“In order to move past that 20 to 30 per cent co-fire barrier to get to 50 to 60 per cent, you need to process the fuel,” Cumming says. “Torrefaction, and the process that Diacarbon has is very exciting for us. I think that, all across the country, we are going to benefit from that research.” NEXT STEPS Lafarge Canada built a fuel handling system for its Bath, Ont. plant to begin using LCF. converted its plant to the pellets at a minimal cost, using most of the equipment originally in coal-based energy production. A few years ago, Vancouver-based Diacarbon Energy created the pellets at a pilot scale, providing them to Lafarge for testing as an LCF at the company’s Richmond plant with very good re-sults. Now Diacarbon is scaling up the technology at its plant in Merritt, B.C., with hopes of producing consistent volumes by the end of 2016. That would be a welcome development for Cumming and his team. As Lafarge anticipates the scaling up of Diacarbon’s technology, the company continues to experiment with new types of low carbon fuels to expand its knowledge of the products available to replace petroleum coke and coal. Cumming and his team un-derstand that there are still years of testing ahead. “The process moving forward is to test the fuels, get the re-sults, share the results with the public and then get permanent government approval,” Cumming says. That process will be especially important as several types of fuels are constrained by seasonal availability, such as recycled shingles and C&D waste. But now the company has another asset moving forward; its recent merger with Holcim. LafargeHolcim means incorporating best practices and LCF experiments from Europe, which Cum-ming mentions is “way ahead of us” on the use of low carbon fuels. With the knowledge and expertise gained from its European colleagues, and the extensive experiments taking place across the country, Lafarge Canada is leading the charge to significantly re-duce emissions in the cement industry. • EVENTS BOARD Sept. 20-22, 2016 • WPAC 2016 Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. www.pellet.org/wpac-agm Sept. 22-24, 2016 • DEMO International 2016 Maple Ridge, B.C. http://www.demointernational.com/ Sept. 26-27, 2016 • Clean Energy Transition Conference Calgary, Alta. www.euci.com Sept. 27-29, 2016 • SFI Annual Conference Clearwater Beach, Fla. www.sfiprogram.org Oct. 5-6, 2016 • European Biomass To Power Conference Seville, Spain www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/european-biomass-to-power Oct. 17-21, 2016 • German Bioenergy Fact-Finding Visit Munich, Germany http://kanada.ahk.de/en/events/trade-fairs/detail-view/ events/bioenergy-fact-finding-visit-to-germany/ For more on events, go to canadianbiomassmagazine.ca 16 Canadian BIOMASS 2016-07-18 11:23 AM JULY/AUGUST 2016 CBM_Hoffmann_airoflex_JulyAug16_CSA.indd 1
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