In September this year, Electric Autonomy Canada, an independent news platform that reports on electric vehicles (EVs) and the future of transportation, hosted a webinar series called "Alternative Fuels: The promise, the potential and putting it into practice".

Sponsored by Petro-Canada, a Suncor business, this three-part series brought together panels of experts in the energy field to talk about:

• what kinds of alternative fuels are being developed in Canada, both for the everyday consumer as well as the trucking industry;
• the infrastructure challenges of transitioning to alternative fuels; and
• how Canada can get, and stay, competitive in the alternative fuels space.

The panel for the first webinar topic, "On the road, rails and in the sky with alternative fuels", included Dave Fath, General Manager, Petro-Canada Brand Marketing, Suncor. Dave shared his thoughts on which alternative fuels could prove most useful in industry and trucking in the next few years:

"For heavy industrial use, and for heavy transport specifically, I think there's a great potential for hydrogen-treated renewable diesel, it's a product that has a significantly lower carbon footprint than traditional diesel and it performs just like regular diesel. It's not yet widely available to consumers but we are starting to see it enter markets in Canada. We've recently launched it in British Columbia (Petro-Canada EcoDiesel^TM available to commercial customers) and over the next five years, I think it's fair to expect that HRD products will become more widely available across the country."

Consumer adoption of alternative fuels was a hot topic in the third webinar, "Looking into the future – where do we go from here?" and panelist Shannon Wing, Senior Director – Petro-Canada Strategy & Development, Suncor, had this to say about the energy industry’s role in educating customers about the benefits of alternative fuels:

"A lot of customers are gaining knowledge in this sector about alternative fuels but there's a lot of skepticism around some of the results. So, I think we really have a role to play in sharing real world case studies and information and experiences. As organizations that previously considered themselves competitors, we're going to have to band together on this transition and share that information more readily than we may have in the past, to have those customers really believe that the transition [to alternative fuels] can work."

Providing energy alternatives is a key element in helping Petro-Canada customers move toward a lower-carbon future. Visit https://electricautonomy.ca/alternative-fuels-canada-2022/ to check out these three webinars and learn more about the future of alternative fuels in Canada.

What questions do you have about alternative fuels? Let us know in the comments and we might feature your question in a future post.