By paul Morden, from www.theobserver.ca The Observer
SARNIA – Woodland Biofuels’ $12-million Sarnia demonstration plant is up and could be producing ethanol from wood waste by the end of the year, says president Greg Nuttall.
The newly-built facility is located at the Western University Research Park’s Bioindustrial Innovation Centre in Sarnia.
“It’s all assembled and commissioning is underway,” Nuttall said. “We expect to be producing ethanol by the end of this year, early next year.”
The plant will allow Mississauga-based Woodland Biofuels Inc., to demonstrate technology for converting waste biomass feed stocks into ethanol.
“Wood waste is our initial feedstock but we could take any kind of biomass,” Nuttall said. That includes agricultural waste.
More than 25 workers were involved in construction of the demonstration plant about 10 will be involved in the operation of the plant, Nuttall said.
“It’s not a small plant,” he added. “It’s 80-feet high at its tallest point.” That’s about the same height a commercial-scale plant would be built, he said. “The diameter would be bigger, but the height would be the same.”
Nuttall said they’re excited to reach this point. “This is what we’ve been working for, in my case, for seven years,” he said.
The demonstration plant will knit together what the company says is a series of proven technologies to make fuel ethanol from wood waste.
“We will show, we think, a projected commercial cost of production that is significantly less than what it currently costs oil companies to produce a gallon of gasoline,” Nuttall said.
The next step will be developing a commercial-size plant.
A commercial plant that uses wood waste isn’t likely to be built in Sarnia-Lambton, according to Nuttall.
“There just isn’t a lot of wood waste in the area,” he said. “If we can find an alternative source of biomass, such as agricultural waste, the great thing about Sarnia is that it has a really significant pool of chemical engineer-type expertise and plant-operating expertise.” That expertise “has been invaluable” in getting the demonstration plant to this point, Nuttall said.
Woodland expects the demonstration plant will produce data needed to scale up to a commercial plant within about six months, he said. “We’re going to continue to operate the demonstration plant after that. It is essentially going to become our R and D centre.”
Once the data’s in place, the company will turn it’s attention to a commercial-scale plant. “Which,” Nuttall said, “will probably take a couple of years to complete.”
The energy market is in a good place currently for Woodland Biofuels’ technology, according to Nuttall. The market for corn ethanol in the U.S. has been basically capped, he said. “It’s made of food and food is not the best thing to be making your gas from.” He added, “Just about everybody is behind making automotive fuel from non-food feed stocks. “And, there are lots of incentives in place to do that.”
If a company can do that at a lower cost than using fossil fuels, “that’s the icing on the cake,” Nuttall said.
Ontario contributed $4 million from its Innovation Demonstration Fund to the demonstration plant.
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