Biofuels Right Time, Right Place CanBio chooses Sarnia conference to unveil its new team, expanded focus. By Scott Jamieson The Canadian Bioenergy Association (CanBio) chose the right location to announce both its new lead-ership and its expanded mandate. Sarnia is a bor-der town in the midst of reinventing itself, moving from its historical roots as Canada’s petrochemical capital to a diversified economy that includes an emerging industrial biotechnology cluster. CanBio’s Biofuels and Biochemicals Conference held May 1-2 was its first under the completely new leadership team, which includes Dr. Fernando Preto as brand new executive director and Ken Shields, appointed chair late in 2012. Preto comes to CanBio as a biomass combustion expert from CanmetENERGY, while Shields is CEO of Conifex Timber, a forest products and emerging bioenergy company based in British Columbia. The duo, along with CanBio Ontario vice-chair Chris Rees, wast-ed little time unveiling the association’s broader, more inclusive man-date. The message? CanBio is about more than forest bioenergy. “As you can tell from the agenda today, CanBio has a broader perspective,” Preto said in response to audience questions about the association’s new direction. “We had tended to focus on for-estry, and on the heat and power markets. We will still address those opportunities, but starting with this meeting we’re a lot more inclusive, both in the sectors we’re dealing with and the partnerships we’ll establish. We have key representatives from agricultural biomass and the biofuel sector here today, and the focus is on liquid biofuels and industrial biotechnology, not just combustion.” sArnIA bIoteCh reAdy And indeed it was. Much of the talk focused on tying in with tradi-tional infrastructure to make emerging industrial biotech technology easier to commercialize. For instance, George Mallay, general man-ager of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, outlined how the area was aggressively merging its traditional agriculture and oil indus-tries to create a new biohybrid chemistry cluster. “Aside from a critical mass of skilled people, research and suppliers, and a strategic location in the heart of a massive po-tential market right on the Great Lakes, we have available pet-rochemical sites with infrastructure, that are port and rail ready. Basically these are ready for bio-based facilities to set up shop with Cap-Ex savings of 25 per cent.” The opportunity to plug-and-play was also picked up by Scott ABOVE: Bio-hybrid clusters will bring research, manufacturing and marketing expertise together. MAY/JUNE 2013 14 Canadian BIOMASS
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