2025-05-08 07:21:48
There are few people whose names are more synonymous with biofuels in Canada than Ian Thomson. Just ask Fred Ghatala, president of Advanced Biofuels Canada.
“Ian is a pioneer leader in the development of Canada’s renewable and low carbon fuel sector,” he said.
Ghatala cites Thomson’s dedication to the industry since 2002, when he first focused on the potential use of biodiesel for reducing emissions from diesel fuel engines.
“In 2002, I started looking at fuels and alternatives and zeroed in on biodiesel as something that had potential, but nobody was really doing anything with it in Western Canada,” Thomson said.
Over his impressive career, Thomson has been a key player in the establishment of the Canadian renewable fuels industry. One of his many career highlights was establishing the BC Biodiesel Association (2005) and the Alberta Biodiesel Association (2006).
“These two entities led industry development in Western Canada, eventually becoming the Western Canada Biodiesel Association in 2014. In 2015, the scope of representation expanded, and the association became Advanced Biofuels Canada Association (ABFC). ABFC is Canada’s leading renewable fuels industry organization, promoting the production and use of sustainable, low carbon fuel alternatives to gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels,” Ghatala said.
Thomson served as president of the association from 2005 to 2024, stepping aside in 2025 to serve as past-president to assist the new executive team.
In 2005, Thomson co-founded the Canadian Bioenergy Corporation (CBEC), the first biodiesel distribution business in B.C. Ghatala said the company “quickly grew from importing 1,000 litres totes of U.S.-made biodiesel to establishing tankage at terminals in North Vancouver and Calgary, and shipping railcars as far east as Nova Scotia.”
While serving as president of CBEC, Thomson also worked on the Canadian biodiesel sector’s testing and standards work with the Canadian General Standards Board.
“The first quality standards for biodiesel and biodiesel blends were finalized around 2011, which were key to providing functional fuel assurance,” Ghatala said.
That same year, Thomson and his partners shut down CBEC to co-found Waterfall Advisors Group, which staffs ABFC’s operations and serves the Canadian biofuels sector with consulting expertise and coast-to-coast coverage.
Between 2010 and 2012, Thomson led the industry associations in assisting governments with adopting the first diesel fuel RFS blending regulations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and federally with the Canadian Renewable Fuel Regulations.
“In 2013, B.C. finally implemented its ground-breaking Low Carbon Fuel Standard; and Ontario followed with its hybrid (RFS/LCFS) Greener Diesel Regulation in 2014,” Ghatala notes.
Thomson has also played a key role in helping develop what eventually became Archer Daniels Midland’s biodiesel project, which commissioned Canada’s largest biodiesel facility (320MLY) in Lloydminster, AB. in October 2013.
“At that point we had enough demand, we reckoned, to build a plant. So, with a small group of other colleagues, put together a company that eventually co-adventured with a large global agribusiness company to build the Lloydminster biodiesel plant run by Archer Daniels Midland,” Thomson recalled.
Over the next 12 years, Thomson continued to lead the way in the growth of the renewable fuels sector with milestones such as:
• Assisting with the six-year regulatory development phase of the Clean Fuel Regulations that were finalized in June 2022, and became effective July 1, 2023;
• Helping develop the first low carbon fuel regulations in Quebec (2023); and B.C.’s new LCFS statute and regulation (2024); which is Canada’s most stringent fuel regulation, and includes the first SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) mandate in the Americas.
“The regulations referred to above were ground-breaking achievements in Canada, and, over 2010 to 2024, they have proven to be the most successful mechanism to reduce GHGs from fossil fuel use in transportation,” Ghatala said.
Thomson gives kudos to his colleagues of two decades including dedicated and deeply knowledgeable association staff. He also flags the indispensable work of provincial governments, especially B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec, and the federal government for helping create a friendlier environment.
“The provinces have taken real leadership in getting regulations that give the kind of assurances that people who have capital and aspirations to build production assets need,” Thomson said. “The federal government undertaking the Clean Fuels Regulations starting in 2016, and wrapping up in 2022, was great work. It took longer than we had hoped, and ended up coming full circle back to a pretty basic local carbon fuel standard, but that was a real highlight.”
Seeing the clean fuel sectors collaborating recently has also been a highlight.
“It’s way too easy for people in the alternative fuel space to feel like they have to compete with each other,” he said. “I mean, at the end of the day, they compete. But first you’ve got to collaborate to get a market, and I think we’ve seen some really effective collaborations in Canada.”
When asked what advice he would offer the next generation looking to become active in the renewable fuels sector, Thomson says to be prepared for two steps forward and one-and-a-half steps back.
“I talk with people who are graduating from engineering programs or getting into them, or wanting to get into this space, and they think everything’s going to go hydrogen. They think everything is going to go electrification,” he said. “The view that many of us in the clean fuels space have is there’s going to be a long road for high energy density, low carbon liquid fuels. Whether those are fossil fuels with significantly lower their carbon emissions, biofuels produced out of refineries with co-processing or renewable diesel, or biofuels produced in standalone biofuel plants with low carbon intensity increasingly made from a wider range of feedstocks than just agricultural crops, the need to fuel internal combustion engines is going to be around for a long time.”
©Annex Biomass_CFI_OF. View All Articles.