Canada’s Hydron Energy to scale up first-of-kind biogas upgrader

North Vancouver-based Hydron Energy Inc., has received a grant from the NGIF Accelerator’s Industry Grants program. Hydron has developed a first-of-a-kind gas upgrader, the INTRUPTor, to produce low cost renewable fuels such as renewable natural gas (RNG) from biogas, as well as clean hydrogen production from syngas.

“The high cost of biogas upgrading is an obstacle on the renewable natural gas development path. The first generation INTRUPTor was developed for a mobile solution at Hydron’s facility in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada to reduce the cost significantly. With the grant from the NGIF Accelerator’s Industry Grants program Hydron will be able to scale up this disruptive technology by orders of magnitude to service the conventional biogas upgrading market,” said Hydron president and CEO Soheil Khiavi.

“I am confident that INTRUPTor offers a cost-effective solution to the issue of biogas upgrading. We are pleased to endorse Hydron Energy’s innovative technology, which has the potential to advance the progress of renewable natural gas,” said John Adams, president and CEO of NGIF Accelerator and Managing Partner of NGIF Cleantech Ventures. “NGIF Industry Grants and its focus on de-risking clean technologies through field trials and pilots are part of NGIF’s integrated model of industry validation, customer creation, and market commercialization.”

Hydron Energy’s Intensified Regenerative Upgrading Platform Technology (INTRUPTor) system is a platform solution that converts raw gases into clean refined product. The compact system will provide significant capital and operating cost savings over conventional gas-upgrading technologies. Hydron Energy is initially focused on providing an affordable and scalable solution to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from anaerobically digested biofuels. The grant from NGIF will provide funding for further product development and scale up for the INTRUPTor system. Hydron Energy is scaling up core components of the INTRUPTor by up to 10 times.

The INTRUPTor operates in ambient conditions and therefore does not require any feed compressors, vacuum pumps, feed gas drying units, or exhaust gas post-treatment systems to produce pipeline-quality RNG. As a result, the INTRUPTor reduces capital and operating costs by up to 50 per cent and delivers an industry-leading carbon intensity score. Hydron will enter the existing biogas market with multiple sizes of the INTRUPTor solution. The system will upgrade biogas for customers facilities as small as a 100 Nm3/hr and up to 3800 Nm3/hr. The INTRUPTor Mobile Solution will offer onsite gas upgrading to producers that previously wouldn’t be able to upgrade to high quality gas due to challenging cost, size, and location.