Emissions Reduction Alberta launches $50-million program for innovative natural gas projects

Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) is offering up to $50 million in a new program to support innovative projects in the province’s natural gas industry.

ERA’s new Natural Gas Challenge will fund up to $10 million per project across Alberta’s natural gas value chain, and up to 50% of total project costs. Successful proponents must match ERA’s investment with private funds, making the total investment at least $100 million in potential project value.

The program supports clean technology projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the industry’s competitiveness. Potential opportunities include decarbonizing natural gas, reducing methane emissions and converting natural gas into value-added products.

“This challenge will help extract more value from our natural gas products while helping our carbon intensity—accelerating innovation and technology, creating jobs and ensuring the resilience of our natural resource sector,” said Jason Nixon, Minister of Environment and Parks.

In 2018, Alberta produced almost 70% of the marketable natural gas in Canada and, in 2017, emitted 35 million tonnes of CO₂ from natural gas production and processing. The value of the country’s net exports of natural gas was $6.1 billion in 2018.

Funding for the program comes from the $30-per-tonne carbon price paid by large final emitters in Alberta, under the government’s new Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Fund.

ERA is partnering with the Natural Gas Innovation Fund (NGIF), created by the Canadian Gas Association, to leverage funding opportunities beyond ERA’s scope through NGIF’s $3-million Cleantech Competition for the production of natural gas in Canada. This will provide innovators with access to potential industry partners and testing facilities.

Proposals may be submitted by technology developers, industry, industrial associations, SMEs, R&D organizations, universities, municipalities, not-for-profits and individuals. Eligible technologies can come from anywhere in the world, but projects must be piloted, demonstrated or implemented in Alberta.

In another announcement also made at ERA’s annual Spark conference, held Oct. 28-30 in Edmonton, ERA is awarding $5 million each to two projects in the final round of the agency’s five-year funding competition, Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses.

The awards go to Vancouver-based Mangrove Water Technologies and to CarbonCure Technologies, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, to support commercialization of their technologies in Alberta. If successful, these two technologies could deliver reductions of almost 2 million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2020.

Mangrove Water Technologies’ solution uses CO₂ to turn waste products from oil and gas operations into valuable chemicals, reducing GHG emissions in the oil sands mining industry. The technology will be commercially demonstrated at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited oil sands site in Alberta.

CarbonCure’s technology injects CO₂ into concrete where it is permanently stored as a mineral. The CO₂ strengthens the concrete, enabling the industry to achieve production efficiencies and cost savings to offset the cost of the technology. CarbonCure’s masonry and ready-mix concrete applications are commercially available today, with technology installations at a dozen concrete plants across Alberta.

CarbonCure will use its award to expand the company’s portfolio and commercialize additional technologies to offer a complete solution across the cement, concrete and construction industry.

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