ONTARIO INVESTING IN PILOT BIOREFINERY T he Ontario government is investing $4.5 million to help FPInnovations establish a fully functioning bio-refinery plant in Thunder Bay. The funding from the province’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Cor-poration aims to encourage sustainable forest management, create jobs and grow the Northern economy, Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines recently stated. The new bio-refinery plant is a pilot project that will produce bio-chemicals derived from wood, resulting in renew-able, biodegradable and cost-effective alternatives to petroleum-based products for use in the construction, automotive, mining, oil and other sectors. Resolute Forest Products is contribut-ing $3.5 million to the project and will host the plant at its Thunder Bay pulp and paper facility. “The three-year research program with FPInnovations will help demon-strate the feasibility of the process and optimize potential market applications for bio-chemicals derived from wood – critical to the commercial success of the project,” Richard Garneau, president and CEO of Resolute stated. Pierre Lapointe, president and CEO Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines (third from left), announced the Ontario government’s support for the bio-refinery pilot project on Aug. 17. of FPInnovations, said the plant will provide new pathways to large-scale production of bio-products from Canadi-an forests. “The project builds on our exist-ing partnership with Resolute Forest Products and Lakehead University, and is a glowing example of the power of collaboration to create projects that can lead to unique, innovative and environ-mentally-friendly products and tech-nology. This government’s confidence in the future of the forest sector and the regions dependent on it will ensure that it remains globally competitive and a significant contributor to Northern Ontario’s economy,” Lapointe said. The Centre for Research and Innova-tion in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE), which is headquartered in Thunder Bay, is pro-viding operational support to FPInnova-tions for the Bio-Economy Technology Centre at Resolute Forest Products. “The TMP-Bio project is an excit-ing new frontier in value-added wood processing,” stated Scott Wiebe, CEO of Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-economy. ONLINE DATABASE SHOWS WOOD BIOENERGY FACILITIES show the locations of bioenergy facil-ities, and lists details such as the type facility, the owner, operational status, and the production and intake capacity. “Tools like wood2energy.org enhance our work by providing information that yields a better under-standing of current conditions, reduces risk for investors and communities and allows stakeholders to have a common information base upon which to facil-itate conversations,” Carlton Owen, president and CEO of the Endowment, said in a news release. Data for the mapping tool is gathered from the public domain via existing databases, industry publi-cations, reports, press releases and the like, and will be updated on an ongoing basis. “This project is remarkable from a data collection and management stand-point,” said Brett Hogarth, head of business development at Ecostrat – the company that developed and managed the data delivery. “But to me what really makes it a success is the data curation. A lot of thought and effort was put into how to best organize and present the data to balance the need for detail with ease of use and accessibility. Perhaps the greatest power of this tool is its ability to be used by experts and non-experts alike.” Anyone with information to fill gaps or fix errors is asked to contact Ecostrat with information. Learn more at www.ecostrat.com www.wood2energy.org shows locations of bioenergy facilities and lists details of each. A U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities’ website has been revital-ized to provide an interactive database of wood bioenergy facilities throughout North America. The website – www.wood2energy. org – uses GIS mapping technology to Canadian BIOMASS 7
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