Ottawa invests $6M in Mississauga-based cleantech firm Imtex Membranes

The federal government is investing more than $6 million in Mississauga, Ontario-based Imtex Membranes Corp., a cleantech company that has developed a gas-separating technology to significantly reduce energy consumption and emissions in petrochemical operations. Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), announced the funding, provided by Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The investment enables Imtex to demonstrate its patented Permylene membrane at the scale expected by the petrochemical industry. Imtex’s products could lower the operating costs of its customers by up to 50%, ISED says. The technology offers an alternative to steam-based distillation for purifying and extracting olefins (ethylene, propylene and butanes), used to make polymers, plastics and other products. Imtex is a subsidiary of Toronto-based Monteco Ltd., a private strategic investment firm that commercializes early-stage technologies and grows them into companies in the industrials, cleantech and software sectors.