company that produces by-products that can be used by BioAmber. “Being located in Sarnia gives us an excellent cost structure,“ says Jean-François Huc, CEO of BioAmber. “The fact that we have steam and electricity coming in from the TransAlta plant next door; there’s the fact that we have cost-competitive sugar avail-able from local agriculture; an abundance of local agriculture. This gives us a very strong cost position.” That solid cost structure was also evident in the construction of the plant. Being in a community with significant petrochemi-cal infrastructure assets, finding a team with the skillset to build a biochemical facility was not as difficult as it may have been in some of the other discussed locations for the plant. “Not having to bring in contractors that are hundreds of miles away has been a huge advantage as well,” explains Huc. “The workers here are experienced in building plants, building piping, a lot of steel work, all of the things that needed to get done at our site. The flawless execution we’ve had has been largely because of the labour pool that we’ve been able to draw on and the contrac-tors we could draw on here in Sarnia.” Another sector in Sarnia has taken notice to the work being done by BioAmber, and others, in the biochemical sector in the community and has made adjustments to provide additional sup-port. That would be the post-secondary education sector, which includes the main campus of Lambton College and satellite oper-ations of Western University. “We have a number of young operators that are graduates of CanBiom1115-Kahl-6 21.11.14 10:26 Seite Lambton College,” says Huc. “Lambton is 1 putting in place a ro-In its solid form, bio-succinic acid is a white crystalline substance with similar look and feel to table salt. bust program to meet the needs of this sector: fermentation, puri-fication, different types of processes that are used in our industry. Western University has a fantastic R&D facility (in Sarnia). They have great incubator facilities.” The emergence of BioAmber as a leader in the national bio-chemical sector should bode well for the entire community in the long-term, as the possibilities to grow the industry become even easier with the establishment of a successful business model, which BioAmber has so far maintained even in the wake of falling oil prices that hurt the company’s competitive edge. “If we’re successful, it will make it that much easier for people KAHL Wood Pelleting Plants Quality worldwide. AMANDUS KAHL GmbH & Co. KG · SARJ Equipment Corp. · Mr. Rick B. MacArthur 29 Golfview Blvd. · Bradford, Ontario L3Z 2A6 Phone: 905-778-0073 · [email protected] www.akahl.de 18 Canadian BIOMASS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
Canadian Biomass November/December 2015: Page 18
