founder Tim Haig and, across the last four years, the technology has moved forward with Haig’s support. Two new patent tech-nologies were developed through the pro-gram, one on emerging reactive designs and one for getting branching reactions for side chains. The result was the technology being purchased from the University, and Haig is using the system as the foundation for Forge Hydrocarbons. Haig has since been able to work with Dr. Bressler, establish-ing a 20 litre per hour pilot plant at the Advanced Energy Research Facility at the City of Edmonton’s world class waste management facility. The City of Edmon-ton is able to provide brown grease and biosolids from municipal waste as a feed-stock for the process. The Forge Hydrocarbon technology on the waste management site is based on removing the glycerol from the grease, oil or biosolid, much like in the creation of biodiesel. But the Forge process also pops off the CO2 molecule and keeps it as a by-product that can be collected and used for other purposes. The resulting biofuel has a higher hydrocarbon density, lower cost of conversion, and a significant reduction in capital cost. The plant carries just a 10 ft. by 5 ft. by 14ft. footprint, as well as two distillation towers that were constructed by the U of A Faculty of Engineering. A $100 million commercial waste-to-biofuel plant is on the same site as the Forge Hydrocarbons project. Cur-rently in the final phases of construction, the plant will remove 30 per cent of Ed-monton’s landfill waste for the production of cellulosic ethanol. The commercial biofuel plant is expect-ed to operate day and night, 24/7, in order to work through the amount of commer-cial and residential waste being generat-ed from the surrounding area. It should produce somewhere in the ballpark of 4500 liters of fuel grade cellulosic ethanol per hour. The overall annual volume of 38 million liters is the per annum target, which represents roughly 14 per cent of the ethanol required by Alberta to meet Canada’s federal mandate of a five per cent ethanol blend. That is the equivalent of the ethanol needed to fuel 400,000 cars a year. Enerkem also utilizes a five per cent scale pilot plant in the Advanced Energy Research Facility, the same location at the Forge Hydrocarbons pilot plant. The En-erkem plant is used to test a broad range of feedstocks, breaking them down into syn-gas to be tested for use in other downstream technologies. That includes continued re-search on the use of CO2 to offset steam use in the ethanol production process. The development of new bio-solutions for the petrochemical, agriculture and for-est industries in Edmonton through the work of the Biorefining Conversions Net-work, and the addition of the Enerkem fa-cility at the City of Edmonton’s waste man-agement facility, makes this community one of Canada’s emerging bioeconomies. For more on Alberta’s bioeconomy, visit www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca or follow us on twitter @canadianbiomass. SolutIonS BaSEd and FutuRE oRIEntatEd, FocuSSEd on pRovIncIal, domEStIc and IntERnatIonal oppoRtunItIES to FREE attEnd EXHIBItIon conFEREncE Canada’s C lean e n e r gy e v e nt i s C o m i n g... bringing people together: Engaging all stakeholders in a ‘horizontally’ structured, solutions focussed and future oriented showcase. The event brings together the entire renewable energy and energy conservation communities as ONE INDUSTRY driving innovations, businesses and investment opportunities across North America and internationally. TRANSFORM Achieve your objectives and evolve your business with new ideas, inspiration, contacts and opportunities > held in association with Supported by Stay connected COMMUNITY POWER, ENERGY STORAGE, SMART GRID, GEOTHERMAL, GREEN BUILDING, ONSITE & MICROGENERATION, AND MUCH MORE... fTYl0 Register now for free entry at www. all-energy.ca REgIStER now for the chance to win one of ten pairs of free conference passes worth $1,500! Providing solutions to meet your renewable energy needs 20 All_EnergyCan14 Vis 'TRANSFORM' Half Page Biomass.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 21/03/2014 10:42 MARCH/APRIL 2014
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