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Our podcast features special guests and leaders discussing the many projects, partnerships, and innovations driving hydrogen adoption — starting in the Edmonton Metro Region, and expanding outward to Alberta, Canada, and the World.
Edmonton Region Hydrogen HUB is a collaborative initiative dedicated to advancing a thriving hydrogen economy in the Edmonton Region and beyond. Bringing together municipalities, industry, and associations, the HUB focuses on building a robust hydrogen value chain through collaboration, system integration, and policy advocacy. Leveraging the region’s world-class hydrogen production facilities and strategic infrastructure, the HUB drives innovation, promotes decarbonization, and stimulates economic growth, positioning the Edmonton region as a global leader in sustainable hydrogen development.
Welcome to the Hydrogen 2.0 podcast where Alberta's energy story evolves. Join us as we explore what's changed, what's working, and what's next from Edmonton to beyond. Here's your host, Kessia Kopecky.
Kessia:Welcome back, listeners, to Hydrogen two point o. I'm here today with for this episode with Eugene and Indur. So thank you both so much for joining me. Eugene, I'd love to start with you if you can tell me a little bit about who you are and what you're working on.
Eugene:Okay. My name is Eugene Leptak. I come from Enoch Cree Nation. I am a direct descendant for the with the first chiefs of Enoch Crenation, Ptolemy Leptak. And then Enoch Leptak passed or got treaty or signed treaty for Enoch back in 1867.
Eugene:I'll introduce myself in Cree. My name is or. Yeah. So that just explains where I'm from. My spirit name is Stone Bear Man in Cree.
Kessia:Lovely. Thank you so much.
Eugene:Given that name in ceremony. Stone Bear Man. Yes.
Kessia:I like that. And you are the president of Global Indigenous. Can you tell me a little bit about what Global Indigenous does?
Eugene:So we're a facilitating company that, we we find partners with like minds with ourselves and what one of our goals is to make meaningful jobs and opportunity for indigenous reserves across Canada and across the world. We're in touch with many nations across Canada. I think we've met with over 350 nations so far. Yeah. We we represent everything from hydrogen biofuels, vertical grow, that is a long list of things that we we represent, firefighting gel.
Eugene:Mhmm. So one of the main ones I feel is big meaning for me is this hydrogen and taking First Nations off the grid and making them sovereign in water, food, energy, and data. So, yeah, it's a a huge mandate that I have being president of Global Indigenous, and it's such a pleasure to be part with our friend here, Indir, on this huge opportunity.
Kessia:Which leads me to my next Indur. I'd love to especially, this is a this is a great segue. Tell me a little bit about you or tell our listeners a little bit about you, and, what you're working on.
Indur:I'm Indur Singh. I've been, living in Edmonton for almost forty years now. We started SBI Group of Companies in 1998, for developing, technologies locally which have a global use, starting from pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, going into renewable energy. We licensed technology at Shell Petroleum for, commercialization, moving into hydrogen, which is again fully locally developed in Edmonton with the global use applications in mind and especially for the remote off the grid communities for providing them control on producing their own power and eventually food and water and heat for their communities.
Kessia:Can you tell me a little bit and and think of, you know, not everybody listening has a very, very technical background or a very technical expertise and knowledge on hydrogen and chemistry. So maybe if you're explaining it to, say, a tenth grader, can you explain a little bit about what your technology is and how it works?
Indur:Our technology we named GOLU Hydrogen, And GOLU Hydrogen is, producing hydrogen where it is needed on-site, when it is needed from locally available feedstock called ethanol, which is produced from farm produce, like grains or non food quality grains. It is ethanol is converted into hydrogen using our proprietary technology. We have global patents. It converts ethanol into hydrogen as well as biogenic c o two and other co products are heat. And that hydrogen is, in technical language, called five nine purity, which is 99.999% pure.
Indur:And it can be used to produce electricity or for heating for the home or for other chemical processes or producing biofuels or other useful chemicals.
Kessia:And it sounds like certain aspects within that system, you can also use to help with vertical farming, help with water? Can you explain a little bit about what that looks like?
Indur:Yes. So when we produce hydrogen, the other co products are biogenic c o two and heat. That biogenic c o two can produce, or help producing food in the greenhouses. Plants to absorb CO2 and use water to produce sugars and that ultimately convert it into food. So we provide CO2 which is very expensive to buy otherwise biogenic CO2.
Indur:And in in Alberta and in northern communities especially, the greenhouses are lying idle because they either do not have enough sun and also don't have c o two. Our process provide hydrogen heat and also CO two. So hydrogen can be converted into light to light up the greenhouses. CO two is added to produce food. And the water, which is a byproduct when the electricity is produced from hydrogen, hydrogen reacts with atmospheric oxygen, produce pure portable drinking water.
Indur:And that water can help also communities to to help them, in their drinking water needs or growing the plants.
Kessia:That leads me to my next thought, and this one's for you, Eugene. And Indur, if you wanna hop in on this as well, love to love to get some banter going back and forth. Why would this kind of technology, for example, SBI Bio's, Golu Hydrogen, be of particular interest to indigenous communities? Or, you know, like, even from your perspective, you represent a lot of indigenous communities, which also happen to be very many of them, they're very remote and off grid. Right?
