Canadian Biomass • November December 2016 • Industry News

Alberta Innovates Corporation, a consolidation of existing Alberta Innovates crown corporations, launched this week.

The single corporation will continue to fund and drive provincial research and innovation – building on Alberta’s strengths in health, environment, energy, food, forestry/fibre, and emerging technology sectors.

“We need to build an economy for the future. A consolidated Alberta Innovates will do even more to support our world-class researchers, entrepreneurs and academic institutions as we work together to create jobs and diversify our economy,” said Minister of Economic Development and Trade Deron Bilous.

“Alberta Innovates is dedicated to catalyzing a strong innovation ecosystem that delivers 21st century solutions to Alberta’s most compelling opportunities and challenges,” said Judy Fairburn, chair of Alberta Innovates Board of Directors.

The consolidation will also help ensure Albertans receive the best return on their investment in research and innovation, Bilous said. The corporation’s new executive moves from 20 to 11 positions, saving $2.5 million a year. The reduction comes with a one-time $1.5 million severance cost.

A subsidiary corporation to Alberta Innovates, InnoTech Alberta Inc., also launches Nov. 1. It will provide research services to help test new technology on a larger scale across the province.

Viridis Energy Inc. has closed on the sale of the Okanagan Pellet brands to American Biomass Corporation Inc. The sale includes all international trademarks, domain names, and other assets associated with the brand.

The purchase, by American Biomass Corporation is on an earn out basis and will depend on the volume sold in the year following closing.

“Okanagan Pellets have been extremely popular with our retailers and consumers alike,” said Christopher Robertson, CEO of Viridis Energy. “We are very pleased that American Biomass can now build on that history with the successful transition of Okanagan to them.”

“We are excited to add the Okanagan Wood Pellet brand for our wholesale customers,” said David Nydam, CEO of New Hampshire based American Biomass. “Okanagan is one of the highest quality brands in New England with tremendous brand loyalty from both retailers and consumers. We are proud to be able to provide these super premium pellets to the retailers throughout New England and beyond.”

American Biomass will begin offering these high quality softwood pellets to retailers immediately, just in time for the peak demand in wood pellets.

“Interest in this brand has been extremely strong” added Nydam. “Retailers are delighted to have this strong brand with its strong consumer following on their shelves this winter.”

A new white paper from FutureMetrics compares two scenarios for lowering carbon emissions in the power generation sector, one involving natural gas and the other wood pellets.

The paper analyzes the net present value of the total costs for a new natural gas combined cycle power plant versus converting an existing pulverized coal power plant to run on industrial wood pellets. Those costs are used to calculate the cost of each avoided tonne of CO2 emissions.

The paper shows that when comparing the two scenarios, and when factoring in the reduction in CO2 emissions from each technological solution, the solution that provides significantly higher CO2 reduction at a lower net monetary cost per avoided tonne is by repurposing existing pulverized coal power plants to run on industrial wood pellets.

The paper also offers some thoughts on policy. The paper is accompanied by a new dashboard that allows the user to experiment with the assumptions used in the model.

This white paper and dashboard and other white papers and dashboards can be freely downloaded from the FutureMetrics website at www.futuremetrics.info.

Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) announced that Dorothy Thompson is to retire as a director and chairman of the board. Thomas Dalsgaard, who has been a director of the company since 2013, succeeds Dorothy Thompson as chairman.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to chair the SBP Board. I should like to thank Dorothy for all the work she has put into SBP from its origination to where it is today,” Dalsgaard said. “I look forward to continuing the roll-out of SBP in the market and, in close dialogue with our stakeholders, including the advisory board, biomass producers, regulators and NGOs, seeking continuous improvement and development of the system. SBP is a unique certification system for woody biomass, mostly in the form of wood pellets and woodchips, used in industrial, large-scale energy production. When it comes to meeting regulatory requirements for legal and sustainable sourcing of feedstock I am committed to ensuring that the system is fit-for-purpose and robust.”

Shaw Resources’ Belledune pellet operation in New Brunswick has become the first in Canada to receive Sustainable Biomass Partnership (SBP) certification.

Rene Landry, director of pellet operations, says the certification is another step as Shaw Resources strives to be a world-class producer.

“We’re not the biggest producer out there, but we understand the importance of SBP to the utility and to the industry to establish credibility and to prove that wood pellets are a renewable source of energy with carbon benefits,” Landry said.

The Belledune industrial pellet plant was built in 2007 and began operating in 2008. The plant uses hardwood and softwood species sourced from local sawmills as well as processed roundwood. Belledune became officially SBP certified on Oct. 20, after a certification process by PwC that began in January.

The SBP scheme is relatively new – it launched in March 2015 – so there was an evolution to the process, Landry said.

“It was a lot of hard work because it was so new to everybody – new to the certification scheme, new to the certifying body [PwC] and new to us,” he said. Support from their suppliers was an important component. The plant has also recently received PEFC Chain of Custody certification, which was factored in during the SBP process.

Landry says he expects other Canadian producers are in the process of getting certified or will be soon.

“From the utilities standpoint, if you’re going to be doing business you need to be SBP certified,” Landry said. “The key is credibility of the industry and ultimately proving that the raw material comes from a sustainable, renewable, legal source.” In September, SBP announced that it has certified 50 organizations.

Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative (CSPC) has initiated an equity campaign to develop a corn stover and wheat straw to dextrose supply chain in southwestern Ontario. CSPC will engage with growers in the region to supply corn stover and wheat straw to a planned dextrose facility previously announced by Comet Biorefining (Comet) to be located in Sarnia, Ont. As part of the supply chain, CSPC members will own an equity stake in the facility, which will need 75,000 tonnes of biomass based on 55,000 acres. As part of the equity campaign, CSPC will co-ordinate field demonstrations of stover aggregation and will hold outreach ‘town hall’ meetings for prospective members.

Becoming a producer is open to individuals and farming corporations who can provide biomass (corn stover, wheat straw) to the co-operative and are an approved member of the Co-op. It is anticipated that the great majority will initially be farmers concentrated within a 100-kilometre radius of Sarnia, Ont.

A producer will be asked to buy subscription shares. Those subscriptions shares provide voting rights within the Co-op. The producer will also be required to sign a producer agreement committing acres of biomass and equity investment. The equity will be used by the Co-op to invest into the dextrose plant. The producer will receive a payment for each tonne of biomass that they supply and patronage out of the cash flow from the dextrose plant.

“Producers need to take an active role in developing new markets based on new technologies coming to market as we partner with Comet Biorefining,” stated Dave Park, CSPC president and director of Grain Farmers of Ontario.

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with CSPC as we both enter the next phase to develop this value chain for producing dextrose from corn stover and wheat straw,” added Andrew Richard, founder of Comet Biorefining.