UBC Applied Science is pioneering Arctic Research and Development activities in Western Canada, leveraging its multidisciplinary expertise, Pacific gateway location and established Indigenous partnerships.
Powering the north is a technical, logistical and environmental challenge. Vehicles, ships, communities and industrial operations rely on diesel that must be flown in or transported along seasonal ice roads, which is costly, carbon‑intensive and increasingly vulnerable to climate change. At the same time, the Arctic’s extreme cold places unique demands on fuels and energy systems.
There’s an urgent need to transition to a cleaner energy future. Reducing black carbon emissions is particularly important in the north, where soot settling on snow and ice accelerates melting and amplifies warming. Yet many renewable or low‑carbon fuels behave differently at low temperatures, and the supporting infrastructure – production, storage, distribution and maintenance – must be designed for remote, isolated environments.
To understand how UBC researchers are tackling these intertwined challenges, we spoke with Dr. Pat Kirchen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the director of UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC).
How is this work relevant to Arctic contexts?
Many Arctic and remote communities rely almost entirely on diesel that is costly to deliver and challenging to deliver year round.. This makes energy extremely expensive and vulnerable to supply disruptions. In the Arctic context, we’re also concerned about the emissions associated with diesel as a fuel, particularly black carbon. This is the soot you see coming out of diesel engines, and when it settles on ice, it changes ice’s radiative properties and can accelerate melting. In light of this issue, the Canadian government has updated its fuel regulations for the Arctic in the marine space to minimize black carbon.
The alternative fuels I am investigating offer benefits on the emissions side – for example, when you go from diesel to biofuel (a fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) there’s a significant reduction in black carbon. The trade-off is that FAME fuels do not perform as well at lower temperatures.
Other fuels, like renewable diesel – which is created from hydrogenated vegetable oil – perform better in cold conditions.
What partnerships have helped you advance this research?
Some of this biofuel research has been done in collaboration with Seaspan Ferries, BC Ferries and Southern Railway of BC. They’re interested in decarbonizing using FAME fuels and learning more how lower temperatures affect operations. These have been very fruitful partnerships that allow us to collect highly relevant data to support our research and the partners’ operations. Beyond that, it is an amazing training opportunity for our trainees (and faculty) to work with real-world systems. We publish this data in academic forums, but also use our partners’ networks to share with other operators and stakeholders.
What strategic advantages does UBC have in this area?
UBC has exceptional strength in marine engineering and naval architecture, which are central to Arctic operations. We’re also a global leader in sustainability research, often based on the deep relationships we have with communities. This is essential: you can’t design energy systems or applications without understanding local needs and having two-way trust and communication in place. Finally, we have very tight integration with local industry, from energy suppliers to fuel producers. All the building blocks are here.
