An indigenous-led company is launching a $4.6 million project to test new technology for treating oil sands process water in northern Alberta, with conditional funding support from Emissions Reduction Alberta.BioLargo Canada Inc. announced a strategic partnership with Fort McKay Oil Services to create Tũ Nipi Water Solutions Ltd., which will focus on treating oil sands process water, wastewater and other industrial water in the Athabasca region.Fort McKay Oil Services is a registered First Nation company. BioLargo Canada holds a minority stake in the new venture, which the partners say will be led by First Nations.Emissions Reduction Alberta has conditionally approved Tũ Nipi’s first grant application to support commercial trials of BioLargo technology for treating oil sands process water. The project has a total budget of $4.6 million.BioLargo Canada will primarily handle technology development and said commercial trials are already underway in northern Alberta.The project comes as Alberta grapples with more than 1.4 billion cubic metres of fluid tailings stored in oil sands tailings ponds.Alberta's Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee has recommended developing and testing treatment technologies and establishing science-based standards for treated water. The provincial government has accepted those recommendations.The companies said they have also identified potential customers and an initial wastewater project involving BioLargo technologies designed to address PFAS contamination and odour.“Clean water is the top priority of every Canadian indigenous community and the regulatory environment is finally catching up to that,” said Tũ Nipi CEO Ron Quintal.“Fort McKay has learned to balance energy while prioritizing the environment. This partnership is about bringing solutions to problems that our people have been asking about for a generation.”BioLargo has been involved in oil sands water treatment research since 2011, when it became a founding industrial partner in the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Tailings Water Treatment at the University of Alberta.That research included work alongside oil sands producers, EPCOR, Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, Alberta Innovates and Alberta Environment to examine treatment options for persistent organic contaminants in oil sands process-affected water..BioLargo said its current technology can combine different water treatment methods into systems designed for complex industrial, municipal and oil sands wastewater.“This is a venture led by First Nations people, in a community that has made embracing future generations its purpose, and we are honored to serve in it,” said BioLargo Inc. President and CEO Dennis Calvert.“Our company's roots in this work are Canadian, and this is a return home.”Calvert said government policy, regional partnerships and industry demand are creating an opportunity to move water treatment technologies from research into commercial use.Tũ Nipi is based in the Fort McKay First Nation near the confluence of the Athabasca and MacKay rivers.The partners plan to hold a formal launch in Fort McMurray in October involving community, government and industry representatives.
