By Tara Jeffry
From www.theobserver.ca The Observer
“It’s really something; I can’t quite get my head around it,” said Clem Bowman, chairperson of the Energy Pathways Task Force, Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Bowman spoke Monday at the grand opening of the centre, located at the Sarnia-Lambton campus of UWO Research Park.
“I think they’ve seen that I’m speaking out for Canada, and the fact that I’ve been involved both east and west,” said the internationally renowned oil sands scientist and former head researcher at Imperial Oil in Sarnia.
“I spent half my career in Sarnia, and half in Alberta, so I’ve seen both sides of it. I think they see I’m a person that can knit this together.”
Officials at the event touted the centre as North America’s leading biotechnology incubator and shared pilot plant facility, noting that researchers around the world are looking at sustainable feedstock such as switch grass, soybeans, algae and corn to create greener products than those made from petrochemicals.
“I see, for example, the concept of there being biofuels and fossil fuels linked together, because there’s some synergies here, that will help solve these climate problems,” Bowman said.
The centre is designed to provide the facilities and expertise to move the manufacturing of green products out of the lab into commercial enterprise.
“This centre promises to be a bastion of discovery and advance-m e nt,” said Gary Goodyear, minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario.
The new commercialization centre was announced nearly two years ago and has received $25 million in provincial and federal funding.
Renovations and new construction have taken place over the last 18 months and the centre became operational in August.
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