Latest news with #EmissionsReductionAlberta
Cision Canada
24-07-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Carbonova Selected for Funding Through Emission Reduction Alberta's Advanced Materials Challenge
$4.38M ERA Grant Fuels Construction of Canada ʼs First Carbon Nanofiber Commercial Demonstration Plant in Calgary CALGARY, AB, July 24, 2025 /CNW/ - Carbonova, a cleantech company transforming greenhouse gas emissions into high-performance carbon nanofibers (CNF), is proud to be among the recipients of the Government of Alberta and Emissions Reduction Alberta's (ERA) Advanced Materials Challenge grant. These funds, totaling $4.38 million, mark a major win in Carbonova's journey—supporting the company as it advances toward the commissioning of its first-of-its-kind Commercial Demonstration Unit (CDU) in Calgary. "Together, [these projects] are going to generate over $233 million to our GDP by 2027 and create 1,600 high-quality jobs across the province…this is how we drive responsible growth – supporting home-grown technologies, accelerating commercialization, and building stronger, more resilient industries," said Justin Riemer of Emissions Reduction Alberta. Founded in Alberta and built on proprietary catalytic technology, Carbonova has developed a breakthrough process that converts CO₂ and methane into sustainable, high-performance carbon nanomaterials for use in batteries, plastics, and construction. The company's patented process operates at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint of traditional alternatives like carbon black, graphite, or carbon nanotubes. "This support from ERA enables Carbonova to turn breakthrough science into real-world infrastructure," said Dr. Mina Zarabian, CEO & Co-Founder of Carbonova. "With customers lined up and eager for better, lighter, and more sustainable materials, ERA is catalyzing the emergence of a new industry—one where carbon emissions become the feedstock for high-performance advanced materials. Alberta is proving that climate leadership and industrial innovation can go hand-in-hand." The ERA-funded project will de-risk scale-up and commercialization by enabling Carbonova to complete Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and begin procurement and construction of its CDU, capable of producing 25 tonnes of CNF per year while utilizing over 50 tonnes of CO₂. The CDU will serve as a launchpad to fulfill offtake agreements already in progress and demonstrate Carbonovaʼs readiness for global deployment through a build-own-operate and licensing model. This milestone builds on Carbonovaʼs growing momentum, following strategic partnerships with global manufacturers in batteries, composites, and construction, and a strong track record of customer-led Joint Development Agreements. Carbonova is collaborating with a variety of strategic customers and partners at this exciting inflection point. With patented technology, world-class collaborators, and a clear path to commercialization, Carbonova is poised to scale its impact globally—starting right here in Alberta. About Carbonova Carbonova transforms CO₂ and methane into sustainable, high-performance carbon nanofibers used in batteries, composites, and construction materials. Based in Calgary, the company is accelerating the transition to a circular, low-carbon economy by offering scalable, cost-effective alternatives to legacy carbon materials. Learn more about the ERA Advanced Materials Challenge: For more information about Carbonova, visit About Tailwind Ventures Tailwind Ventures is a strategic partner supporting Carbonova and continues to work with the company to prepare for its future Series A financing. Tailwind Ventures empowers early- and growth-stage companies to withstand the scrutiny of due diligence and secure capital. Tailwind's diligent preparedness process enables ventures to build stronger businesses and improve the risk-reward relationship for ventures and investors. Tailwind Ventures has raised over C$370 million for clients since 2022. Tailwind is based in Calgary, Canada. For more information about Tailwind Ventures, visit Forward-looking statements Certain statements contained in this press release relate to future events, conditions, or outcomes with respect to Carbonova's business, its customers, technology, and the broader industry. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements and are often, but not always, identified using words such as "believes", "seek", "plan", "expect" and similar expressions.
