CICE is investing $7.6 million in nine B.C. companies to ‘scale breakthrough innovation and lead the net-zero global economy’

The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is investing $7.6 million in nine companies to fast-track the development, commercialization, and adoption of clean energy and climate solutions in B.C.

“Congratulations to the nine inspiring companies awarded funding through CICE’s first 2024 Call for Innovation,” said Josie Osborne, B.C.'s minister of energy, mines and low carbon innovation. “These projects are essential for B.C.’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.”

The non-dilutive investments are being made through the CICE’s first 2024 Call for Innovation, which invited clean energy and climate technology innovators to apply for early-stage funding. The recipients and their projects include:

Battery and energy storage

• Brokkr Mineral Resources is pioneering a first-of-its-kind, nature-based biohydrometallurgical process for the clean, low-carbon extraction and purification of battery-grade nickel and cobalt.

• Fuse Power Management is accelerating the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) ecosystem by delivering a fully functional and scalable solution that will optimize efficiency and balance the electricity grid with electric buses, reducing carbon and particulate emissions.

• Telescope Innovations will build a continuously operating lab-scale pilot for converting crude lithium chloride brines into battery-grade lithium carbonate, leveraging its carbon-negative and low-cost process.

Carbon management

• Arca Climate Technologies is leveraging historical mine waste to remove CO2 safely and permanently. Because it operates on the existing footprints of large-scale industrial operations, its pathway has gigatonne-scale potential with an ultralight footprint.

• CO280 Solutions is developing large-scale carbon dioxide removal projects to permanently scale and increase the affordability of carbon removal in the pulp and paper industry.

Low carbon bio and synthetic fuels

• Hydron Energy is commercializing a solution that converts raw gases into clean, refined fuel. Hydron's tech will be deployed 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. Salish's tech will help create year-round food security by turning a previously underutilized bioresource into an emissions-reducing fuel.

Low carbon hydrogen

• pH7 Technologies is commercializing an electrolyzer-enabled extraction process to extract more copper from low-grade ores to meet growing market demand and produce clean hydrogen to lower mine emissions.

• HPDI Technology is advancing a project that aims to nearly double the range of hydrogen-HPDI equipped heavy duty trucks in collaboration with Westport Fuel Systems and Volvo Group.

According to CICE, the non-profit “has played a critical role in bridging collaboration between public and private sectors, and providing B.C.-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 tech projects valued at over $170 million.