Building up biogas By Andrew Snook Volume 25 No. 1 Reader Service New Brunswick preparing to grow this sector of the bioeconomy looking at here and ResearchNB.” The team at ResearchNB (and previ -ously at BioNB) has been working hard on research for the past three years to find ways for biogas to be profitable for farm -ers in the province, and looking at the different ways bio -gas production will benefit New Bruns -wick. One of the key steps in this process has been researching how much biomass tonnage is available in the province. Dan -ielle Connell, busi -ness development manager for biogas at ResearchNB, told me that they are speaking to over 250 farmers and other active players, being very careful in how they measure available biomass to ensure there is no disruption to material currently going to feed livestock or active biogas projects. As Connell mentioned, “There’s enough biomass for everybody to win.” Our chat also discussed all of the po -tential opportunities that could come from scaled up production of renewable natural gas, such as new jobs, energy production, and selling the RNG to interested parties. Farmers throughout the province are interested in becoming biogas produc -ers, and ResearchNB is doing the neces -sary research to find ways to make this a reality. I, for one, am excited to see economic opportunities in the bioeconomy coming to the people of New Brunswick. • WINTER 2025 Print and digital subscription inquiries or changes, please contact Angelita Potal, Customer Service Ph: (416) 510-51 13 Fax: (416) 510-6875 Email: [email protected] Mail: 1 1 1 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400 Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Editor -Andrew Snook Ph: (416) 510-6801 [email protected] Contributors -Gordon Murray, J.P. Antonacci, Joel E. Dulin and Ian Thomson Group Publisher -Anne Beswick Ph: (416) 510-5248 Mobile: 416-277-8428 [email protected] Account Coordinator -Shannon Drumm Ph: (416) 510-6762 [email protected] National Sales Manager -Rebecca Lewis Ph: (519) 429-5196 [email protected] Quebec Sales -Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager -Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1 158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Audience Development Manager -Layla Samel Ph: 416-510-5187 [email protected] Media Designer -Lisa Zambri CEO -Scott Jamieson Canadian Biomass is published four times a year: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Published by Annex Business Media. Publication Mail Agreement # 40065710 Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $58.14; 2 Yr $104.04 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $123.93 CDN; Foreign – 1 Yr $140.76 CDN Annex Privacy Officer [email protected] Tel: 800-668-2374 Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail infor-mation on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. ©2025 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca B ack when I initially joined the team at Canadian Biomass in 2015, one of my first trips was to attend the Atlantic Biorefinery Conference in Edmundston, N.B., where I was given the opportunity to tour a variety of players in the province’s bio -economy. One of the tours was LaForge Bioenvironmental’s commercial biogas production plant in Saint-André, N.B. The facility was op -erating a 1.6 MWh anaerobic digester. Fuelled by a combi -nation of cow manure and organic waste from regional food processors, the an -aerobic digester was converting the waste to electricity, heat and liquid organic fer -tilizer. I had never witnessed this type of system before, and was amazed to see how it was creating heat, energy and fertilizer from what amounted to waste products. Fast-forward ten years, and the province is still working hard on building up the bio -gas sector. Since 2023, research related to build -ing up the province’s bioeconomy has been under the purview of ResearchNB, which signed a 10-year funding agreement with the Province of New Brunswick in 2024 and has an annual budget of about $11 million that flows out to five priority sectors: health, energy, agriculture, forestry and oceans. As ResearchNB’s acting CEO Chris Dickie explained to me, “Bio is im -plicit across basically everything that we’re 4 Canadian BIOMASS
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