Joule Bergerson
Biographical Abstract
Dr. Bergerson is an Assistant Professor in the Energy and Environmental Systems Group and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department at the University of Calgary. Her primary research interests are a systems-level analysis for policy and decision making of energy system investment and management. The focus of her work is developing frameworks for the assessment of prospective technology options and their policy implications from a life cycle perspective.
To date, Dr. Bergerson’s work has addressed fossil fuel derived electricity, oil sands development, and carbon capture and storage. Dr. Bergerson received her Ph.D. in a joint program of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at CarnegieMellonUniversity. The title of her dissertation was “Future Electricity Generation: An Economic and Environmental Life Cycle Perspective on Technology Options and Policy Implications” under the direction of Professors Lester Lave and Chris Hendrickson. She has a Masters of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering with a collaborative program in Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Environmental Science from the University of Western Ontario. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program at CarnegieMellonUniversity, Dr. Bergerson worked as a technical systems analyst and a project manager for R&D projects at the Royal Bank of Canada’s Information Technology division.
Research Abstract
Development of the Alberta Oil Sands represents a considerable economic opportunity for Canada and an important source of petroleum for the world. However, with these benefits come significant environmental challenges, including the potential for high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Construction, operation, and eventual retirement of oil sands facilities will have large and complex environmental impacts, while oil sands technologies are becoming more deeply integrated into Canada’s energy system through imports of natural gas, exports of electricity and integration of upgrading into refinery operations.
At the same time, regulations aimed at mitigating climate change are targeting GHG emissions from industrial operations generally, and specifically from the production of transportation fuels. As a result, life cycle assessments of oil sands operations are required to comprehensively and systematically evaluate their GHG impacts. The results of such investigations can inform both public and private decision-making on ways of reducing GHG emissions, both from operations on-site and throughout the supply chain.