Canadian Biomass • January February 2017 • Bio-Education

From supply chains to government regulations to the importance of public opinion, there was something for every stakeholder in the biomass industry at the inaugural BioCleantech Forum.

The two-day event, held in Ottawa, drew more than 270 people from industry, government and research to learn and share ideas about the biomass industry and clean technology.

Matt Jones, director general for the Climate Policy Office of Environment and Climate Change Canada, kicked off the plenary day, speaking as part of the first panel on how Canada can reduce GHG emissions in concert with long-term investments in carbon-based energy systems.

Malini Giridhar, vice-president of market development, public and government affairs for Enbridge, said the company has a plan to introduce biofuels into its operations for heating and transportation, but needs government policy to make it happen.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that biofuels actually make economic sense,” Giridhar told the audience. In Ontario, she cited that high-cost biofuels are less expensive than off-peak electricity costs. But the company needs a mandate, she said, to find economical ways to procure biofuels and create demand.

Ecostrat president and CEO Jordon Solomon said he believes the demand for biomass is inevitable, and that Canada is positioned to be a world-class supplier because of predictable feedstock costs. The ability to predict the price of feedstock more makes up for the higher wood and transportation costs, he said.

“Canada can become a centre for bioenergy projects,” Solomon said, concluding that the solution is to create a secure supply chain to meet eventual demand.

Jeffrey Jacobs, president and CEO of biocrude-producer Ensyn, agreed that biomass projects will fail with an incomplete or ill-conceived supply chain, which he listed as the second of four challenges to a successful biomass project. The first challenge is technology, he said. When biomass technologies fail it is highly publicized and subject to great public scrutiny. The third challenge is uncertain or unfavourable regulations. And the fourth, Jacobs said, is the inability of projects to overcome the above and become bankable.

The audience also heard from Drax Power, Fortum and Enerkem about their large-scale biofuel and bioenergy facilities, and how Canada can learn from them.

Day 2 was dedicated to breakout sessions focused on industry specific issues. Topics included using bio-heat for district energy and distributed systems, meeting process heat demands of heavy industry, leveraging existing infrastructure for renewable natural gas, and biocarbon for green steel alternatives.

For the full list of speakers and subjects they addressed, go to the event website, www.biocleantech.ca.

Together for a thriving low-carbon economy. That was the theme for the inaugural Renewable Industries Canada forum, which took place in late November at The Westin in Ottawa, Ont.

The forum was designed to engage participants in critical and lively discussions on transitioning Canada to a thriving low-carbon economy, through furthering the role of renewable fuels and bio-based products. Renewable Industries Canada president Andrea Kent welcomed attendees to the forum. “With a national carbon tax coming, I don’t think there could be a better time to have a conversation about this,” she told the crowd.

The first session of the day focused on exploring Canadian public opinion on policy and climate change. The panel consisted of Dr. David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data; Paul Vieira of The Wall Street Journal; and MP Will Amos (Pontiac, Que.).

Coletto told the crowd that most Canadians recognize that there is conclusive evidence that climate change is real; however, that doesn’t necessarily make it their top priority. He said that when polled, about eight per cent of Canadians say that climate change is the most important issue, compared with issues like security and the economy, which account for about 50 per cent.

Vieira discussed how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government’s decision to place the environment and climate change as a top priority is going to come with significant challenges.

“They’ll have to walk a very delicate balance with a fairly aggressive climate change policy while dealing with an economy that’s trying to find its feet,” he said.

During the panel session, Ian Thomson of Advanced Biofuels Canada asked the question, “What’s in it for Canadians to get behind climate action?”

One aspect that needs to be considered is that governments need to ensure that all regions of the country are included in the discussions regarding finding solutions to climate change issues, Amos told the crowd.

Members of the world’s bio-industry flocked to Ottawa this past November to attend the inaugural Scaling Up Conference at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.

The event’s founder Jeff Passmore, CEO of the Passmore Group, welcomed attendees to the conference and discussed the potential industry growth across Canada.

“This is an enormous opportunity,” he told the crowd, adding that if developed sustainably, the bioeconomy can grow jobs across the country while protecting the environment simultaneously. He said collaboration between the public and private sectors is key to ensuring a successful bioeconomy in Canada. Passmore identified many of the risks that come with growing the bioeconomy, including technology scale-up risk; supply change risk; entrenched competitors with sunked costs; an uncertain policy environment; high capex and expensive debt financing and uncertain returns on investment.

“Despite the challenges, Canada cannot ignore its extensive biomass resources,” he said. “We have 160 million acres of crop and pasture land… There’s no shortage of biomass in the country, but it does have to be developed sustainably.”

Rina Singh, managing director of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s (BIO) industrial and environmental section, discussed realizing the potential of the global renewable chemical market.

She said that growth in the renewable chemicals industry is “explosive” and that by 2020 global sales will range between $375 billion to $400 billion.

Brian Foody, CEO of Iogen Corporation – a leading developer of cellulosic ethanol – discussed scaling up cellulosic biofuels and the challenges that many companies experience when scaling up their technologies. He said it took many years and hundreds of millions of dollars before his company hit its targets and scaled up commercially, and that its been a struggle for many of the big players around the world, not just small start-ups. He said that it’s vital that the investors remain confident in the market a company is tapping into and that they need to have the confidence to see things through to the end.

“It’s super critical that people believe what your after is real,” he said. “Confidence is the mother of investment.”