Hydron Energy’s first commercial sale brings renewable natural gas tech to Ontario farm
A B.C. company that turns renewable sources into natural gas has made its first commercial sale.
Hydron Energy Inc., a clean-tech company founded in North Vancouver in 2020, announced Tuesday it has received its first commercial order to manufacture and commission a renewable natural gas (RNG) plant for an Ontario farm.
“[It is] very difficult when you’re selling a new product, a new technology, even after we do our pilot testing successfully, after good reviews and good papers published,” said Hydron CEO Soheil Khiavi.
“People like to go to their comfort zone, so even if you have the best product, the lowest cost, it takes time for customers to warm up and to figure out, OK, this is better. That’s why it’s an important milestone for us.”
Hydron Energy’s INTRUPTor system captures and purifies biogas from various sources, such as food waste, industrial processes and cow poop, to produce RNG from anaerobic digesters, wastewater treatment plants and landfills.
The gas is much greener than fossil fuel-based natural gas, as it’s derived from sources within the current carbon cycle rather than fossilized carbon from millions of years ago, according to the company.
With this first sale, Hydron will help the Ontario customer generate farm-based RNG to displace fossil-fuel-based gas.
Hydron received a $365,000 grant from the Natural Gas Innovation Fund in 2023.
“Most of the clean-tech companies, when they work, it’s very difficult to have both the cost side and the environment side, but we could manage to do that,” said Khiavi.
The company said following the first deal, it has received several applications worth millions of dollars and aims to secure three customers this year.
“This is almost like a chain reaction,” said Khiavi.
He has an ambitious goal for Hydron—by 2030, the company aims to reach $100 million in sales and expand revenue 20-fold by 2040. In addition to Canada and the U.S., the company is also eyeing expansion into Europe and Asia.
“The goal is, over the next 10 years, to take up to about 10 per cent of the market share for this product, and then slowly displace other technologies,” said Khiavi.
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