Canadian Biomass • January-February 2018 • Industry news

Mississauga, Ont.-based CHAR Technologies has closed on its acquisition of Toronto’s Altech Group and has announced plans to manufacture and sell a biocoal product branded as CleanFyre. The GHG neutral product will be marketed as a cost-effective coal replacement.

“CleanFyre will leverage both Altech’s experience and expertise, and CHAR’s platform pyrolysis technology, the same technology used to create SulfaCHAR, to create a solution with strong market pull and significant growth opportunity,” CHAR CEO Andrew White said in a news release.

CHAR currently produces SulfaCHAR, which can be used to remove hydrogen sulfide from gas streams, with a focus on methane-rich and odorous air. SulfaCHAR can also be used as a sulfur-enriched biochar for agriculture.

Altech – an environmental consulting company and provider of air pollution control and water treatment technology – currently has 12 employees. CHAR acquired all of the outstanding shares in both Altech Environmental Consulting Ltd. and Altech Technology Systems Inc.

“The acquisition of the Altech Group adds over 30 years of experience in environmental technologies and professional engineering consulting,” CHAR chairman Bill White said in the release. “Altech provides CHAR with a growth catalyst to move much of our engineering design inhouse, while at the same time allows us to greatly expand our technology solutions offering for industrial clean air and clean water.”

Alexander Keen, founder and CEO of Altech, said in the release, “CHAR brings an exciting future for Altech. Our joint efforts going forward will bring tremendous opportunities.”

Pellet Fuels Institute has selected Tim Portz as its new executive director beginning Jan. 2.

Portz previously served as the executive editor of BBI International’s Biomass Magazine and Pellet Mill Magazine, and has been a renewable industry observer, reporter, and commentator for nearly a decade.

“Tim has established himself as a consistent and outspoken champion for biomass energy – specifically the wood pellet sector,” PFI states in its release.

With BBI International, Portz developed the agendas of the International Biomass Conference & Expo and the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop.

Prior to BBI, Portz worked in sales and sales management for global printing company RR Donnelley. He graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor of fine arts. Born and raised in central Iowa, Portz, his wife, and their two sons now live in Minneapolis.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has named Sarnia, Ont.- based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) one of Canada’s Resource Champions.BIC was recognized as part of the chamber’s Canada’s Resource Champions Award, created to support natural resource development and trade across the country.

Since its establishment in 2008, BIC has made it its mission to invest in and support companies that are just starting out who develop clean, green and sustainable technologies. It currently has 16 organizations in its portfolio.

“It’s good to be recognized for the work we’re doing in the renewable space,” Sandy Marshall, executive director of BIC, told the Sarnia Observer.

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is partnering with industry to develop a new technology that will enable long-haul trucks to use low-carbon fuel.

NAIT researchers in the School of Applied Sciences and Technology have partnered with Mack Trucks, Oberon Fuels and Westcan Bulk Transport to develop a technology that manages moisture for dimethyl ether (DME) – an alternative to diesel fuel made from either natural gas or biomethanol. The technology will remove any residual water from the fuel before it enters the engine, which would mitigate corrosion and low performance.

The research is funded by $368,000 from the Alberta Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

Researchers plan to test the technology on Mack trucks from Westcan’s fleet travelling Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary.

“Alberta is leading the way by investing in DME, one of the few truly carbon-negative fuels available, and the only one that can deliver the power needed for heavy-duty applications,” Rebecca Boudreaux, president of Oberon Fuels, said in the release.

Each year thousands of tons of wood pellets are shipped out of the Port of Belledune in New Brunswick to fire biomass generating stations in Europe, while thousands of tons of coal are shipped in to power the Belledune coalfired generating station, just a stone’s throw away.

This ironic image dominated conversation at the NB Wood Pellet Forum held by the Wood Pellet Association of Canada and Canadian Biomass in Fredericton in December.

“It seems crazy that we are using the Port of Belledune to ship wood pellets to Europe, and the same port to bring in coal. Why not keep those wood pellets here?” WPAC executive director Gord Murray asked the audience of about 75 stakeholders, ranging from consultants and pellet producers to government and NB Power representatives.

New Brunswick has four pellet plants in operation with two others in the planning stages and the potential for many more, Murray said. The two largest, Groupe Savoie and Shaw Resources, produce 90,000 and 100,000 tonnes per year respectively, but a majority of what is produced is sent to the U.K. and Western Europe.

This year the federal government announced its intention to phase out coalfired electricity Canada wide. New Brunswick is one of four provinces that still produce electricity with coal.

The Belledune Generating Station was built just 23 years ago. “It would become the classic stranded asset if it was shut down. It has many more years left,” FutureMetrics’ William Strauss told the crowd. A solution to avoid shut down is to either co-fire with pellets, or to retrofit the station to full-fire wood pellets.

Belledune would require approximately 1.6 million tonnes of pellets a year to run, Strauss said. There is no denying that wood pellets are more expensive to produce than coal, he said, so government policy needs to close the gap. “It is without question the lowest cost method to reduce GHG emissions.”

A vibrant pellet industry would also create jobs in the province, stimulating the local economy, Strauss said. He estimates about 2,700 jobs would be required to supply wood pellets to Belledune. Imported coal, by comparison, has no local economic benefit.

Rentech’s Atikokan, Ont., wood pellet facility has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Ontario’s True North Timber, according to the company’s latest news release.

The facility supplies wood pellets to Ontario Power Generation’s 100 per cent biomass-fuelled generating station in Atikokan. Earlier this year the 100,000 tonnecapacity facility reduced its production to 45,000 tonnes per year to meet the OPG contract.

Rentech’s Wawa, Ont., pellet facility remains idle, and the company has applied to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for the appointment of a receiver and manager to facilitate the sale or liquidation of that facility.

Rentech also announced its subsidiary, Rentech WP U.S. Inc., filed a voluntary petition for relief under the United States Bankruptcy Code. “The purpose of the bankruptcy filing is to seek to sell the assets of the company’s Fulghum Fibres and New England Wood Pellet subsidiaries and facilitate an orderly wind-down of Rentech Inc.,” the release states.

The federal government has released its Clean Fuel Standard with the aim of publishing draft regulations by late next year.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said the standard will “give Canadians better access to clean fuels and will make a significant cut in Canada’s carbon pollution.”

The standard will require fuel producers, importers, or distributors to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced during any part of a fuel’s lifecycle, including production, transportation to processors and end users, and when the fuel is combusted.

According to the government release, the Clean Fuel Standard will be a “flexible regulation” with a range of compliance options. The goal is to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 million tonnes a year by 2030.