Napanee based FireRein is sparking innovation in eco-friendly firefighting
Napanee, Ontario-based FireRein Inc. has introduced a groundbreaking approach to firefighting with its bio-based water additive to displace surfactant foams. Made entirely from 100% food-grade ingredients, FireRein’s Eco-Gel™ offers a non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and PFAS-free (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) alternative to traditional firefighting additives. Not only does this innovative product minimize environmental impact through green chemistry, it also meets or exceeds the performance standards of its firefighting counterparts.
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) first became aware of FireRein in 2017, during the company’s early stages of development. At that time, FireRein had just emerged from the lab and was quickly gaining traction. BIC recognized the potential of Eco-Gel™ and decided to make a modest investment to fuel the company's research and development efforts—an investment that FireRein repaid in early 2020.
By 2022, FireRein had accomplished key milestones, including enhancing the shelf life of Eco-Gel™ to commercially acceptable time scales and earning UL and USDA Bio-Preferred certifications for its product. These achievements underscored the product’s viability and helped the company build a solid foundation for commercial growth.
To scale its R&D and expand its sales team, FireRein sought additional capital, leading BIC to spearhead a $1.2-million investment round that helped FireRein bring additional investors and capital to the table. BIC’s involvement also extended to supporting the company through its participation in BIC’s Centre for Commercialization of Sustainable Chemistry Innovation (COMM SCI) program with a project that included technical services and support to develop and deploy a prototype concentration and injection system, increasing adoption of the technology and ensuring market readiness, through product demonstration and vehicle changeovers, and scaling up production at its partner tolling facility.
Despite these advances, 2023 brought significant challenges. While FireRein’s product was robust and market-ready, the lengthy and expensive sales cycle with municipal firefighting departments became a major hurdle, threatening the company’s financial stability. Responding to these pressures, FireRein’s Board of Directors enlisted BIC’s expertise to assist in overcoming these hurdles by providing strategic advice and business support allowing the company to make a crucial shift in strategy, moving from a direct-sales approach to a distribution model. This change allowed the company to broaden its reach and accelerate customer acquisition, effectively overcoming the slow adoption rates in its original market while keeping up front costs to a minimum. Alongside this strategic pivot, BIC provided additional critical technical and operational resources to help FireRein navigate this transition.
The impact of this shift was swift and substantial. By the close of 2023, FireRein’s revenue more than doubled, with the bulk of sales generated through the new distributor model. This marked a significant turnaround and positioned the company for continued growth and broader market reach. In addition, this shift enabled FireRein to identify industrial and railway applications as highly profitable target markets with lower-cost and rapid sales cycles. By the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, the pivot away from direct municipal sales was completed, positioning FireRein for its highest revenue year to date.
As 2024 unfolded, FireRein continued to see an upward trajectory, with projected revenues of $1.2 million for the year, a 300% increase in revenue as a result of the new strategy and strategic investment and advice. Key customers including the top mining companies and railway operators within Canada, and national South American firefighting services began commercial-scale testing with a view to full-scale adoption in Q1 2025, promising even higher revenues going forward. A potential new application is dust control, especially in environments where traditional de-icing agents like calcium chloride is not indication including areas where water is scarce or environmentally sensitive regions, hence ensuring year-round demand for EcoGel.
FireRein’s story is one of innovation, resilience, adaptability, and radical disruption of a traditionally change-averse industry. By creating a safer, eco-friendly, firefighting solution that can be rapidly adopted by the market using existing firefighting apparatus and minimal to no modification and navigating the complexities of scaling a green chemistry technology, FireRein is charting a new course in the industry. BIC’s strategic investment and support played a game-changing role in helping FireRein overcome challenges and unlock new opportunities.
BIC has been able to support companies and accomplish some amazing results with Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), to support green, clean and sustainable technology companies, like FireRein, by providing strategic investment to early-stage companies through its Sustainable Chemistry Alliance fund and strategic support through BIC’s embedded assets.
For more information please contact:
Meaghan Seagrave Fiona McDonald
Executive Director Marketing and Communications Manager
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada Bioindustrial Innovation Canada
Email: mseagrave@bincanada.ca Email: fmcdonald@bincanada.ca
Tel: 506.471.5676
About FireRein
FireRein is a cleantech company, founded by firefighters in rural Ontario, driven to eliminate the use of firefighting foams that contain PFAS and many toxic chemicals that can harm communities and the environment. Its patented Eco-Gel™ is a certified 100% bio-based product that is easy to use and can be washed away or removed as food waste. It is the first and only water additive that is non-toxic and biodegradable, providing an environmentally friendly alternative solution to fire suppression of both class A and B fires.
About Bioindustrial Innovation Canada
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) is a nationally focused not-for-profit business accelerator that provides critical strategic investment, advice, and technical services to business developers of clean, green, and sustainable technologies.
BIC focuses on critical strategic capital investment in SMEs with compelling business plans where innovation in science and engineering can bring about major advances in sustainable chemistry. Sustainable chemistry is playing an important role in the development of solutions to the impacts of climate change, peak oil, energy security, the need for safe water and the use of scarce natural resources. The increasing global demand for green and safer products offers the opportunity to create thousands of new jobs for Canadians.
For more information about Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC), visit www.bincanada.ca or connect directly with Executive Director, Meaghan Seagrave: mseagrave@bincanada.ca; www.linkedin.com/in/meaghanseagrave.
About FedDev Ontario
For 15 years, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has worked to advance and diversify the southern Ontario economy through funding opportunities and business services that support innovation, growth and job creation in Canada’s most populous region. The Agency has delivered impressive results, which can be seen in southern Ontario businesses that are creating innovative technologies, improving productivity, growing revenues, creating jobs, and in the economic advancement of communities across the region. Learn more about the impacts the Agency is having in southern Ontario by exploring our investment profiles, our Southern Ontario Spotlight, and FedDev Ontario’s X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.