Globe and Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
PlasCred Awarded $5 Million Grant from Emissions Reduction Alberta to Advance Neos Facility
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 23, 2025) - PlasCred Circular Innovations Inc. (CSE: PLAS) (FSE: XV2) (the " Company" or " PlasCred"), an Alberta-based clean technology company focused on advanced plastic recycling, is pleased to announce it has been awarded $5 million in non-dilutive funding from the Alberta government through Emissions Reduction Alberta (" ERA") to support the development of its first commercial-scale facility, Neos. PlasCred has already demonstrated proof-of-concept success with patent-pending Primus, its pilot-scale unit, which has been operational since May 2023. Primus has served as a foundational testing platform, validating the conversion of waste plastics into high-value Renewable Green Condensate™, a low sulphur, low carbon circular naphtha used as feedstock for the production of virgin plastic (" Condensate"). " By investing in advanced materials and circular economy solutions, we're helping Alberta's industries stay competitive, create jobs, and reduce emissions. This funding supports technologies that make better use of our resources while cutting costs. It's a win for both the economy and the environment." said Justin Riemer, CEO, Emissions Reduction Alberta With the Alberta government's support through ERA, PlasCred is advancing from pilot validation to commercial deployment, building on the technical and operational insights gained from its Primus facility to begin construction of the Neos facility and ensure a smooth transition to full-scale operations. " The Alberta government and ERA's support marks a critical milestone for PlasCred as we transition to commercial deployment," said Troy Lupul, President & CEO of PlasCred. "With this funding, we can move forward on construction, attract additional project capital, and demonstrate the role Alberta-based innovation can play in scaling circular solutions for hard-to-recycle plastics." Strategic Scalability in Alberta's Industrial Heartland PlasCred's entire scalability strategy is anchored at CN Rail's Scotford Yard in Fort Saskatchewan, inside Alberta's Industrial Heartland Canada's pre-eminent hydrocarbon-processing corridor. The permitted yard offers enclosed industrial buildings, a 200-car siding, existing utilities, and direct Class I rail connectivity. This combination delivers reliable inbound feedstock logistics and seamless outbound product shipment while giving PlasCred access to a highly skilled process-operations workforce and a business-friendly regulatory environment. Neos and the follow-on Maximus complex will be co-located at Scotford, capturing shared infrastructure and operating synergies. The Neos facility will initially process 100 tonnes (metric) of post-consumer plastic waste per day converting it into approximately 500 barrels per day of condensate. Once operational, the Neos facility is expected to divert 36,500 tonnes of plastic waste annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 51,000 tonnes of CO₂e per year. The design incorporates PlasCred's proprietary dual catalytic pyrolysis technology. This approach minimizes energy consumption, improves safety, and enables the efficient conversion of mixed and contaminated plastics, including PVC and PET. Unlike incineration or waste-to-energy approaches, PlasCred's process produces a circular petrochemical feedstock that can be reused in the production of new, food-grade plastics. The system has been validated through over two years of continuous operation at the Primus pilot facility in Calgary. The Neos facility is forecasted to generate approximately $19 million in annual revenue and $6.9 million in EBITDA, based on management assumptions regarding feedstock cost, uptime, and offtake pricing. Neos has an estimated capital cost of $25 million, with construction targeted to begin later this year, subject to final project financing and permitting. Based on internal forecasts and current engineering assumptions, the project is expected to deliver an internal rate of return (IRR) of approximately 22.8% and a payback period of 4.3 years. These forward-looking estimates are based on internal models and subject to risks including construction timing, input costs, operations, and market conditions. The projected economics remain strong even without accounting for potential upside from plastic credit monetization or byproduct sales. PlasCred has executed a definitive five-year offtake agreement with a global commodities company (" GCC") for 100 percent of Neos production at a fixed price of $120.00 CAD per barrel, inclusive of freight terms. The agreement also includes a right of first refusal (" ROFR") on future volumes from PlasCred's next phase facility, Maximus. This offtake structure ensures predictable revenue and underpins long term capital planning. Neos will integrate Palantir Foundry, an industrial data platform from Palantir Technologies to capture real-time data on feedstock, facility performance and product quality; generate auditable life-cycle assessments (LCA) that verify every tonne of waste plastic is converted into new plastic and support Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance; track plastic-credit issuance, greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, and logistics for both inbound feedstock and outbound product; and fuse all inputs into a digital twin that delivers 360-degree operational visibility and AI-driven optimisation across PlasCred's entire business. The proposed Maximus facility is engineered to launch