Environmental Innovation Fund

The mandate of our Environmental Innovation Fund is to make investments in projects that economically improve the environmental performance of the natural gas sector through developing and implementing innovative technology.

Our investment strategy is two-tiered:

• Internal environmental efficiency projects: projects within our operations that can economically create measurable reductions in air emissions or energy, land or fresh water use
• External technology development investments: early-stage start-up companies and technologies that either align with environmental efficiency opportunities within our operations or enable enhanced natural gas usage within new or existing markets

Some of our current investments*

CVTCORP Transmission Inc. - continuously variable transmission

This two-year project is designed to demonstrate and validate continuously variable transmission for use with diesel-powered electrical generators and variable fan speed systems for compressor cooling packages.

Genesis Fueltech Inc. - hydrogen fuel cells for cold weather operations

This 18-month project will develop and demonstrate a small-scale integrated fuel cell power system for cold weather start-up and operations. These systems, which use methanol and water to produce hydrogen, could complement the approximately 10,000 solar panels Encana uses throughout our Canadian and U.S. operations.

Seal Well Inc. - high-integrity plugs for abandoned wells

Seal Well Inc. has begun a project to develop equipment for sealing oil and gas wells with high-integrity plugs. The goal of the project is to help prevent hydrocarbon leakage from abandoned wells.

SFN Biosystems Inc. - biofuel from compressor exhaust

SFN Biosystems Inc. has initiated a three-year algae bio-energy project to develop and demonstrate a patented photobioreactor. This photobioreactor uses waste heat and carbon dioxide from the exhaust stream of a natural gas compressor engine to grow and cultivate photosynthetic algae. Because the process could generate revenue from the sale of produced algae for biodiesel feedstock, algal biomass proteins and carbon credits, this technology promises to be an economical greenhouse gas reduction solution for oil and gas stationary combustion applications.

PTAC - shallow gas de-watering pump consortium

The purpose of PTAC's (Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada) Shallow Gas De-Watering Pump Consortium is to demonstrate the technical performance of a shallow gas de-watering pump under simulated and actual field conditions in order to assist in the commercialization of new low-cost reliable pumps for shallow gas wells.

Atlantic Hydrogen Inc. - hydrogen-enriched natural gas

Atlantic Hydrogen's CarbonSaver® is a patented plasma technology that removes some of the carbon from natural gas pre-combustion, leaving a hydrogen-enriched natural gas (HENG) stream. Not only does HENG reduce carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide output of devices that burn natural gas, it also improves efficiency.

Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) - tidal power
electrical generation

A plug-and-play test facility designed to enable the development and validation of multiple tidal power electrical generation technologies. The goal is to identify a suitable technology for the Bay of Fundy.

*By clicking any of the above hyperlinks, you will be leaving Encana's website and will be connected to websites operated by independent third parties.