SeeO2 Energy

SeeO₂ Energy Inc. is a Calgary, Alberta-based clean technology company developing reversible solid oxide cell platforms for industrial decarbonization and power generation. Its core product is a high-temperature electrolyzer that takes CO2 from industrial waste streams and converts it into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, syngas and pure oxygen, which can be used downstream or sold. Operated in reverse, the same platform generates dispatchable power from multiple fuel sources, including hydrogen, natural gas and synthetic fuels.

The company frames the technology around three attributes: energy flexibility (storing energy as fuel and recovering it when needed), fuel optionality across deployment contexts, and readiness for industrial systems, distributed energy and power-intensive environments. It targets settings where carbon conversion, dispatchable power and fuel flexibility create system-level value, and states a vision of efficiently converting captured CO2 and/or water into fuels and chemicals using reversible solid oxide fuel cell technology.

SeeO2 originated as a University of Calgary spin-off founded by two postdoctoral fellows from Professor Viola Birss's chemistry laboratory. It is a small organization, reported in the range of 1-10 employees, operating from Calgary with technology areas spanning electrolysers, power-to-gas, solid oxide fuel cells, CO2 electrolysis, CO2-to-fuels, H2O electrolysis and reversible fuel cells.

Founding story

SeeO2 Energy was founded by Drs. Paul Addo and Beatriz Molero Sanchez, two postdoctoral fellows working in Professor Viola Birss's chemistry laboratory at the University of Calgary, where they developed technology to capture and convert carbon dioxide into high-value products. With assistance from Innovate Calgary they transferred the intellectual property out of the university and launched the company in April 2018. Both founders were former Mitacs Elevate interns; the Mitacs program paid them a monthly salary while they built the company and continued their research as postdoctoral associates, and their internships were sponsored by ATCO, a natural gas and electricity retailer that later invested in the company.

Business model

SeeO2 Energy develops and supplies electrochemical hardware — reversible solid oxide cell systems — to industrial and energy operators. Its stated customer proposition is on-site, cost-competitive production of industrial feedstocks from waste CO2 and water, alongside dispatchable power generation, positioning the equipment within existing industrial infrastructure and distributed energy systems.

Sale and deployment of on-site electrolyzer and reversible fuel cell units that produce industrial feedstocks (carbon monoxide, hydrogen, syngas, oxygen) and dispatchable power for customers; the outputs can be used downstream by the customer or sold.

Traction

By late 2019 the company had completed a successful benchtop prototype, grown to three full-time employees with 10 industry advisors and five board members, secured federal and provincial funding plus a private investment from ATCO, and lined up initial technology testers including a U.S.-based green plastic producer and ATCO Energy, with field-unit testing scheduled for 2020 and commercial shipments anticipated in 2021. The company continues to describe strategic partners on its website.