CanBio Trade Mission generates potentially $10 million in new biomass projects.

  For nearly 50 years following the Second World War, Güssing Austria, tucked in the forested hills near the guarded Hungarian border, lost all East-West economic flows because of the Iron Curtain. It was going the way of many Canadian towns today— declining industry, young people moving away, and economic decline. But 17 years ago, the town, struggling to pay its high fuel bills and needing a new economic model, ordered all public buildings to stop using fossil fuels for energy.

  Installing district heating and a large biomass-fired power plant allowed Güssing to get off oil—and gave it a stable, reliable energy price unlike surrounding communities whose bills fluctuated wildly with the oil and gas markets. That stable energy price became a magnet for coaxing 50 new renewable energy companies to plant their feet in the town—and created 1000 new, local jobs. A few years ago, Güssing became the only town in Europe to cut carbon emissions by over 90 percent.

  It’s a model that CanBio president and executive director, Douglas Bradley knew Canadian biomass developers and municipalities needed to see, so CanBio worked closely with the Austrian and Italian trade commissions and the federal government’s Global Opportunities for Associations (GOA) program to organize a five-day Trade Mission of innovative biomass heat and power installations in Austria and Northern Italy.

  Larry Donovan, president of EXL Refining at Nova Green, a Canadian company with the technology to use leftover straw to create cellulosic ethanol, came back inspired.

  “Talking to developers from Güssing about how they used local biomass to regenerate itself making value-added products and district heating was immensely valuable. Right now, in GreenTEC Park in Killam, Alberta, we’re planning to do the same thing using our own local biomass—straw and agricultural waste,” he said.

  Donovan’s visit provided the key face-to-face contact to establish collaboration between Güssing’s and GreenTEC’s developers after he got home.

  And Donovan is also exploring new European markets for Canadian biomass products. He is talking to Sandra Marchesi, the Italian Trade Commissioner that met with the group, to explore Italian specialty foods markets for two of GreenTEC biorefinery’s products, xylitol and inulin, used as natural sweeteners.

  In Northern Italy, the group based itself in Milan touring Turboden-Unicomfort heat and power installations over two days.

  “Turboden are world leaders in organic Rankin Cycle technology and because RC doesn’t bring the system to high temperatures like other heat and power systems, it means in Canada these systems wouldn’t need the expensive 24-hour steam engineer on site, mandated by most provincial safety authorities,” says Bradley.

  “Using this technology to generate heat and power makes sense in Canada but it’s a slam dunk in Ontario where developers producing renewable energy can get superior power pricing by way of a feed-in-tariff (FIT), which has proved over and over again in Europe as the best way to promote renewable energy. Turboden showed us their numbers—a rarity for most biomass power companies—and they add up for Canada. Communities can make a profit if their biomass costs no more than $60 to $70 per bone dry tonne. In Canada, even if it’s leftover forest slash, we only pay $40 to $55. In their model, the EU FIT is priced at 11 Euro cents, and we’re getting 13.25 cents in Ontario, so comparable,” says Bradley.

  The numbers add up for Normand Verville, a woodlot owner from Timmins, Ontario who is eyeing Turboden’s 2.5 MW electrical generator attachment.

  “I have to move fast because Ontario Power Generation still has room in their call to buy renewable electricity from generators 10 MW and under, and they put out 20-year contracts, which guarantees a stable market,” he says.

  Verville is also talking to colleagues that run companies on his property and looking into partnering with Turboden to sell more units—he thinks the project could be a $2.5 to $8 million investment.

  Taking his wife and business partner Judy on a trip to Austria and Italy not only won him points in the romance category—now she has first-hand knowledge, and Verville says that can only make her more supportive of the project.

  Donovan was thrilled to see the clean, efficient Turboden Assembly Plant because the Italian company is currently installing a facility in Rosetown, Saskatchewan to capture heat from a compressor system/station and convert to useable energy.

  “Given the use and distribution of conventional oil and natural gas in Alberta, I think we can find opportunities to use Turboden cogeneration plants here,” he says.

