L`]Em]f[`h]dd]lar]jklYjl]\mhima[cdqYf\oYk[`gk]f^gjalk]ph][l]\dgf_\a]da^]& �a;Alk]p[]dd]flÚZj]^gjh]dd]lk$Yf\alogmd\gl`]joak]]f\mhafdYf\Údd$�b;kYqkAYfEgf[ja]^^& all seemed to click, as he found a very receptive audience in the Township of Norwich, about 40 minutes south of London, located a site and got financing lined up. And then the bottom fell out like it did for so many alternative energy projects. “The fall of 2008 hit, and all credit basically evaporated, put-ting everything on hold,” Moncrieff recalls. BACK AT IT When the dust cleared in the spring of 2009, it was back to the drawing board. By December, Canadian Biofuels had acquired a new site, an old Cargill grain elevator operation in Springford, and had sold an associated grain dryer to generate enough cash to start designing the mill. In the spring of 2011, the company sealed a financing mix that included an investor, the Royal Bank, and the Sand Plains Development Fund (a tobacco diversification program), and started putting the plant together. By the summer of that year, Canadian Biofuels was running a pilot pellet mill, complete with feed hoppers, conveyors, a verti-cal mill and cooler. The main goal was to test feedstocks prior to committing to any one option. “We’ve got a number of feedstock options, from recycled wood to agricultural by-products and purpose-grown crops,” says Moncrieff. DJOREDOOHDGHULQDGYDQFHGELRPDVVJDVL¿FDWLRQ NO W OPEN! Nexterra’s new biomass system at US DOE’s Oak Ridge National Labs Delivering the Next Generation of Biomass Energy  Renewable heat, power and chemicals  Approximately 100,000  hours  of JDVL¿HURSHUDWLRQ  *DVL¿FDWLRQ of  wood,  C&D ZDVWH�f; biosolids DQGPRUH  World-class product development and testing center  Multi-disciplinary engineering and project team www.nexterra.ca 18 Canadian BIOMASS MAY/JUNE 2012
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