The Natural Gas Innovation Fund Announces its Finalists in Round 5 Funding Competition

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The Natural Gas Innovation Fund Announces its Finalists in Round 5 Funding Competition


March 16, 2020

March 6, 2020
Ottawa, Ontario
Natural Gas Innovation Fund

Today the Natural Gas Innovation Fund™ (NGIF) announced the finalists from Round 5 of its funding competitions for clean technologies for the end-use distribution of natural gas.

In 2019, NGIF launched a $1.5 million funding call targeting clean technology solutions for the end-use of natural gas. We are pleased to announce the approval of $700,000 in funding for four downstream finalists:

  1. Blue-O Technology Inc. is a British Columbia-based company that was approved for $100K in funding for the development of highly active plate-shaped catalysts for low-cost proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers.
  2. Carbon Upcycling Technologies is an Alberta-based company that was approved for $200K in funding for the prototype development and testing of the carbon dioxide membrane for carbon capture.
  3. Point 3 Biotech Corp. is a British Columbia-based company that was approved for $300K in funding for the demonstration of Dairy/Poultry/Hog co-digestion to enable community-scale digester development.
  4. Solistra Corporation is an Ontario-based company that was approved for $100K in funding for the pilot demonstration of the solar conversion of natural gas and carbon dioxide into synthetic gas.

In Round 5, NGIF has also approved the following clean technology solutions from an earlier funding call (Round 4). We are pleased to announce the approval of $426,500 for additional one downstream finalist:

  1. Thermolift Inc. is a New York-based company that was approved for $426.5K in funding for the demonstration of an advanced natural gas-driven heat pump and air conditioner in Canada.

Funding for all finalists is subject to a negotiated contribution agreement.

NGIF is currently funded by five natural gas utilities (ATCO Gas Ltd., Enbridge Gas Inc., FortisBC Energy Inc., Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. and SaskEnergy) and seven natural gas producers (Birchcliff Energy Ltd., Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Chevron Canada Limited, Perpetual Energy Inc., PETRONAS Energy Canada Ltd., Shell Canada Energy, and Tourmaline Oil Corp). All of these investing organizations are dedicated to cleantech innovation for Canada’s natural gas sector.

Please visit www.ngif.ca for more information.

Quotes:
“With each new funding round, I am excited to see momentum growing for cleantech solutions in the natural gas sector. These start-up companies represented in this recent round of finalists have the potential to bring to market clean technologies that advance the environmental and economic performance of our sector.”

John Adams, Managing Director, Natural Gas Innovation Fund

“We started NGIF with a vision of how innovation and clean technology can advance the natural gas industry. I am pleased to see these companies funded today and look forward to watching their technologies continue to develop.”

Timothy M. Egan, President and CEO, Canadian Gas Association

About NGIF:
NGIF is an industry-led, industry-funded, granting organization created by the Canadian Gas Association that seeks to accelerate cleantech innovation in the production, pipeline transmission, and end-use of natural gas. In so doing, we aim to improve the environmental and economic performance of all in the sector. Our belief is that affordable, reliable, environmentally sound natural gas is a foundational fuel for Canada’s long-term well-being.

Associated Links:
Natural Gas Innovation Fund
Canadian Gas Association
NGIF LinkedIn
NGIF Twitter

Media Information:
Aysha Raad
Director, Communications
Canadian Gas Association
613-748-0057 ext. 310
araad@cga.ca

Fund Information:
John Adams
Managing Director
Natural Gas Innovation Fund (Fund I) NGIF Cleantech Ventures (Fund II)
613-748-0057 ext. 326
jadams@cga.ca

Related Resources

At NGIF, we invest in companies who are leading in the development of clean technologies for energy and who have the potential to demonstrate significant and quantifiable environmental and economic returns.

