Funding to support clean technology projects across Canada

Ottawa, ON August 7, 2003 Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), a C$350-million fund for supporting the demonstration and commercialization of sustainable development technologies, has approved funding for 10 projects, totalling $13 million, in its second round of funding. These projects are further leveraged by an additional $29 million from their consortia partners.

Funding for round one projects was announced in late 2002. At that time, eight projects were approved to a total of $6.61 million. Those projects are leveraged by an additional $42.4 million from their consortia partners.

“The results of these investments will help build a ‘toolbox’ of technology-based solutions that all economic sectors can access thereby increasing their competitiveness while improving their sustainability,” says Dr Vicky J Sharpe, president and CEO, SDTC. “SDTC selects projects, based on excellence ones that, with SDTC’s involvement, will have the highest likelihood of success, have significant impact on emission reductions and can provide measurable results. This national snapshot of technological innovation demonstrates an untapped capacity and demand for funding sustainable development across Canada.”

Following are details on the 18 projects that have received approval so far, in both rounds of funding:

1) Lead Organization: BC Research Vancouver, BC
Sector: Energy Conversion; Fuel Cell
This project is a multi-fuel demonstration of a 5 kW solid oxide fuel cell to investigate various aspects of this emerging energy technology in a commercial vs laboratory setting. Natural gas, methanol, hydrogen, propane, and heavier hydrocarbons will be combined with other proprietary technologies to optimize performance and fuel-switching capability. (2nd round)

2) Lead Organization: Bio-Terre Systems Sherbrooke, QC
Sector: Renewable Energy; Waste Management; Biomass/Combustion Processes
The project is a complete process chain designed to produce energy from hog manure and to manage nutrients from intensive pig farming in a sustainable fashion. It is designed to capture and treat methane gas and then convert it into usable energy to meet site specific energy demand. (1st round)

3) Lead Organization : Carmanah Technologies Victoria, BC
Sector: Solar Power; Commercial and Residential Lighting
This is an adaptation of solar powered LED technology to edge-lit signage, which will lead to the development of a more diverse and robust solar industry, in which solar powered lighting enters mainstream applications. (1st round)

4) Lead Organization: The Conserval Group Toronto, ON
Sector: Building Design; Energy Efficiency
The objective of this project is to enable greater utilization of building surfaces to capture solar energy and convert it to warm air. (1st round)

5) Lead Organization: CO2 Solutions Sainte-Foy, QC
Sector: CO2 Management; Biological Processes
This technology consists of an enzyme bioreactor designed to operate in an aqueous environment. It leverages mechanical and physical chemical principles, as well as the catalytic action of an enzyme to sequester CO2 in the form of inert, bicarbonate compounds. (1st round)

6) Lead Organization: DynaMotive Energy Systems Corporation Vancouver, BC
Sector: Renewable Energy; Biomass/Fast Pyrolysis
This project will develop and demonstrate a process to generate greenhouse gas-neutral electricity and steam from waste biomass, economically displacing brown electricity from the grid and generating greenhouse gas credits. This will be accomplished at the Erie Flooring BioOil Cogeneration Plant by combining BioTherm’s fast pyrolysis technology with Magellan Aerospace Orenda division’s OGT 2500 gas turbine. (2nd round)

7) Lead Organization: Enerkem Technologies Montreal, QC
Sector: Renewable Energy; Biomass/Gasification
This project will demonstrate and quantify the technical and economic benefits of a developed technology to convert complex wastes into biofuels (eg, ethanol). The technology integrates fluid bed gasification, synthetic gas conditioning and catalytic thermo- or bio-conversion. (2nd round)

8) Lead Organization: Ensyn Technologies Ottawa, ON
Sector: Renewable Energy; Biomass
This project is the industrial demonstration of a green technology that efficiently converts wood and other biomass residues into electricity and natural chemicals in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner. These bio-refinery products will replace energy and chemical products derived from fossil fuels resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. (2nd round)

