Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has announced $51.9 million in funding to support pre-commercial R&D projects at 11 companies. The financing is drawn from its SD Tech Fund which was replenished in Budget 2013 with $325 million over eight years (R$, April 3/13). The awards support a wide variety of clean technology projects ranging from nanocrystalline cellulose extraction to the development of low-cost, high-quality graphene, which enables a 90% reduction in the amount of energy used.

SDTC is providing $26.8 million in non-repayable awards to seven Ontario-based firms with a total value of $82.7 million. It awarded $25 million to four Quebec-based firms (total project value not available).

The Ontario-based projects are:

Grafoid Inc, Ottawa ($8.1 million) — Design and test automation system for constant quality graphene and testing of pre-commercial products;

OTI Lumionics, Toronto ($5.7 million) — Engineer and install an operational OLED pilot production line to produce high volumes of OLED lighting panels;

Ranovus Inc, Ottawa ($4.3 million) — 100 Gb/s transceiver module integrated in a data centre, reducing cost of doing business 8X and power consumption by 4X;

Kelvin Storage, Toronto ($2.8 million) — System for storage of off-peak electrical energy that can then be delivered in the form of high-quality thermal energy;

Polar Sapphire, Toronto ($2.7 million) — Process to make high-purity alumina for the production of synthetic sapphire; and,

GaN Systems, Ottawa ($2.2 million) — With Delta-Q Technologies, development of gallium nitride battery charger for industrial electric vehicles.

The Quebec-based projects are:

Ionada Inc, Concord ($1.1 million) — Marine Clean Air Membrane Scrubber to reduce sulphur oxides.

Fractal Systems Inc, Sherbrooke ($2.7 million) — Bitumen diluent reduction using a jet nozzle technology platform;

CelluForce Inc, Montreal ($4 million) — Nanocrystalline cellulose extraction process for the oil and gas sector;

Nemaska Lithium Inc, Quebec City ($12.9 million) — Pilot demonstration to produce high-purity lithium hydroxide and carbonate for use in batteries;

Orbite Aluminae Inc, Saint-Laurent ($4.5 million) — Red mud remediation and alumina extraction to generate a domestic source of alumina for Canadian aluminum industry.

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