Greg O’Hare, co-founder of TEC Edmonton client GO Technologies, is one of those guys who enjoys thinking as he works. Having spent 17 years as a journeyman gasfitter, he has been around thousands of natural gas and oil wellheads out in the Lloydminster/Vermillion area of Alberta, Canada. He was seeing patterns. As formation pressure in certain fields dropped, subterranean natural gas was pushing into the reservoir, resulting in more natural gas being pumped to the surface. Which is not a bad thing in itself. But when the cost of gathering, storing, processing and moving that gas exceeds the value of the product, it’s a serious problem. In the past, excessive low-value gas was used on site. The remainder was flared, or vented off into the atmosphere. As environment standards and regulations improve, flaring has become less acceptable. Wells unable to dispose of excess natural gas in an environmentally responsible fashion can be shut down. O’Hare saw something else going on. High-pressure ...

“Do I want to make them small enough to do the job?” Dr. Steve Kuznicki is thinking out loud. The University of Alberta scientist is world-renowned, responsible for 48 American patents, 12 world-wide patents and another 12 patent applications in process.    For the last eight years, Dr. Kuznicki has been in academia, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, an Alberta Ingenuity Fund Scholar and the holder of several important research chairs.   U of A researchers, if they so wish, have the option to pursue the commercialization of their own inventions with the university as a partner. They are also offered the services of TEC Edmonton’s technology management, business services and entrepreneur training if they so wish.   Since joining the University of Alberta, Dr. Kuznicki has taken advantage of TEC Edmonton’s patenting and technology licensing expertise. Through TEC Edmonton, Dr. Kuznicki recentl ...

  Predicting strength and reliability of any structure – be it an airplane wing, a length of pipeline, a bridge girder – is a complex engineering challenge. It requires expensive, often bulky equipment. Frequently structures can only be tested on a periodic basis, whereas some require continuous testing to ensure full product safety. Enter Nemsor: Mechanical Engineering Professor Walied Moussa and his team have patented an extraordinary new nano-electro-mechanical sensor (actually a cluster of extremely tiny sensors) developed in his MEMS/NEMS Advanced Design Lab. A Nemsor sensor can continuously monitor six different indications of stress and strain,  with low power consumption. TEC Edmonton has been working with Dr. Moussa in facilitating the license agreement for Nemsor sensors with the U of A, protecting his intellectual property and assisting Nemsor in research and commercialization funding. Syncrude Canada, the Alberta oil sands company that in 2011 produced an average 288,300 ...

Alberta Venture Magazine has a new column, called "Lunch With", in which a young executive is invited to pick a person with whom he or she would like to talk business. The senior executive acts as a mentor for an hour or go, picks the place to eat, and gets a free lunch in return for advice duly recorded and added for the column by Alberta Venture Magazine Editor-in-Chief Michael Ganley. The kick-off Lunch With column has a strong TEC Edmonton flavour. The senior executive asked to provide advice was Shaheel Hooda, past president of several Edmonton companies who is back with TEC Edmonton as a part-time Executive-in-Residence. The young business people were gasfitter Greg O'Hare and electrician Scott Pratt of Kitscoty, Alberta, who have invented a portable machine that can capture excess natural gas usually flared from energy collection pipelines and nodes, and re-direct it into low-pressure utilitiy gas distribution lines (like ATCO's retail gas distribution system in Edmonton) for ...

TEC Edmonton client GSS Geothermal is partnering with Christenson Developments in a ground-breaking pilot project to build a mini-power plant that will provide both electricity and heating for a renovated townhouse and new apartment building complex in Hazeldean, close to Mill Creek Ravine at 96 Street and 67 Avenue in Edmonton.

As reported in the Global Edmonton TV news report "Edmonton company receives $1.2 million to build ground-breaking project" the federal government is treating the on-site power and district heat concept as a pilot project. Half its $2.4 million capital costs will be covered by Ottawa's Clean Energy Fund.

The mini-power plant will provide electricity, and usually wasted heat will be channelled into a geo-thermal heat-retaining underground system, to be drawn back out in the winter months to heat the homes.

TEC Edmonton is assisting GSS Geothermal in a marketing study for its advanced geo-thermal technology.

Here's a link to the Hicks on Biz column published in the Edmonton Sun on April 14 entitled "World-Class Innovation", arguing made-in-Northern-Alberta technology is world class, given the remarkable progress of innovation and inventions  to exploit the oilsands in a commercial, sustainable way. P.S. the innovation is just beginning.

Couple of mentions of the 10th TEC VenturePrize Dinner and Celebration April 26, 2012, starting at 5 p.m. in the Shaw Conference Centre's Hall D in Edmonton,  are in the column.

Be there at the VenturePrize Awards "Innovation Party of the Year" or be square!

Tickets are $80 or a table of 10 for $720 and be easily ordered online at www.ventureprize.com

TEC Edmonton alumnus Scanimetrics, winner of the very first VenturePrize award in 2003, has been written up in the Edmonton Journal business section on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. The story is entitled "Small solution to big problem: Edmonton firm's tiny sensors help Syncrude avoid huge repair bills." 

Good to see a home-grown company, a spinoff of research from the University of Alberta, start to see serious success after years of hard slogging.  Led by Syncrude's favourable reviews of Scanimetrics stress-sensing miniature technology, Scanimetrics' stress measuring solutions are being examinated for all kinds of other global appliations.

VenturePrize 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the prizes, with a gala dinner and awards night planned at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton on Thursday, April 26.

 Tickets are $80, or $720 for a table of 10 and can be purchased online at www.ventureprize.com  

One of the most successful emerging technologies that aids in the recovery of “tight oil” and gas is based right here in downtown Edmonton, and is part of the TEC Edmonton family.  Isobrine Solutions is a TEC Edmonton tenant in the TEC Centre, on the fourth floor of Enterprise Square. Isobrine Solutions has been incorporated since April 2003, and has built up a clientele including many of Canada’s well-known oil and gas exploration and drilling firms. Isobrine examines water mixed with oil and gas far, far underground. That water possesses a unique fingerprint which is an invaluable aid to energy companies engaged in horizontal drilling for tight oil and gas. Isobrine analyzes isotopes in water samples collected after drilling, telling the geologists and rig operators if the water is coming from the oil/gas zone they are looking for. The idea behind Isobrine Solutions was conceived many years ago, when University of Alberta hydrogeology researcher and professor Dr. Ben Rostron was exp ...