Vertogen Technologies Inc.

Unlocking the energy potential of organic waste management through advanced anaerobic digestion.
Sector: Agriculture
Technology: Low Carbon Fuels
NorthX Backing: $500,000
Project Value: $1,300,000
Project Status: Active

Vertogen Technologies, headquartered at the Annacis Research Centre in Delta, BC, offers solutions in wastewater treatment, resource recovery, and renewable energy. The company’s mission is to commercialize innovative environmental technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the efficiency of anaerobic digestion. Its flagship technology is the Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) Accelerator that significantly improves the process of converting municipal, agricultural, and industrial organic waste into RNG.

The Problem

Conventional anaerobic digestion is a slow process that limits throughput and requires large capital-intensive facilities that still produce significant residual waste. The system is notoriously fragile, often failing due to ‘acidification’—a common imbalance where acid-producing bacteria outpace the microbes that form methane. This buildup stalls gas production and creates significant operational risk. Past attempts to accelerate the process by separating the biological stages have consistently proven too complex and costly to be commercially viable, leaving the industry with a less-efficient model to create biogas.

Implementing a technology that overcomes these barriers could increase RNG potential from a single facility by 3-4 times. In British Columbia, this would increase the projected 2050 RNG production from waste from 8.1 PJ/y to at least 16.2 PJ/y, substantially advancing progress toward clean energy targets. The same potential can be broadly realized across Canada and internationally, potentially adding a new tool to decarbonize the natural gas sector.

The Solution

Vertogen’s RNG Accelerator technology delivers a breakthrough by dramatically accelerating a key biological step.

It produces high concentrations of volatile fatty acids — primarily acetate — in just one to two days. This acetate-rich mixture is then fully converted into biogas in under six hours, with fewer waste residuals — a significant improvement over the traditional 20-day process.

NorthX’s investment will enable Vertogen to expand its lab-scale pilot and test different configurations of the technology across multiple feedstocks. More importantly, the funding will make it possible to implement the Renewable Natural Gas Accelerator technology at scale, co-located with an operating anaerobic digester at a wastewater treatment plant in British Columbia.

“Traditional anaerobic digestion leaves a significant amount of energy untapped. Our RNG Accelerator technology unlocks this potential by fundamentally optimizing the biological process before it even enters the main digester. We’re not just incrementally improving biogas output; we’re aiming to double it. This creates a powerful economic engine for our partners, turning waste streams into valuable, low-carbon energy and drastically reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and disposal costs.”
Troy David Vassos, Vertogen Technologies
Vertogen Technologies Inc.

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