9) Lead Organization: Highland Feeders Vegreville, AB
Sector: Agriculture; Waste Management; Biomass
This project will develop an integration process where several existing technologies will be combined to form an integrated manure utilization system (IMUS). Cattle manure will be treated as a resource rather than a waste, and will focus on capturing the resource value of manure, including energy, nutrients, and water, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. (2nd round)

10) Lead Organization: IBC Technologies Vancouver, BC
Sector: Energy Efficiency; Residential Combo Space and Water Heater
This project will improve and reconfigure elements of a top efficiency combined home heating and ventilating system to yield a superior residential heating and ventilating system. (2nd round)

11) Lead Organization: Mabarex Saint-Laurent, QC
Sector: Energy Utilization; Industrial Processes
Dry-Rex is a two-step, integrated, wet granular-drying process that uses a low vacuum, forced-air stream at temperatures above 5 degrees C as the main driving force to effectively dry paper mill biomass at temperatures much lower than conventional processes. The potential exists to expand this technology to other industrial processes and sectors. (1st round)

12) Lead Organization : Mikro-Tek Timmins, ON
Sector: Agriculture; CO2 Sequestration
This project will quantify and verify a methodology that increases carbon sequestration through the application of naturally occurring soil micro-organisms know as mycorrhizal fungi. Field data will be compiled to demonstrate microbial performance for land reclamation (mine sites, highway, pipeline and transmission right-of-way corridors) and agricultural applications. (2nd round)

13) Lead Organization: Nova Chemicals Calgary, AB
Sector: Energy Utilization, Industrial Processes
Alberta Research Council has developed a polymer membrane for olefin-paraffin separation which in turn is part of many industrial processes. This new membrane technology represents two-orders of magnitude improvement in separation efficiency over existing membrane technologies, reducing the capital cost of equipment required for separation while minimizing energy consumption and contributing to a reduction in GHG emissions. (1st round)

14) Lead Organization: Radient Technologies Vancouver, BC
Sector: Energy Utilization; Industrial Processes
This project will focus on the development and demonstration of microwave-assisted processes. The core of the technologies, developed and patented by Environment Canada, is the efficient use of microwave energy to enable novel biological and chemical effects to be controlled for commercial use. Specific applications include the energy-efficient extraction of valuable natural products from renewable biomass and recovery of contaminants from soil and waste streams. (2nd round)

15) Lead Organization: Suncor Energy Calgary, AB
Sector: CO2 Management; Energy Exploration and Production
This project addresses carbon sequestration and enhanced methane production in a closed cycle pilot project designed to capture CO2 emissions, inject and sequester these emissions into a local subsurface coal reservoir and produce enhanced volumes of coal bed methane as a result. (1st round)

16) Lead Organization: University of New Brunswick Fredericton, NB
Sector: Ren
ewable Energy; Wind Interconnection/Converter
This project will develop and demonstrate cost-effective, high-performance interconnection technologies based on power electronic converters. The consortium will work on variable speed pump-as-turbine small hydro electric units and variable speed wind turbines as the development platforms. (2nd round)

17) Lead Organization: Westport Innovations Vancouver, BC
Sector: Transportation; Combustion Processes
The objective of this project is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of operating heavy-duty trucks in a line-haul application using liquefied natural gas as the primary fuel. (1st round)

18) Lead Organization: Zenon Environmental Oakville and Burlington, ON
Sector: Industrial Processes; Wastewater Treatment
This project will scale up and demonstrate technology that delivers oxygen for aerobic wastewater treatment with utilization efficiencies approaching 80%. Compared with conventional aerobic treatment, Zenon’s technology can achieve as much as 90% reduction in energy required for oxygen delivery. (2nd round)

An arm’s-length initiative of the federal government, the SDTC commenced operations in November 2001. The organization says it expects to make its third round funding announcements this fall.