Canada enjoys biofuel boost with first waste-to-biofuel plant

Canada-based biofuel and biochemical producer Enerkem said yesterday that it has received approval to build a commercial facility to turn municipal waste into biofuels.

The C$70m (£39m) plant will be a joint effort with Toronto-based GreenField Ethanol, Canada's leading ethanol producer, and is the first of its type in North America.

"This unprecedented project is set to change the dynamics of the waste and fuel industries by making waste that would otherwise be landfilled a resource for transportation fuels,” said Vincent Chornet, chief executive of Enerkem.

The plant will work by using the waste to create synthetic gas. Then catalysts will be used to convert the gas into ethanol, methanol, diesel or a variety of high-value biochemicals, such as acetic acid or acetate.

In 2008, Enerkem entered into a 25-year agreement with the City of Edmonton to build and operate a waste-to-biofuels facility on municipal land and to receive the City's sorted municipal solid waste as feedstock.

The City of Edmonton – which is contributing C$20m to the project - will supply 100,000 tonnes of sorted municipal solid waste that has been recycled and composted every year.

Construction of the biofuels facility will begin before the end of the year. When completed, Energen says the facility will initially produce 36 million litres (9.5 million gallons) of ethanol per year, reducing Alberta's carbon dioxide (CO2) footprint by more than six million tons over the next 25 years.

In related news, the Canadian government has set up a C$500m fund to support next-generation biofuel development.

The fund – which is managed by Sustainable Development Technology Canada – will help build large demonstration-scale facilities for new technologies already demonstrated at a test scale.

The fund will cover up to 40 per cent of a project's cost, with the money to be repaid over 10 years after the project's completion "based on free cash flow ".

Sustainable Development Technology Canada also has a C$550m fund to support other projects that address climate change.