BIOAMBER SECURES LOAN FOR SARNIA SUCCINIC ACID PLANT BioAmber Inc. announced that its subsidiary BioAmber Sarnia Inc. has secured a $10 million interest free loan from Agriculture Canada for the 30,000 MT succinic acid plant currently under construction in Sarnia, Ontario. The loan, which was secured through the Department’s Agri-Innovation Program, will be reimbursable in equal yearly installments from 2015 to 2024. BioAmber Sarnia had previously received $35 million in support from government organizations including Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment. “We are actively negotiating additional loans for Sarnia that will further ease the investment burden for BioAmber, which is an early stage company. Our goal is to get Sarnia operational in early 2015 and these loans will help ensure that we have the capital needed to ramp up production and become a profitable company,” added Mike Hartmann, BioAmber’s executive vice-president. ONTARIO BIODIESEL PRODUCERS FORM ASSOCIATION Representatives from three biodiesel manufacturing facilities in Ontario have joined together to form the Ontario Biodiesel Association (OBA). The organization has been formed through a partnership that includes Methes Energies Canada Inc., Great Lakes Biodiesel and Noroxel Energy Limited. Paul Grenier, a biodiesel advocate and three-term municipal councilor in Welland, is the Association’s Executive Director. OBA members currently produce 100% of the grain-oil based biodiesel in Ontario, which accounts for 75% of the total provincial production capacity of all biodiesel. OBA members have invested over $80 million in plant and equipment to produce biodiesel in the province. Besides environmental benefits, the biodiesel industry provides a direct and indirect positive economic impact on the province and its agricultural sector. PORT HAWKESBURY MILL TO DEVELOP BIOPRODUCTS The Government of Nova Scotia is investing in the development of bioproducts at the Port Hawkesbury Paper LLC mill. A test mill will be set up on the site that will extract sugars from wood fibres for a variety of biochemical products. The test mill is being developed in cooperation with FPInnovations. The announcement of the financial support for the project comes as part of a $1.1 million by the Government of Nova Scotia to help develop new products and production processes in an attempt to help strengthen the forest industry in the province. The investment will help support eight initiatives in Nova Scotia. “We are very proud to be associated with the Nova Scotia government as they lead the way in forest sector innovation across the Atlantic Provinces,” said Pierre LaPointe, CEO of FPInnovations. “These projects run a broad gamut across all aspects of the forest sector from investigating the impact of Nova Scotia’s harvesting guidelines, to improving yields at hardwood sawmills, to converting wood to biochemicals.” IOGEN ANNOUNCES NEW DROP-IN CELLULOSIC BIOFUEL Iogen Corporation announced it has developed and patented a new method to make drop-in cellulosic biofuels from biogas using existing refinery assets and production operations. The company estimates there is refining capacity in place to incorporate 5-6 billion gallons per year of renewable hydrogen content into gasoline and diesel fuel. Iogen will initially commercialize the approach using landfill biogas, and then expand production using biogas made in the cellulosic ethanol facilities it is currently developing. The production method involves processing biogas to make renewable hydrogen and incorporating the renewable hydrogen into finished fuels in selected refinery hydrogenating units. The company says it is planning to use the technology in association with two large-scale U.S. cellulosic ethanol plants it is developing, resulting in increased overall cellulosic biofuel yields per unit of feedstock, lower unit capital costs, and lower water usage per unit of biofuel production. Vancouver energy company eyes switch to biomass A Vancouver-based energy company, which supplies energy to over 200 buildings in the downtown, is making plans to convert from fossil fuels to biomass. Creative Energy is in talks with the City of Vancouver to convert its power supply for the downtown core to low carbon fuel, a move that would be equivalent to removing 14,000 cars from the road annually. Vancouver has already established its Greenest City Action Plan, which aims to reduce emissions by 33 per cent by the year 2020. Converting steam heat and central heat to low carbon fuels is seen as a significant step towards meeting that goal.