Learn How Alberta Is Innovating In Energy & Resources

Alberta Innovates supports and highlights innovation across Alberta. Here are some of our favourite stories of energy and resources innovation from the last few years.

Canada Pump and Power: the world’s first autonomous dredge
Canada Pump and Power’s award-winning Mighty Dredge is the world’s only autonomous dredge. It works continuously with no recovery cycle — even in toxic environments — as an underwater robot fully controlled and remotely monitored by computer.

Reducing operating costs up to 75 percent, this technology is less expensive, more efficient, and safer.

Canada Pump and Power tapped into Alberta Innovates’ Micro Voucher program to complete a patent assessment and filing for the Mighty Dredge. Leveraging provincial and federal agencies to explore international markets, they have connected with clients and economic development people in Germany and Brazil.

Jeremy Leonard was recognized in 2017 and 2018 with a Top Ten in Canada Growth Award by the Chamber of Commerce, and as a Prairie finalist in the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year. For more information, visit www.canadapumpandpower.com

Direct-C: nano-composite coating to detect pipeline leaks
More than 840,000 kilometres of pipelines criss-cross Canada. While they remain the safest way to transport oil and gas, the environmental impact of undetected leaks can be significant. Developed at the University of Calgary, Direct-C uses a proprietary, nanocomposite-sensing coating to help monitor pipelines, tank farms, production wells, and reclamation sites. The coating immediately reacts to liquid hydrocarbons making it sensitive enough to instantly alert operators to even the smallest of leaks. In 2020, Direct-C raised $2.2 million in equity and non-equity financing. At that time, it also utilized Alberta Innovates’ Executive Business Advisor program to review deal structures and expand its investor network. Today, its product line up includes rapid deployment ground and berm sensors as well as flexible pipeline wraps. For more information, visit www.direct-c.ca

Synauta: meeting the growing demand for water
Global demand for water is rapidly increasing, with 40 percent more water required to sustain communities and the economy. To meet demand, it’s critical to address inefficient water systems, particularly desalination, which is the only climate-independent water source. Synauta successfully combines desalination and artificial intelligence to treat more water with less energy and fewer chemicals, while saving customers up to 20 percent of operational costs. Synauta is optimizing reverse osmosis, which is the most energy intensive step of the desalination process. Since 2018, its patent-pending software has been enabling plant operators in Australia, the Middle East, and Spain, and helping with new water reuse optimization projects in Singapore and North America. To date, Synauta has saved 9.7 percent energy over six months and increased production by five percent by optimizing cleaning schedules.

Synauta won a distinction at the prestigious Global Water Intelligence Awards and is proudly working with the world’s largest water companies. For more information, visit www.synauta.com

Expander Energy: making clean fuel from waste
Producing diesel fuel by conventional means generates approximately 100 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule in terms of lifecycle carbon emissions. Expander Energy’s process produces a higher quality fuel that can be used in existing diesel engines with net-zero lifecycle carbon emissions.

For the past 14 years, Expander has been developing technologies to produce liquid fuel from cellulose and other low-carbon-intensity energy sources. Now they’re focused on transforming wood waste from the lumber industry into fossil-free diesel and aviation fuel, providing a sustainable alternative to fuel generated by oil and gas.

“We helped show that the technology was scalable,” says Michael Kerr, director of Regional Innovation at Alberta Innovates. “Ultimately, Expander’s technology will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create new jobs that support a net-zero carbon economy.”

Expander Energy is currently planning to build its first commercial facility in Slave Lake, Alberta. The facility will use bark and waste wood to generate net-zero carbon intensity renewable diesel fuel. For more information, visit www.expanderenergy.com

Enerkem: turning trash into energy
Cities create a lot of trash. Even with recycling programs and other trash reduction strategies, most ends up rotting in landfills.

Enerkem creates new life for trash with a biofuels facility that turns it into renewable biofuels. The company’s Edmonton-based plant is the first commercial-scale trash-to-biofuel facility in the world. It takes waste that can’t be recycled or composted — things like plastics and styrofoam — and turns it into synthetic gas. From there, the gas can be refined into biofuels like methanol or ethanol or used to create industrial chemicals.

Enerkem has partnered with Suncor to provide biofuels for their industrial vehicles, providing a greener alternative to traditional fuels; and with the company hoping to expand its biofuels production to other cities in Canada and worldwide, company representatives say the success of its Alberta-based plant will serve as a model for its future. For more information, visit www.enerkem.com