Soheil Khiavi has made a remarkable career out of innovating in the carbon capture and clean energy sector. Now, as President and CEO of Hydron Energy, the serial entrepreneur and his growing team are relishing a unique opportunity to take the five-year-old company’s flagship invention from field testing to the global marketplace.
After extensive lab work at Hydron’s North Vancouver headquarters identified the operational and cost-cutting potential of the INTRUPTor system, which converts methane- and carbon dioxide-rich biogas into low carbon intensity fuels, namely renewable natural gas (RNG), Hydron’s next step was to field-test a mobile version with the support of a $345,250 investment from NorthX.
Soheil Khiavi
CEO of Hydron EnergyThe performance of the mobile INTRUPTor solution in the field spoke volumes. Launched in early 2024 on an Ontario farm, the system’s 99.8% recovery of biomethane at RNG purity levels of between 97.2% and 99.9% was achieved at near-ambient pressures. “Exactly what we needed to prove that INTRUPTor reduces capital and operating costs by up to 50 percent while delivering an industry-leading carbon intensity score,” Khiavi says. (Learn more about Hydron’s journey before the field test here.)
Commercialization and scale-up support
Image of Hydron Energy’s Intensified Regenerative Upgrading Platform Technology (INTRUPTor™)
Leveraging this real-world validation required support for the commercialization and scale-up of the INTRUPTor, and again, NorthX responded with $1,303,774 in follow-on funding. “This allowed us to apply the valuable lessons we learned from the pilot testing of our mobile INTRUPTor in the field to a first-of-its-kind mid-size INTRUPTor unit,” Khiavi says. “But our work with NorthX is about more than funding. By facilitating connections within industry and government, NorthX helped us reach our most exciting milestone yet.”
That milestone is a collaboration agreement between Hydron and FortisBC Energy, BC’s largest distributor of natural gas, RNG, and piped propane. Together, the companies are working to identify wastewater treatment plants and landfill sites in BC for the INTRUPTor’s first commercial deployments in the first quarter of 2026. As of early 2025, a landfill-based system in Chilliwack has been selected, and the project is progressing toward deployment.
“The NorthX investments have been catalysts for commercialization, and for potential deals with other organizations like NW Natural, Enbridge, EPCOR and other utilities,” Khiavi says. “We have $60 million of potential sales on our books, and our target is to do $120 million by 2030.”
To reach that target, more funding is required. To that end, Hydron secured a bridge investment from Modern Niagara Group, a multi-trade contractor and building solutions company, and Standard Nutrition, a US-based agricultural, dairy, and nutrition solution provider, in February of 2025, and has recently launched $20 million Series A funding round.
More jobs, fewer emissions
Scaling manufacturing capabilities in BC is one of several ways the INTRUPTor will benefit Canadians. “The core of our technology is being manufactured in North Vancouver, which will create at least 50 new jobs once we reach capacity.”
Emissions-reduction benefits are similarly compelling. INTRUPTor yields RNG flow rates that can scale from 25 to 2,370 standard cubic feet per minute (SCFM), which, over the course of a year, would satisfy the annual natural gas needs of between 150 and 1,500 average-sized homes.
Helping supply meet surging demand
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) projects RNG demand to increase more than tenfold between 2023 and 2040, driven by compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 22 percent from gas utilities and 11 percent from commercial and industrial users, positioning RNG as a critical decarbonization tool.
Despite these strong growth prospects, BCG reports that the RNG market remains supply-constrained, with current and planned projects covering only about two-thirds of forecasted demand, and that’s where the INTRUPTor is being positioned to play a key role. While landfill gas currently accounts for 60-65% of supply due to favourable economics and scale, agricultural waste and wastewater are gaining momentum thanks to their exceptionally low carbon intensity (CI). As Khiavi points out, that’s why Hydron deployed its field test on a farm, and is targeting wastewater treatment and landfill sites with its FortisBC partnership.
As geopolitical uncertainty impacts the US cleantech sector, Khiavi says Hydron is also exploring opportunities in Europe and Asia. Flexibility, he emphasizes, will be key to the company’s continued momentum: “We need to be versatile and always ready to adapt. And with partners like NorthX behind us, I have complete confidence in our trajectory.”
Hydron Energy has received $1,649,024 in investments through NorthX’s 2022 Open Call for Innovation and follow-on funding. Learn more about Hydron Energy and meet our other innovators on our portfolio page.
