Nine companies secure a total of $7.6 million to scale breakthrough solutions for
building a net-zero economy
VANCOUVER, BC, July 22,
2024 /CNW/ - The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean
Energy (CICE) is investing $7.6
million to fast-track the development, commercialization and
adoption of clean energy and climate solutions in British Columbia. These non-dilutive
investments are being made through CICE's first 2024 Call for
Innovation, which attracted close to 200 applications from across
the province.
"Congratulations to the nine inspiring companies awarded funding
through CICE's first 2024 Call for Innovation," said Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low
Carbon Innovation. "These projects are essential for British Columbia's goals of building a clean
economy and healthier environment with good-paying jobs for people
and more economic opportunities for communities. We are proud to
support CICE in nurturing innovation, generating employment, and
ensuring long-term sustainability for our province."
Funded recipients playing a critical role in meeting climate
action and clean energy objectives include:
BATTERY AND ENERGY STORAGE
- Brokkr Mineral Resources Corporation is pioneering a
first-of-its-kind, nature-based (bio)hydrometallurgical process for
clean, low carbon extraction and purification of battery-grade
nickel and cobalt.
- Fuse Power Management Ltd. is accelerating the vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) ecosystem by delivering a fully functional and scalable V2G
solution that will optimize efficiency to balance the electricity
grid with electric buses, reducing carbon and particulate
emissions.
- Telescope Innovations Corp. is constructing a continuously
operating lab-scale pilot for converting crude lithium chloride
brines into battery-grade lithium carbonate, utilizing their
carbon-negative and low-cost process, ReCRFT.
CARBON MANAGEMENT
- Arca Climate Technologies Inc., a leader in carbon
mineralization technology and XPRIZE finalist, leverages historical
mine waste to remove CO2 safely and permanently. And because it
operates on the existing footprints of large-scale industrial
operations, its pathway has gigatonne-scale potential, with an
ultralight footprint.
- CO280 Solutions Inc. is developing large-scale carbon dioxide
removal (CDR) projects to permanently scale and increase
affordability of carbon removal in the pulp and paper
industry.
LOW CARBON BIO AND SYNTHETIC
FUELS
- Hydron Energy Inc. is commercializing a disruptive solution
that converts raw gases into clean refined fuel. CICE's funding
will deploy Hydron's technology at the Wastewater Treatment Plant
in Prince George, lowering
emissions by upgrading biogas into renewable natural gas instead of
flaring it.
- Salish Environmental Group is developing a co-generation
technology that utilizes construction, demolition, and forestry
wood waste to produce heat and electricity to power greenhouses to
help create year-round food security, turning a previously
underutilized bioresource into an emissions reducing fuel.
LOW CARBON HYDROGEN
- pH7 Technologies is commercializing an electrolyzer enabled
extraction process to get more copper out of low-grade ores to keep
up with growing market demand, while also producing clean hydrogen
to lower mine emissions.
- HPDI Technology is advancing a project, through a new joint
venture between Westport Fuel Systems and Volvo Group, that aims to
nearly double the range of hydrogen-HPDI equipped heavy duty
trucks.
"With 13 companies featured on the 2024 Global Cleantech 100
list, Canada is already leading as
an innovation nation," said Sarah
Goodman, CEO of CICE. "British
Columbia is home to many remarkable climate technology
entrepreneurs who are spearheading this movement. CICE is proud to
support the growth of these exceptional companies by validating
actionable decarbonization pathways, unlocking access to capital,
and accelerating the development and adoption of essential net-zero
technologies."
Since October 2021, CICE has
played a critical role in bridging collaboration between public and
private sectors, and providing BC-based innovators faster, easier
access to the early-stage funding and collaborative partnerships
they need to be global leaders in climate action. To date, CICE has
invested $31 million in 47 clean
energy and climate technology projects valued at over $170 million.
About CICE
The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is an
independent, not-for-profit corporation that provides early-stage,
non-dilutive investment to fast-track the commercialization of
British Columbia's most impactful
clean energy solutions – from Canada to the world. We match the urgency and
efficiency of the companies we fund, driving innovation like the
planet depends on it. Because it does. Together with our
climate-first community of innovators, industry leaders, academia,
government, and Indigenous partners, we advance future pathways to
net-zero – leveraging British
Columbia's clean energy advantages to attract investment,
create good jobs and build sustainable economic prosperity for
decades to come. www.cice.ca
SOURCE B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy