Is there a way to derive significant value from Alberta Bitumen with Bitumen to Carbon Fibre production?

Paulo Bomben Sr Manager of Clean Tech Development at Alberta Innovates is on to great ideas to bring value back to Alberta and ultimately to Canada. Ideas to convert bitumen into high-value non-fuel products like carbon fibre. In his presentation at the CHOA Conference yesterday he outlined the Alberta Bitumen Beyond Combustion program to promote use of bitumen asphalts, heavy metals and polymers as sources for high value products. One of the examples he focused on was carbon fibre- used widely in structures built with carbon fibre reinforced plywood, in motorsports, and in sports equipment like bicycles etc. He zeroed in on an example from a report by the US State dept that stated that high priced carbon fibres that would be immediately be taken up to be used widely in the automotive industry if $8 to $16/lb USD price were to come down to $5/lb. He believes this price reduction could be realized by using carbon-rich asphaltenes from bitumen as feedstock to produce carbon fibre. The price for asphaltenes (at 2 to 24 cents a lb) is dramatically lower that the usual feedstock used to create carbon fibre and it is much more possible to get to the $5/lb price. He agreed that there is a lot of technology to be developed to adapt carbon fibre production methods so that asphaltenes can be used. However if carbon fibre were to take just 1% of the steel market, this would divert 2.5 million barrels per day of bitumen to carbon fibre production and increase revenue per barrel as today asphaltenes are negatively priced. As Paolo Bomben describes Bitumen Beyond Combustion opportunities, .... Could this be the next multi-billion dollar opportunity for Alberta?