at 400 metric tonnes per day, approximately 2,000 barrels per day, and scale up to 2,000 tonnes per day, or 10,000 barrels per day condensate, through modular expansion. This co-location approach leverages existing enclosed infrastructure, CN integrated rail logistics, and shared site services, offering significant cost and execution advantages while anchoring Alberta as a hub for scalable, low carbon plastic circularity. PlasCred is well positioned for sustainable, long-term growth through a combination of strategic site selection, integrated logistics, and secured revenue from industry partnerships. Its co-located infrastructure at CN's Scotford Yard enables scalable deployment while minimizing execution risk. With support from the Alberta government through ERA, PlasCred is accelerating to commercial operations at Neos. This milestone highlights the strength of Alberta-developed technology and reinforces the province's leadership in advancing circular economy infrastructure. Neos represents a significant step forward in scaling clean, plastics-to-plastics innovation rooted in Alberta's industrial and innovation ecosystem. About PlasCred Circular Innovations Inc. PlasCred is at the forefront of rebalancing the future of plastics. The company is transforming plastic waste by granting it a valuable second life. With a vision of advancing towards a climate-positive future, PlasCred aspires to be among the largest advanced plastic waste recyclers in North America and globally. Their groundbreaking patent-pending technology is set to revolutionize the approach to plastic waste management and advanced recycling. PlasCred also has strategic partnerships with CN Rail, Palantir Technologies Inc., the Government of Alberta, Fibreco Export Inc., and a Global Commodities Company. These collaborations provide PlasCred with world-class logistics, advanced operational intelligence, and stable long-term revenue, supporting its leadership in the global circular plastics economy. For further information on PlasCred, visit our website at ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Troy Lupul - President & CEO Forward-looking Statements Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to: the timing and cost of constructing the Neos facility; projected operating performance, revenues, EBITDA, internal rate of return and payback period; expected greenhouse-gas reductions; the availability of financing, feedstock and regulatory approvals; and the Company's broader commercialization and expansion plans. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including, without limitation: construction and commissioning risks, cost overruns, supply-chain disruptions, operational performance at scale, feedstock pricing and availability, changes in commodity prices, regulatory or permitting delays, counter-party risk under offtake or financing agreements, and general economic conditions. A discussion of these and other factors that may affect future results is contained in the Company's continuous disclosure filings available under its profile on SEDAR+ at Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue reliance on them. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect new events or circumstances.
Calgary Herald
17-06-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Alberta government commits $50M to bolster tailings pond reclamation technology
The Alberta government has announced a $50-million Tailings Technology Challenge, a funding competition that aims to drive the development of technologies that reduce oilsands mine water and help reclaim tailings ponds. Article content The awarded funds will range from $1 million to $15 million, with the award accounting for no more than 50 per cent of an application's total budget. Article content Article content Article content 'Like all of our funding, the private sector has to be at the table and always do, often by far more than our minimum requirement,' said Justin Riemer, the CEO of Emissions Reduction Alberta, the organization in charge of allocating the funds. Riemer said the criteria are intentionally broad. Water treatment, tailing mitigation, and improved monitoring systems are all eligible in the competition. Article content Article content Frank Gu hopes to be one of the selected applicants. He is a chemistry professor at the University of Toronto, and has been researching tailings for a decade. He is also the co-founder of H2nanO, a company currently developing solar-powered floating materials to purify tailing water. Article content Gu sees the tailings pond problem as twofold given the water's complexity and the sheer scale of the issue. Article content Article content The province's tailings ponds currently contain 1.4 billion cubic metres of fluid tailings and more than 390 thousand cubic metres of water, according to Rebecca Schulz, Alberta's minister of environment. Article content 'Collecting more and more water, with no end in sight, is not sustainable. We don't believe it's sustainable, and the companies don't believe it is sustainable,' Schulz said. Article content Article content 'The vast majority of the components in there, if not the majority, are not harmful to wildlife,' Gu said. 'So the challenging part is, how do you separate the piece that needs to be treated? But at this moment, there's no federal or provincial regulation in place to say what needs to be treated, or what to target.' Article content That problem is compounded by the wide differences between each pond. Sites age with their own environments over time, making each tailings pond unique, and the challenges they represent unable to be generalized.
