Reducing Carbon Emissions for a Cleaner Future

Photo by Kovah on Unsplash

Valent is an innovative Canadian low-carbon energy technology company pursuing next-gen low-carbon fuels for aviation, marine and heavy land transport. The Kensington Private Equity Fund invested in the company back in late 2019. At its core, Valent is developing a renewable and low-carbon fuels value chain by aggregating and commercializing multiple related patented fuels & energy technologies that could have a significant positive impact on emissions. Valent’s supported core products include:

1. Renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel
2. IMO 2020-compliant desulphurization marine bunker fuel
3. Renewable and low-carbon hydrogen for transport and warehouse operations.

Additional applications of the technologies and equipment support refinery process innovations to reduce energy intensity and lower operating expenses for renewable fuels.

The key technologies being developed by Valent at this time include:

• Forge Hydrocarbons — a renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel with 90% lower emissions than conventional diesel fuel;
• Auterra — Low-energy sulfur and nitrogen removal from marine bunker fuels, off-spec diesel, and biofuel feedstocks. For marine fuel, Auterra delivers significant emissions savings of 54% and reduces refining costs to meet compliance by $10–15/barrel over next best alternative. Broadens current biofuel feedstock market by 1 billon gallons (+25%).
• Nu:Ionic — a distributed hydrogen process that allows hydrogen fill-ups at normal gas stations, distribution centers and warehouses. This will make hydrogen fuel cells economically viable and provides emissions savings in excess of 20%. Nuionic is also working towards a 100% green hydrogen and methanol.
• Imtex — a membrane that allows the separation of carbon chains without distillation. Emissions and energy savings upwards of 30%, helping lower the cost and pollution involved in the manufacturing of plastics and rubber chemicals.

Valent’s investors include strategic participants that give the company a tremendous advantage in terms of scale up. The timing, we hope, is good given the tremendous pressure that has been and will continue to be put on the transportation industry to lower emissions.

Today, transportation represents over a quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the International Energy Agency, demand for diesel is expected to grow by 30% by 2040. Whereas electrification advances in passenger vehicles is driving GHG reductions, heavy transport generally remains an unaddressed, massive market potential. Spurred by COVID-19 stimulus and new EU taxonomy related to the energy transition, interest is growing from major pension funds and institutional investors to tap into the ESG project-investment potential of high-value energy technology platforms such as Valent. Valent is uniquely timed and well-positioned to exploit this once-in-a-century energy transition opportunity.

We expect the first commercial applications of these technological advances to be in fabrication and construction during 2020, and ramping up production in 2021. We look forward to sharing more news as the technology companies backed by Valent turn into businesses and grow.

Visit us at www.kcpl.ca for more information. Follow us on Twitter @kensingtonfunds.