CALGARY, AB (April 04, 2023) NGIF Capital, Perpetual Energy Inc. (Perpetual Energy), Tourmaline Oil Corp. (Tourmaline) and the University of Calgary announce the successful testing of 18 clean technologies at the NGIF Emissions Testing Centre. The first-of-its-kind program has become a Canadian Centre of Excellence and hub of cleantech startups validating their methane emissions solutions for natural gas.
The NGIF Emissions Testing Centre is a program where selected cleantech startups can access a 4-stage evaluation process for testing and validating their solutions. The stages include:
Stage 1 Intake: NGIF evaluates startups for eligibility and develops a project opportunity for the testing centre host sites.
Stage 2 University Host Site: University of Calgary provides a controlled laboratory testing environment for startups and a centralized data portal.
Stage 3 Live Industrial Host Site: Perpetual Energy/Tourmaline West Wolf Lake Gas Plant provides a controlled live gas production system for startups.
Stage 4 Data and Reporting: NGIF provides a validation report for the startup to accelerate their commercialization.
With funding of $9.25 million from Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Energy Innovation Program, this plug-and-play testing program for cleantech startups supports the development and testing of clean technologies to reduce methane emissions in the natural gas industry. Of the 18 startups, nine have completed their testing, with the other nine on track to complete theirs by spring 2023. The cleantech companies include Qube Technologies, LSI, Kuva Systems, AltoMaxx, Kinitics Automation, Packair Industries Inc., Marathon Compression, 4Blue Energy Services and Westgen Technologies, among others.
“Together with our NGIF ETC partners, Perpetual Energy, Tourmaline, Natural Resources Canada and the University of Calgary, we have created an unprecedented opportunity with this program for substantial reductions in methane emissions,” said John Adams, President and CEO of NGIF Capital and Managing Partner, NGIF Cleantech Ventures. “Building a plug-and-play testing program with multiple cleantech start-ups in a single testing environment has never been done before and will provide the collective expertise required to move our gas industry forward with cleantech solutions.”
“The innovative technologies pioneered at the Emissions Testing Centre are promising solutions to reduce methane emissions,” said the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources. “Advancing the development, deployment, and commercialization of these technologies serves to not only lower emissions, but also drive economic growth, create good, sustainable jobs, and support Canadian innovators.”
“The ETC illustrates a three-fold focus at the Tourmaline facility — a light, sweet liquids-rich facility,” said Scott Volk, Director, Technology & Innovation Tourmaline. “Our efforts at the West Wolf plant for the NGIF ETC will include fugitive methane emissions monitoring, flaring emissions monitoring and reduction, and emissions measurement and reduction from liquid storage tanks,” Volk said. “Tourmaline’s work with the NGIF ETC, furthers the company’s stellar reputation in environmental stewardship.”
“This provides an innovation ecosystem for entrepreneurs and technology providers with advanced methane emissions reduction products — at a pre-commercial but field-ready stage — who now have an extraordinary opportunity to move forward into eventual commercialization of their efforts, thanks to the NGIF Emissions Testing Centre,” says Dr. Ian Gates, Director of the University of Calgary’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund program, the Global Research Initiative (GRI) for Sustainable Low Carbon Unconventional Resources.
To learn more about the NGIF Emissions Testing Centre, please watch our recent video below. The primary goal of this video is to showcase NGIF ETC with a virtual tour of the host facilities and interviews with key stakeholders and users of the program. We hope the Canadian innovation ecosystem will find this video to be a useful resource for learning about the program and its offerings.
For more information, please visit the website at Emissions Testing Centre – NGIF Capital. See below for more information on how to access this program.
About NGIF Emissions Testing Centre
The NGIF ETC is an industry-led emissions testing program for multiple startups to validate their solutions in a collaborative and live gas operations environment. NGIF Emissions Testing Centre includes the host site of Tourmaline and Perpetual Energy at their West Wolf Lake Gas Process Plant, instrumented for live testing. It also includes University of Calgary Research Centre laboratories, instrumented for both simulation testing and a data hub to store benchmarking results. The NGIF Emissions Testing Centre will see emissions detection, quantification, and reductions through multiple tech startup validation, while also creating benchmarking data and a research talent pool for the natural gas industry. The NGIF Emissions Testing Centre is operated by NGIF Capital Corporation.
About NGIF Capital Corporation
NGIF Capital Corporation is a Canadian venture capital (VC) firm offering grant and equity financing for startups that deliver solutions to the environmental and other challenges facing the natural gas sector. NGIF Capital Corporation is unique in how it brings Canada’s energy industry leadership to every investment. Like other VCs, it takes new companies and their ideas from concept to commercialization. Unlike other VCs, NGIF Capital Corporation has strong connections to every part of the gas value chain, from production through to end-use, offering it a means to test, develop, and accelerate the commercial implementation of innovative gas technology wherever it fits in the sector. The model benefits consumers, investors, and Canadian society as a whole. NGIF Capital Corporation operates NGIF Industry Grants (the original Natural Gas Innovation Fund), the NGIF Emissions Testing Centre, and NGIF Cleantech Ventures. NGIF Capital Corporation is wholly owned by CGA Enterprises, a venture of the Canadian Gas Association.
About Perpetual Energy
Perpetual Energy is a Canadian oil and natural gas exploration, production and marketing company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Perpetual operates a diversified asset portfolio, including liquids-rich natural gas assets in the deep basin of West Central Alberta, heavy oil and shallow natural gas assets in Eastern Alberta, with longer term opportunities through undeveloped oil sands leases in northern Alberta.
About NRCan’s Office of Energy Research and Development
Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Research and Development (OERD) leads the Government of Canada’s efforts in delivering energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) funding, accelerating efforts in energy innovation and cleantech programming. With a focus on influencing the pace and direction of energy system transformation, OERD targets the most impactful technologies to maximize environmental and economic outcomes. Leveraging over forty years of experience and unique science and technology expertise, OERD invests in thirteen federal departments and agencies to undertake RD&D, as well as a wide range of Canadian small and medium enterprises, utilities, industry, and other firms, all in support of Canada’s energy innovation and climate change goals.
About Tourmaline
Tourmaline is an investment-grade Canadian senior crude oil and natural gas exploration and production company focused on providing strong and predictable long-term growth and a steady return to shareholders through an aggressive exploration, development, production and acquisition program in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin by building its extensive asset base in its three core exploration and production areas and exploiting and developing these areas to increase reserves, production and cash flows at an attractive return on invested capital. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Tourmaline is Canada’s largest natural gas producer focused on long-term growth.
About University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a research-intensive post-secondary institution in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with over 26,000 undergraduate students, over 6,000 graduate students and is ranked in the top 5 research universities in Canada. The general mandate of the University of Calgary is to provide world-leading research and training to contribute to the productivity of Canada by solving grand challenges that humanity faces (e.g., climate change, sustainability, health, energy poverty and security, clean and safe environments, etc.)
ETC Program and User Information:
John Adams
President and CEO, NGIF Capital Corporation
Managing Partner, NGIF Cleantech Ventures
613-748-0057
jadams@ngif.ca
Media Information:
Ayoola Ajibare
Communications Coordinator, NGIF Capital Corporation
(403) 389-2212
aajibare@ngif.ca
