Canadian Gas Innovation Fund Names Finalists
Canada’s Natural Gas Innovation Fund (NGIF) said December 15 it had named eight finalists in its Round 5 funding competition for clean natural gas production technologies.
The finalists will now share C$1.94mn (US$1.5mn) in project funding, awards which remain subject to negotiated project agreements.
“With each new funding round, I am excited to see momentum growing for cleantech solutions in the natural gas sector,” NGIF managing director John Adams said. “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.”
Two finalists, Ekona Power of Vancouver, BC and New Wave Hydrogen (formerly Standing Wave Reformers), were awarded funding aimed at developing clean hydrogen production technologies.
Hyperion Global Energy, based in Ottawa, was chosen for the development and demonstration of a technology related to carbon capture and utilisation, while Calgary-based Zedcor will demonstrate and field pilot mobile compressed natural gas storage units to displace diesel-based power generation with natural gas generators.
And three companies – Kinitics Automation, Packair Industries and Westgen Technologies – will receive funding to help them develop and demonstrate various methane emission reduction technologies.
As part of its Round 5 competition, NGIF collaborated with Emissions Reduction Alberta (Era) to leverage funding opportunities. In a process conducted alongside Round 5, Era committed more than C$58mn to 20 projects through its Natural Gas Challenge, and five of NGIF’s Round 5 finalists – Kinitics Automation, Westgen Technologies, Ekona Power, Modern Wellbore Solutions and Standing Wave Reformers – were awarded additional support through Era’s funding competition.
“The trusted partnerships NGIF has been able to secure with groups like Emissions Reduction Alberta are important to the advancement of the work these start-ups are doing in the natural gas industry,” Canadian Gas Association (CGA) CEO Timothy Egan said. “When we first started NGIF, we were focused on the end-use of natural gas. Now, with the inclusion of natural gas production, we have extended our reach to the whole value chain.”
The NGIF was established by the CGA in 2016 and is funded by five natural gas utilities – Atco Gas, Enbridge Gas, FortisBC Energy, Pacific Northern Gas and SaskEnergy – and seven natural gas producers – Birchcliff Energy, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Chevron Canada, Perpetual Energy, Petronas Energy Canada, Shell Canada Energy and Tourmaline Oil.