Globe and Mail
17-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Alberta to invest $50-million to help develop oil sands water, tailings technologies
Alberta has earmarked $50-million to boost technologies that can help reduce and manage the massive oil sands tailings ponds in the province's north. The cash for the new program, announced Tuesday, will come from the province's carbon price on large emitters. The program will be managed by Emissions Reduction Alberta through a competition for private companies to develop new and existing technologies that make tailings and water treatment cheaper and more effective. Successful applicants can receive up to $15-million per project, with a minimum funding request of $1-million. Emissions Reduction Alberta, which distributes government funds to help innovators develop and demonstrate Alberta-based technologies that lower emissions and costs for industries, will contribute no more than half to any single project. Tailings are a by-product of the process used to extract bitumen from mined oil sands, and are a mixture of sand, clay, water, silt, residual bitumen and other hydrocarbons, salts and trace metals. The issue of how to deal with them has bedevilled Alberta for years. There are roughly 1.4 million cubic metres of fluid tailings and more than 390 million cubic metres of water in ponds in the oil sands region. Although some ponds have been reclaimed, the volume of tailings continues to grow, in part because any water captured on a site must be kept there – even if it's snow melt or rain that hasn't been used in the mining process. Alberta fails to move needle on emissions reduction plan Remediating oil sands mines could cost $130-billion, according to a 2018 internal Alberta Energy Regulator memo, though in an official estimate the regulator puts the cost around $34-billion. Managing tailings is a complex problem, Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said at a Tuesday press conference at the University of Calgary, where she announced the $50-million program. Not only do they create an environmental and financial liability, she said, they also take water permanently out of the system, preventing it from being used by others who need it. Some companies use internal water recycling at their sites that surpass 90 per cent, saving millions of litres from ending up in a tailings pond. And the sector has invested billions of dollars into testing ways to adapt and develop new water treatment technologies, Ms. Schulz said. Oil sands CEOs optimistic for movement on $16-billion carbon capture project But that work needs to shift into overdrive: 'We need more advanced technologies to help reduce, treat and manage mine water,' she said. Justin Riemer, chief executive of Emissions Reduction Alberta, said at the press conference that the $50-million competition is designed to hasten pilot programs and deployment of the most promising solutions. It will be focused on technologies that treat oil sands waste water, accelerate and lower the costs of land reclamation, and reduce the use of fresh water in oil sands operations. Kendall Dilling, president of the Pathways Alliance, a group of oil sands companies that have pledged to bring production to net-zero by 2050, said at the press conference that the program will play an important role in addressing the tailings issue. But, he added, companies will continue to use a vast array of tools to deal with tailings, including sharing water between mine sites to minimize new withdrawals from the Athabasca River. The oil sands sector has been waiting for more than a decade for a treat-and-release regulation from the federal government, similar to policies that govern other mining industries. Ms. Schulz said she had some productive conversations with former federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault about the tailings issue, but she has not yet spoken with his replacement, Julie Dabrusin. Multiple cases of spills and leaks from tailings ponds have been reported by oil companies in recent years. At Imperial Oil Ltd.'s Kearl site, a long-running leak has resulted in an unknown volume of tailings leeching into the environment. A drainage storage pond at the site also overflowed, spilling roughly 5.3 million litres of industrial waste water laced with pollutants into the environment, and another incident sent thousands of litres of water from a settling pond into the Muskeg River. In April, 2023, almost six million litres of water with more than twice the legal limit of suspended solids was released from a pond at Suncor's Fort Hills oil sands project into the Athabasca River watershed. A recent study by an Alberta ecologist found that the province's energy regulator lacks the data required to assess and manage the environmental impact of tailings spills, and has underestimated the number and volumes of spills in the oil sands.
Calgary Herald
16-06-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: Calgary firm Carbon Upcycling turns industrial waste into valuable cement products
Article content Calgary-based Carbon Upcycling is making great strides in its mission to convert carbon emissions and industrial waste byproducts into valuable, local materials for low-carbon cement production. Its groundbreaking technology offers a productive solution for CO2 emissions and industrial waste materials by upcycling them into low-carbon supplementary cement products. Article content Article content In the few years since it was launched in 2015, the company has attracted the interest of a large number of major cement companies and has forged a strategic partnership with TITAN Group, one of the world's leading international businesses in the building and infrastructure materials industry. Article content The companies entered a memorandum of agreement earlier this month to explore the commercial development of Carbon Upcycling's technology for producing local, low-carbon building materials. The collaboration builds on TITAN's earlier investment in the Calgary company and underscores both companies' shared commitment to accelerating the decarbonization of the building materials industry. Article content 'Expanding the scope of our partnership with Carbon Upcycling from investment to project exploration aims to scale up production of innovative, high-performance cementitious solutions in line with our Green Growth Strategy 2026,' says Leonidas Canellopoulos, chief sustainability and innovation officer of TITAN Group. 'This initiative not only highlights the importance of localized production but also serves as an important model for integrating low-carbon solutions into mainstream industrial processes.' Article content Article content The scientist with the vision of an inclusive, equitable world where carbon is a sustainable resource — shaping the future of humanity — is Apoorv Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling. Article content Born in Baha, a small province in the northeast area of India, he was brought up in Kuwait where his father had moved the family to work in the oil and gas industry. Sinha's education took him to the U.S., where he earned his chemical engineering degree at Georgia Institute of Technology. Article content He says he was attracted to Calgary as an energy hub with a reputation for innovation — a good place to build a business. In 2014, along with a couple of friends, they entered an Emissions Reduction Alberta challenge for the most innovative technologies that would convert CO2 emissions into valuable products.
