ERA Invests $20 Million in Four Rural and Northern Alberta Technology Projects

The Government of Alberta has announced $20 million in funding through Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) for four technology projects aimed at advancing emissions reduction, hydrogen infrastructure, carbon capture and energy efficiency across rural and northern Alberta.

The funding, sourced from Alberta’s Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund, will support projects in communities including Peace River, the County of Newell and Hardisty. Collectively, the four initiatives are estimated to reduce approximately 1,400 tonnes of CO₂e by 2030, create 589 jobs and generate $95 million in GDP.

The largest hydrogen-focused investment is a $5 million contribution toward the Brooks Newell Hydrogen Hub in southeast Alberta, which has a total project value of $13.3 million. The initiative is designed to stimulate both hydrogen supply and demand by combining electrolytic hydrogen production, refuelling infrastructure and vehicle retrofits.

The project will establish a standalone hydrogen production and refuelling facility capable of supplying local demand for clean hydrogen while providing a potential model for a broader network of hydrogen refuelling stations. Regional fleet owners will also be supported in assessing how hydrogen can be incorporated into their operations, including through the installation of dual-fuel hydrogen injection systems on heavy-duty trucks and other equipment such as a farm tractor.

Environmental Material Sciences Inc., operating as LiORA, will receive $3 million toward a $9.1 million project to advance its BioLodestone technology for the remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil. The natural nutrient solution is designed to stimulate microorganisms already present in soil, accelerating the breakdown of pollutants including gasoline, crude oil and diesel.

The company plans to conduct six new field trials across in situ and ex situ sites in Western Canada while using its AI platform to optimise the BioLodestone formulation, injection method and release timeframe. The project will also involve regulatory engagement through a cross-jurisdictional Regulatory Roundtable aimed at supporting wider acceptance of the technology.

Northiana Energy Solutions will receive $5 million toward its $11.6 million project demonstrating Continuous Multilayered Encapsulation (CME) technology for transporting highly viscous materials through existing pipeline infrastructure.

The technology uses hydrogel tubing to encapsulate bitumen and reduce internal drag by an estimated 80% to 90%. This could allow operators to reduce the amount of diluent traditionally required to transport bitumen through pipelines from approximately 30% to 15%, while also reducing the energy required by pipeline pumping stations and downstream thermal separation.

Northiana plans to demonstrate the technology on an active 60-kilometre feeder pipeline leading to Hardisty, Alberta. The project is intended to move CME from a validated concept toward commercial deployment while reducing emissions associated with diluent production, pumping and processing.

Svante Technologies will receive the largest individual award, with $7 million supporting a $25.95 million project to advance carbon capture at Mercer’s pulp mill north of Peace River. The project will focus on capturing approximately 500,000 tonnes of biogenic CO₂ annually from the mill.

Svante will conduct a front-end engineering design study of its carbon capture technology and assess a nearby CO₂ storage site. Captured carbon would be conditioned and compressed before being transferred to a third-party transport and storage provider developing a localised CO₂ storage hub.

The project would represent Svante’s first commercial-scale deployment of its VeloxoTherm™ solid sorbent-based carbon capture filter technology for post-combustion emissions and could become one of the first carbon capture and storage applications involving a pulp mill recovery boiler. The company sees the project as an important step toward commercialising the technology for wider use in industries including oil and gas and cement.

ERA requires funded projects to publicly report their outcomes, including emissions reductions, job creation, environmental and economic benefits and lessons learned. The results will be made available to help advance emerging technologies toward commercialisation and inform future innovation and emissions-reduction efforts in Alberta.