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    Chris A. Carlsen

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Simon Davies

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    commitee-member-placeholder

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    Members of the Steering Committee

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Bryan Helfenbaum

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Adrian Manlagnit

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Patrick Charlebois

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    John Adams

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Ian Gates

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Scott Volk

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    Emissions Testing Centre

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    Scott Volk

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Carter Bates

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Dylan Morrow 

    Tourmaline – Innovation Engineer, EIT

    commitee-member-placeholder

    Brandon Dewar

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Ian Gates

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    commitee-member-placeholder

    Nicole Calma

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    Wayne Hillier

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    LSI

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    Qube

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    AltoMaxx – Demonstration and Validation of Drone-Based Methane Sensors for Field Testing

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    Luxmux

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    Spartan Controls

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    Kinitics Automation

    Kinitics Automation is proposing to introduce its electric valve actuator as a direct replacement for methane-venting pneumatic devices currently deployed at production well sites in Alberta. Using electric valve actuators will eliminate the venting of methane at the sites, significantly reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Kinitics actuators, based on shape memory alloys and the company’s Bundled Wire technology, connect to AC or DC power sources, require minimal infrastructure and maintenance, and provide exceptional valve positional accuracy. Due to the core operating principle of the Bundled Wire technology, the actuator will achieve a known fail state upon shutdown. Kinitics is running tests on system accuracy and performance at the ETC lab, followed by a long-term field program to evaluate system reliability and performance in an operational gas well site facility.

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    Marathon Compression

    The Marathon KL8 is an instrument air and power unit. Powered by a new-to-industry industrial 5 kW engine, the KL8 can provide tscfm of dry instrument air at 100 psig along with 1.5 kW 24 VDC power for meters, plc’s, etc. At the ETC, the Marathon compressor has been installed in an operating gas well site facility. The main goal is proving run-time and equipment durability, mostly of the engine, on raw field-quality natural gas.

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    Packair Industries Inc

    Packair Industries has developed a new air compressor that is compact and highly efficient. The design uses 10 pistons in a circle, each with its own valve system and can be driven by either AC or DC power. The compressor can deliver full pressure of up to 130 psig and up to 10 cfm. The compressor can be packaged in a small compact space as an air solution for remote Oil & Gas well sites to reduce methane emissions that run pneumatically driven devices. This solution is proposed as being cost-effective and requiring minimal downtime for installation. The ETC lab testing focused on demonstrating that the Packair compressor works, along with measuring the ability of the Packair compressor to deliver air at different rates and conditions, and the power requirements for these various configurations.

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    Clear Rush Co

    A solution that reduces emissions and complies with regulations is to collect and combust the waste gas emitted by well site pneumatic devices through an enclosed vapour combustor. The gas from the pneumatic instruments is collected into a main header outside of the well site separator building and sent to a low-pressure combustor for incineration. Enclosed vapour combustors are virtually maintenance-free and require few changes to existing infrastructure prior to commissioning. At the ETC, the scope of the project will involve the investigation of the destruction efficiencies during operational conditions to understand its effectiveness with turndown ratios. Manufacturer specifications state the destruction efficiency of the vapour combustor is greater than 99.9% and meets the requirements of AER Directive 60, however, in-field data is limited to validate the performance given the novelty of the solution.

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    Kuva

    Kuva is a leading methane monitoring technology provider committed to making emissions quantifiable and manageable. Kuva is participating in NGIF’s Emissions Testing Centre (ETC) program to conduct a field demonstration of their emissions-detecting cameras that uses short-wave infrared light to detect and monitor hydrocarbon gas emissions in real-time.

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    mCloud

    mCloud Corp. is a software/hardware company that is focused on tackling the Fugitive Gas dilemma using Software, Cloud Computing, and AI in conjunction with Ultrasonic Hardware. The goal is to detect gas in real-time and help drive action and correction sooner than traditional expensive methods. mCloud is working with the ETC lab to test their mobile ultrasonic sensor on variable emission rates and single vs. multiple source points, with and without the presence of external noise.

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    Precision Drilling

    Drilling rig engine generators provide up to 4 MW of electrical power to the rig; they are large fuel consumers and hence GHG emitters. Precision Drilling has several types of engines and fuel type setups, including diesel, bi-fuel (diesel & natural gas), natural gas hybrid (gas and battery power), and zero fuel (electrical highline power) systems. Four Precision rigs are equipped with instrumentation for fuel and power measurement. The goal of field testing with ETC is to understand the fuel and energy efficiency of the various power systems across Tourmaline’s drilling operations.

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    Trican

    Frac pumpers are large fuel consumers that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Current fracturing equipment in Alberta is typically powered by diesel-based or bi-fuel (diesel & natural gas) bolt-on kit (Tier 2) engines. Trican’s Caterpillar Tier 4 Dynamic Gas Blending engine proposes to displace up to 85% of diesel with natural gas. The goal of field testing at ETC is to understand the performance of the Tier 4 Engines during operations in Canada. This includes, but is not limited to, diesel displacement performance during seasonal conditions, validation of the low emissions fracturing spread, and emissions performance compared to diesel and Tier 2 engines.

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    Convrg Innovations Inc.

    Convrg Innovations is a remote power generation company aiming to improve environmental sustainability in the Canadian upstream oil and gas industry. Convrg is leading the way to enable certifiable zero emissions hydrocarbon production through its Engineered Power on Demand (“EPOD”) product. EPOD is a proven solution which eliminates up to 99.5% of methane emissions from pneumatic devices while reducing capital and operations costs, improving reliability, and generating carbon credits for oil and gas producers

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    ARIX

    ARIX develops and operates robots for pipe corrosion detection and management for the oil and gas industry to reduce costs, enhance data, and improve safety.

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    Lelantos Inc.

    Lelantos is a developer of miniaturized semiconductor gas sensors based in New York, NY. Lelantos novel gas sensing technology is targeted to high-value Internet-of-Things applications in environmental and air quality monitoring, threat detection, industrial safety, as well as medical diagnostics.

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    HOMY Building Solutions Inc.

    Customization of first of a kind, Residential Hybrid Gas absorption Heat pump (GAHP) Technology

    HOMY’s hybrid technology combines GAHP and Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP), maximising the potential of both technologies. Its smart control system monitors and controls energy consumption effectively, offering the potential to reduce energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
    The expected outcomes of the project include the successful development and launch of the customized GAHP technology, improved energy efficiency and cost savings for homeowners, and increased adoption of the technology in the North American market.

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    Anodyne Chemistries Inc.

    Demonstration of electrochemical conversion of Carbon dioxide and Methane into Methanol using enzymatic pathways

    Anodyne’s proprietary technology and first of a kind reactor harnesses enzymes for carbon utilization and turns harmful emissions into low carbon fuels and speciality chemicals. The project aims to develop protocols for producing four enzymes and their corresponding immobilization complexes, while also collecting operational data for enzyme endurance, current efficiencies, and voltages in an electrochemical cell. The objective of upscaling the electrochemical cell and investigating immobilization feasibility contributes to advancing enzymatic methanol conversion technology.

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    BKR Energy

    Developing Smart Fuel Switching Controller for Residential purposes

    The project provides an opportunity for BKR Energy to develop its smart fuel-switching controllers to boost emissions reductions with cost effectiveness. The design will accelerate the efficiency and affordability of hybrid HVAC systems when switching between electricity and natural gas.

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    CarboNet

    CarboNet applies advanced chemistry to industrial wastewater, reducing the need for chemicals, increasing water treatment performance, and boosting the world’s freshwater reserves.

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    Qube Technologies, Inc.

    Qube Technologies is a Calgary, AB-based hardware-enabled SaaS business helping primary industries reduce emissions through continuous monitoring. Qube’s solution utilizes a three-step approach to emissions management: detecting emissions (using Qube devices deployed in the field), measuring (inferring leak location, quantifying, and classification), and reducing (managing repairs and reducing emissions using Qube’s dashboard).

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