussions with global companies to start industrial pilots to demonstrate the innovative product’s potential. “It’s breaking all the boundaries and limitations of thermocatalytic water splitting that have been around for decades, and the real beauty is there’s no need for expensive critical minerals or high energy, and no release of harmful greenhouse gas emissions in any of our processes.”
The early-stage company owes its success in part to Mitacs, a leading innovation organization that connects businesses and researchers to drive collaboration, deploy skilled talent, and build innovation capacity to strengthen Canada’s productivity and global competitiveness.
Through Mitacs, the team is tapping into the expertise of Mitacs post-doctoral researcher and chemist Dr. Mariana Vieira – who received her PhD in chemistry at Federal University of Espirito Santo in Brazil – and working with the University of Alberta to characterize, test and evaluate its catalyst for a variety of applications without incurring a hefty research and development expense.
“We’re working with nanomaterials that are not easily understood, so we need access to very complicated and expensive equipment that only the university has,” explained Antoniuk. “The researchers come up with the wild and crazy ideas about what’s possible and then we provide the economic analysis and business acumen to steer them in the direction that makes most sense.”
For Vieira, the opportunity is an excellent way to bridge her academic career with professional growth. “The Mitacs program helps to smooth the transition as I’m learning to deal with the different pace of industry where things can shift quickly and we need to adapt,” said Vieira, who works as an R&D researcher at Dark Matter Materials. “I can clearly see how I’ve changed, learned and grown a new skillset that is more geared to business.”
According to Mitacs CEO Stephen Lucas, “Mitacs places top-tier talent in Canadian firms, especially SMEs, to support industry-academia collaboration. This helps unlock innovation potential, de-risk R&D for firms, and build lasting academic-industry relationships. Our national reach, international connections, and ability to broker cross-sectoral partnerships allow us to deliver results at scale, helping Canadian businesses compete globally while developing the next generation of a skilled and innovative workforce.”
What sets Dark Matter Materials’ catalyst apart is its ability to produce hydrogen without requiring light, electricity or high temperatures. It also works in any type of water, from tap or grey water to dirty oilsands tailings ponds. Currently, large-scale hydrogen production is limited to energy-intensive thermal cracking of natural gas, which requires carbon capture and storage, or to electrolysis of ultra pure water, an electrochemical process that requires electricity.
“Another advantage when using tailings ponds water to produce hydrogen is that the catalyst chews up the organics in the water, including the harmful naphthenic acids that can’t be released into the environment because they are toxic to aquatic organisms,” explained Antoniuk.
“When we discovered that it breaks down oils and organic compounds, we decided to try other things,” he said. Not only did they successfully break down waste cooking oil – turning it into a usable diesel fuel – but they also started to look at waste plastics and other polymers.
“We’ve gone through plastic by plastic, and we haven’t discovered any that it doesn’t work against,” added Antoniuk. “We simply put the plastic in a container, heat it up to a couple of hundred degrees, add the catalyst and it turns into usable liquid hydrocarbons, with no emissions at all.”
Earlier this year, Dark Matter Materials was co-winner of the National Research Council Canadian Midstream Battery Materials Innovation Challenge, receiving funding to advance its catalyst as a material to develop high-performance batteries for electric vehicles and storage grids. Another demonstration project showed how the catalyst can be combined with air and water to create ammonia at low temperatures, meaning farmers could potentially use slough water with Dark Matter Materials’ technology to make fertilizer.
“The reality is, we have multiple viable paths to commercialization and they’re all showing promise,” said Antoniuk, adding that they haven’t encountered any hinderances to scaling the innovation yet. “The next step is to do the engineering required to put this discovery into a commercial system,” he added.
About Mitacs
As a leading Canadian innovation organization, Mitacs connects businesses and researchers with unrivalled access to talent, financial support, and the partnerships needed to turn ideas into impactful innovations. Through unique collaborations, Mitacs is driving productivity and positioning Canada as a global innovation leader. Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.
Source: Mitacs