Kessia:Yes. Yes. Why would that be of interest?
Eugene:Well, living in Canada too, a lot of our people are at the end of the line. So living off of, diesel, and it's so polluting to our our Earth. And energy like this, there's no cleaner way of making energy that I know of. Mhmm. Yeah.
Eugene:This is beyond green. It has to have its own color from what I understand because it's so clean. Mhmm. And not only that, water water is big for a lot of nations that are still on water advisory. I think we still have maybe 30% of the nations in Canada still on water boil advisory.
Kessia:Yeah. What kind of resources do these different communities have to make investments into this kind of technology? And and also with that, does it vary?
Eugene:Yeah. It varies for nation to nation. A lot of them are ain't at the table in bigger economy like oil and gas like Alberta. There's a lot of northern nations that are living very prosperously, but there's many, like, in Southern Alberta that are struggling, like, a lot of people laying at the table as other nations and government only gives you so much money. So it's hard to be self sustaining because we're not at the table on big energy.
Eugene:Like, with the transfer agreement act that our nation's lost, we we don't get any money coming back that Canada takes from our lands and resources. So
Kessia:When you're looking at this technology and, like, obviously, I'm not in the room with the two of you as you're discussing kind of any kind of deployment or partnerships. But when you are looking at this kind of technology, would you find that this off grid application coming out of the Edmonton region as fairly accessible? Or
Eugene:Yeah. It's it's really huge. It's I see a lot of big things happening, and we're just trying to get it out there. After it's commercialized, then we can take it to every nation that we know or wanna be part of this. We're trying to paint a big picture for all nations across Canada.
Eugene:Take everybody off the grid to be sovereign in food and water and energy Mhmm. Data. It's it's really huge times and to have our people at the forefront of these negotiations is is huge.
Kessia:Mhmm. And, Indra, like, because, Eugene, you just kinda mentioned data, and I remember one time we were having a conversation about data centers and and supporting data. Do you do you have anything you wanna maybe add to this thought here?
Indur:Yes. So the the hydrogen that we produce can produce power.
Kessia:Mhmm.
Indur:And that power allows the data center to be operated. It could be behind the fence. Somebody want to have few megawatt data center. It can be very well supported by our systems, and they could could be completely off the grids. Data center needs continuous power.
Indur:And with solar and wind, which is not continuous power available all the time in the day, requires huge storage batteries. Mhmm. In our case, we provide continuous production of hydrogen, so continuous production of power as a base load that that is dependable and reliable. Mhmm. So data center can operate on that, which I think is a very critical thing for the first station remote communities Mhmm.
Indur:To have that connectivity that allows them to have education and everything else they need to do in their life.
Kessia:Yeah. And also that connection to being able to access resources and Yes. Information with other communities. Yeah. That makes sense.
Kessia:What would you say is maybe a larger gap that this technology could fill just in that?
Indur:I think the largest gap right now we have the any of these off grid communities or remote communities facing is that the the availability of energy. Mhmm. And, if energy is not available, everything else will stop. Our food production, our water, our communication, and transportation. So to today, they are dependent totally on the delivery of diesel, which cost a lot.
Indur:And once the increased cost of the energy increase the cost of home heating, increase the cost of doing every other work. With our technology, it's only ethanol that need to be delivered. It is produced in Canada, produced from the local farm products, and once it is delivered there, it can convert into hydrogen and other co products which are very useful, especially the heat that can heat the facilities or homes, as well as that the water that is generated can support the communities which are on the wild water advisory. The co products, CO2, help them produce food. Food is very expensive in those location, especially because of the transportation cost.
Indur:And this eliminates the transportation, producing food right in the community. Other thing is that as they produce the food, as they produce their own power, they have a chance to learn to operate this unit, get educated, maintain it. In the longer run, we see the community getting more confidence and more self reliant. I think that that is the key thing. We think it this this help, our technology will help them.
Indur:Mhmm.
Kessia:Yeah. I find that really interesting that, you know, we're sitting here for anybody listening, if you can't hear buzz in the background, we're sitting here right now on the trade floor at the twenty twenty six Canadian Hydrogen Convention. And we're at a hydrogen convention. We're talking about hydrogen on a hydrogen podcast, and yet the conversation about food and agriculture comes up. The conversation about data and Internet comes up.
Kessia:So it's very fascinating also to see this as a little bit of a business case towards that cross sector collaboration or connection as well.
Eugene:Yes. Having that circular economy built around one of these systems. Yep. So it makes it more viable for, like, for someone to invest for their nation and take them off the grid. Yeah.
Eugene:So it'll pay itself off in within three years.
Kessia:Yeah. Exactly.
Eugene:So then they're living sovereign Mhmm. With data Yeah. Food, energy.
