Sarnia company draws $4 million federal backing for generators fuelled by aluminum

Sarnia’s AlumaPower has attracted $4 million in federal backing for an $8-million project to commercialize generators fuelled by recycled aluminum. The systems consume replaceable metal discs to produce portable electricity. Our story explains the technology and its development, including a 2023 testing explosion and subsequent workplace safety conviction, as the company advances toward larger demonstrations and potential defence applications.

A Sarnia company developing generators that consume recycled aluminum to produce electricity has attracted $4 million in federal backing to help bring the technology to market.

FedDev Ontario announced the funding Oct. 9 for AlumaPower’s $8-million commercialization project. The support comes through the Regional Defence Investment Initiative, with potential military applications among the intended markets.

The announcement follows an April workplace safety conviction arising from a 2023 explosion that injured three workers during prototype testing at the company’s Sarnia facility.

At the centre of AlumaPower’s technology is an unusual fuel: aluminum shaped into replaceable discs.

According to the company’s technical description, its generator uses a spinning aluminum disc, oxygen from the air and a water-based chemical solution to produce electricity. As the reaction proceeds, the metal is consumed and converted into aluminum hydroxide, which the company says it collects for reuse or sale.

Refuelling involves exchanging the spent disc for a fresh one. AlumaPower says its design can use impure, recycled aluminum, including material recovered from retired cars.

The underlying aluminum-air chemistry draws on energy stored in the metal. The University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute explains that electricity was originally invested in producing the aluminum, and that the spent hydroxide must be reprocessed to turn it back into metal. That energy requirement remains part of the technology’s fuel cycle.

The attraction is portable power that can operate away from the electricity grid. Ottawa identifies defence, industrial operations, utilities and electric vehicle charging among the potential applications.

“National defence requires power generation that is safe, clean, reliable, and difficult to detect in the field,” AlumaPower chief executive Rob Alexander said in the federal announcement.

The latest funding follows a separate $5-million contribution agreement with Natural Resources Canada for an AlumaPower generator demonstration involving Purolator. Federal disclosure records list that agreement as running from March 2025 to March 2028.

In an announcement dated October 2026, AlumaPower reported nearly 200 hours of integrated testing under changing electrical loads representative of data centres and artificial intelligence computing. The company said its system followed those changing demands while maintaining stable operation.

The workplace safety case concerned prototype testing during an earlier stage of development.

On Nov. 14, 2023, workers were testing a four-cell aluminum-air generator inside an enclosed fume hood. According to Ontario’s court bulletin, hydrogen produced during testing was not venting as intended through a small, water-filled tube. Gas accumulated inside the hood while workers investigated, and an explosion injured three workers.

Ministry investigators found the testing area was not designed or rated for the hazard and contained potential ignition sources.

AlumaPower pleaded guilty April 20, 2026, to failing to ensure a process capable of producing an explosive mixture with air was carried out safely. It was fined $90,000, plus a mandatory 25 per cent victim fine surcharge. All three workers recovered and returned to work. The company had no previous convictions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

AlumaPower says its next development phase will focus on refining the system and advancing larger demonstrations with commercial partners, building on its recent tests under changing data-centre power demands.