Imperial Oil Ltd is contributing $10 million over five years to establish the Imperial Oil Centre for Oil Sands Innovation at the Univ of Alberta. The contribution – dubbed an investment – is the largest ever made by the firm to a university and is the largest single cash commitment ever made to the U of A’s engineering faculty. The Centre will focus on energy efficient and less environmentally damaging methods for decreasing the cost and energy intensity of oil sands extraction by improving technologies and processes. These include new approaches for separating and converting components from bitumen based on nanostructured materials….