By Bryan Sims From Biorefining Magazine http://biorefiningmagazine.com
The Bioindustrial Innovation Center based out of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, and the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources, a research institute within the faculty of engineering of the University of Western Ontario located in Ilderton, Ontario, have forged a collaboration agreement to accelerate the development and commercialization of biofuels, renewable chemicals and coproducts into the Canadian marketplace.
A formal memorandum of understanding, which extends to March 31, 2013, was signed by the BIC and ICFAR at the national conference of the Agricultural Biorefinery Innovation Network in London, Ontario, Canada on Jan. 11.
According to Murray McLaughlin, BIC executive director, both parties intend to focus on scaling and improving pyrolysis technologies that have been previously worked on by IFCAR led by its Director General Franco Berutti. “What we want to be able to do in our facility is work with their processes and shove them up probably up to 10 kilograms per hour, to get it moving to commercial scale,” McLaughlin said. “Over the next six months I’m hoping that we get two or three projects signed that would come out of their research that would move into our facility.”
In addition to pyrolysis, according to McLaughlin, the two groups also intend to delve into collaborative research in other areas of biorefining, such as torrefaction of biomass and, potentially, algae development. “[Algae] is one area we want to bring into this mix as well, because as algae gets produced, we have to make sure we can create the value of it and figure out the best way to utilize it cost-effectively, and more efficiently,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin told Biorefining Magazine that, although both groups intend to develop various biorefining technologies for the commercial market, BIC and ICFAR don’t intend to go the journey alone.
“We’re not in the business of taking things commercial ourselves,” McLaughlin said. “We’re in the business of working with industrial partners on that. We want to make sure we’ve got commercial interest and commercial partners that are willing to come in right away and all the way through the process.”
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