The Eskasoni First Nation is launching a joint venture with a Nova Scotia clean technology startup that says it can use an element in sea water to make rocket and jet fuel.
The First Nation in Cape Breton is joining with synthetic fuel company Aeon Blue to create eFuels Mi’kmaq Ltd., which they say is the first clean fuel company majority owned by a Mi’kmaq First Nation in Canada.
Chief Leroy Denny said in a recent interview that the partnership will create around 80 jobs, as well as training opportunities for community members in areas such as engineering, operations and management.
“We believe that economic development and environmental responsibility can go hand-in-hand,” said Denny. “We’ve talked to several First Nations and they’re interested to be partners and invest in it as well … This is about, for us, ownership, opportunity and long-term benefits for our community.”
Aeon CEO Lark Meadow said in an interview that the technology can sound like science fiction at first, but it uses a century-old technology called saltwater electrochemistry to split hydrogen from sea water or brine.
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Meadow’s brother, Deóis Ua Cearnaigh, a renewable energy scientist and the company’s chief technology officer, has found a way to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during that same hydrogen-splitting process.
Meadow said the hydrogen can be combined with CO2 to make different kinds of fuel, though the jet and rocket sectors have expressed the most interest. She said Aeon’s fuel can be mixed with traditional fuels to reduce carbon emissions, or it can be used to replace fossil fuels entirely.
She said the process, to be powered by wind energy, captures about 75 per cent more carbon dioxide than is needed for fuel production. That CO2 can then be stored to remove it from the atmosphere, or be used as a feedstock for the synthetic fuels of other companies.
She said ultrapure water is another byproduct that other firms can use instead of drawing from a fresh-water source.
Meadow said saltwater electrochemistry has always been able to produce synthetic fuel, but not at a price that was competitive with fossil fuels. She said producing several products from one process powered by clean renewable energy lowers the cost significantly at a time when world energy prices are soaring.
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“It’s created an economical system to make synthetic fuels,” Meadow said in an interview from the company’s office in Sydney, N.S. “Because that’s really been the main blocker for, basically, proliferation of clean fuels around the world.”
A pilot facility being built on Eskasoni lands at the Sydport Industrial Park will start by producing about 1,200 litres of fuel annually. Within five years, Meadow said the plan is to open a commercial facility employing about 80 people and making about 3.7 million litres every year.
Denny said Eskasoni spent a great deal of time investigating the technology before deciding to invest.
“It sounded crazy,” he said. “We took over one year to really talk to the researchers and the people that are involved, the companies that are involved, including the airlines.”
Meadow said Aeon Blue, which started in United States, has received support from the provincial and federal governments, as well as Cape Breton’s clean technology research institute, The Verschuren Centre. In May it was named startup venture of the year at the inaugural Canadian Cleantech Awards. It was also a semifinalist for last year’s EarthX Climate Tech Prize.
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