Kessia:Yeah. So I guess with that, and maybe this one's more for Andrew to start and Eugene after, what does success look like when you're like, I guess, actually, I wanna go back a little bit. Maybe not as much of what success looks like because I think if somebody's listening to this whole episode, they might get a sense of what that is. And more, it's what's that last step in order for you to reach the success that you need with deploying this technology?
Indur:So we yes. You're right. From company point of view, the success is deployment of the of our units. What we see is that the success means that the communities around us become self reliant. They become sovereign and they're producing energy, their food, their water, which are the critical elements in any society.
Indur:So we believe that they're making all these small communities self reliant and self dependent, not depending on transported food or water, that is a success. And also educating the local population, involving them, youth into it, training them, and making them more confident in their own future, building their own future, taking it in their own hands. That's we believe is the success in our mind.
Kessia:And what would be that what would be that step that you need to get to that?
Indur:So to get to that point, hydrogen is a new thing. So in any community and especially First Nation, we're trying to learn their cultural values, their their how they work, what they really need, and modifying the systems according to that one, and training them, educating them, and we are getting educated from them as well on their on their values, their social values, personal values. We are trying to fill that gap by educating each other. And once they are comfortable with it, I believe then every community want to have it. We already know they want to have it.
Indur:But right now, they're trying to learn and understand and become familiar with it.
Kessia:Eugene, I see you nodding.
Eugene:Yeah.
Kessia:Yeah. And enthusiastically too. So I wanna hear what you have to say too.
Eugene:No. He filled it in, like, bringing our people back and give them this opportunity to learn and teach each other and grow as the process is learned in each community.
Kessia:Yeah.
Eugene:This is huge for so many people because a lot of us don't get opportunity. Some people are so far away from the city where there's no jobs or work. Yeah. We're bringing opportunity to every nation and teach them every step of the way so that you're successful. Yeah.
Eugene:That's one of our mandates and our goals. What what we built together in the past few years, we've been working with Indore.
Kessia:And it's it's so great to see you coming to conferences like the Hydrogen Convention and and working to make sure that those voices have a seat at the table. Right?
Eugene:Yeah. Yeah.
Kessia:That's really important, I think that's something where, four years ago, that was that was a little different. There was a, especially from my understanding with indigenous communities and partners, there was a lot less representation and a lot less awareness on their side too. So these conversations about talking about, you know, like, what are the what are the opportunities for these communities and these small businesses or innovators that are not within just the normal general metro, able to participate?
Eugene:Yeah.
Kessia:And is there a way that we can draw a line from a to b in order to help make that connection?
Eugene:Yeah. Yeah.
Kessia:Yeah. And I think that's a lot of what you're doing.
Eugene:Socializing, bringing that power to them. Yeah.
Kessia:Okay. So I have one more question, and it's that this is the end of it. So, really, it's is there anything that you wanna tell us? Is there anything you think the audience should know that, maybe there's a misperception that you want to address? Maybe there's a priority that you want to share and highlight?
Kessia:Maybe there's a shameless plug?
Eugene:Well, for myself, like, I don't see I look around the room, I don't see any indigenous here. So I've taken the opportunity here to get that voice out and be the voice for all First Nations. And if I'm standing as president of Global Indigenous, I feel that's my mandate to get that voice out there. It's such an honor to be sitting here right now and the sky's the limit with opportunity that's coming for all people.
Kessia:And it's a pleasure to have you.
Eugene:Yes. Thank you.
Kessia:Indur, is there anything that you want to share with our audience and anybody listening?
Indur:I would say in in general, looking at today's political, situations and the development around the globe happening, I think we have to restart going back into producing our own food, our own energy, our own become more self reliant, less and less dependent on other economies or other world powers who who interfere with our our everyday life. If we are able to become self sustaining energy production that interconnects to data, with the food, with everything else, and going to the greenhouses produce food. I have been pushing my kids for a long time that we must produce our own food. And so that it's not that only we become self reliant. We leave food for those third world countries from where it comes for those people who can now afford if we are less importing from there.
Indur:So it it that's that's that's how we try to develop the technologies that's more useful for common people rather than for use by very large industries. We try to make them modular. We try to make them more accessible for ordinary people who can take this thing in their own hand and and charge of their own destiny.
Kessia:Yeah. Community application. Yes. Yeah. Perfect.
Kessia:Well, thank you both so much for joining me today. It was a pleasure. It's also really exciting. Normally, these episodes, we do virtually talking heads. Mhmm.
Kessia:And it's nice to be sitting here across the table from both of you and Having having this conversation in
Eugene:me say it from my heart says Yeah. A lot better than looking at a script.
Kessia:Right. Yeah. Thank you so much both of you.
Indur:Well, thank you for having me here.
Eugene:Thank you
Indur:so much. Appreciate. Thank you.
Kessia:That's it for today's episode of Hydrogen two point o. If you are looking to learn more about the Edmonton region's hydrogen economy, learn more about the Edmonton Region Hydrogen Hub, or get in touch with us, you can visit hydrogen.ca or send us an email at hello@hydrogen.ca. Also, feel free to follow us on LinkedIn, the Edmonton Region Hydrogen Hub, to stay up to date on all the news and all the activities happening in our hydrogen economy.