  Turboden’s technology can be found in over 90 biomass plants across Europe, and the company has recently entered the North American market, opening up an office in New York, headed by Daniel Theuer. Canadian developers can speak to him—and Turboden’s president Alessandro Foresti—at CanBio’s Annual Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver, BC, from September 30 to October 1.

  Another Austrian company that the delegation visited has also been persuaded to come to Canada, Philip Marktl, who runs Wood4Energy is slated to present his innovative business model in Vancouver. Marktl’s company takes the worry of making complex and difficult technology decisions away from the municipality and installs and pays for the most suitable biomass heat plant for a community – doing everything from the initial assessment to equipment selection and installation to system maintenance.

  For communities weighed down in biomass but with little knowledge of how to turn it into energy and wean themselves off of oil, this is a worry-free solution, says Bradley. Communities sign a 10 to 15-year contract and buy renewable energy at a guaranteed fixed price lower than what they are paying now. A former Englina Board Member and pellet plant owner, Marktl is a veteran of the young Canadian industry and was inspired to start Wood4Heating to help communities stop talking and start installing renewable heat.

  For the 20 Canadians on the in-depth five-day mission, there is no question the trip will spark new, or improved, bioenergy projects back home. “Even though there may be different cultural and regulatory parameters in dealing with installation and maintenance of European biomass heat and power systems, we can learn a lot from the practical experiences of those who stepped on this path a few years ago,” says Donovan. “It was amazing that everyone we met on the very well orchestrated trip, were eager to share their insights and knowledge, whether it was a larger system in Güssing, or a community-based facility serving a few municipal buildings and a handful of homes.”

  CanBio is especially appreciative of the federal GOA program which has helped support travel of over 100 participants from Canadian communities to bioenergy sites in Europe in the last three years.

  "These participants would never have been able to contemplate coming on these technology tours without GOA" said Bradley. "These trips have already resulted in bioenergy installations in several provinces, and there will be many more."

To see a photo gallery of this trip, click here. Photos courtesy Ted Zimmerman.

CanBio China Mission sparks up to $500 million investment in bioenergy sector.
CanBio Annual Conference Sept 30 – Oct 1, 2010, Vancouver, BC

  When a dozen Canadian bioenergy and forest companies visited Beijing on a trade mission this May, the demand from 75 Chinese investors for one-on-one meetings was so great, that there was not enough time in the day to fulfill it.

  Canadian Bioenergy Association (CanBio) president and executive director, Douglas Bradley, who led the mission estimates up to $500 million may be invested in Canada as a result of the recent mission.

  “China has $20 billion to invest in renewable energy overseas. And Canada, with its ready supply of renewable biomass and the technology to convert it to energy and high-value products, is a very attractive partner for us,” Kai Johan Jiang, president of DP Cleantech, China’s largest bioenergy power producer, told the Canadians.

  CanBio wants to ensure that a significant chunk of the $20 billion is invested in Canadian bioenergy projects and technologies. So in autumn, a number of Chinese investors, led by Kai Johan Jiang, are coming to Vancouver to meet Canadian developers at CanBio’s annual conference from September 30 to October 1, 2010.

  Delegates can sign up to present their projects or services to Chinese and EU investors, prospective partners or customers at two dedicated sessions—or in the business-to-business sessions, where companies can request 15-minute sit-down meetings with one another.

  CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

1. Hear from Turboden, one of EU’s most successful developers of small heat & power projects, and see why their technology will work in Canada.
2. How-To finance your project—large or small. Or take advantage of a new turnkey option from a German company, Wood4Heating, that finances it for you.
3. Hear how Canadian provinces could replicate New England’s “Fuels for Schools” program, a profitable model that turned NE into America’s biomass heat state.
4. Study Tour on Wednesday, September 29 to Kruger Cogen facility with Nexterra gasification technology in New Westminster & to Lignol Bioethanol’s lignin pilot plant in Vancouver.
5. 25-company trade show, a study tour, and two sessions of b2b meetings.

See our online announcement and agenda.

CanBio member Enerkem gets $1.8 million for demo plant.
Plus a new call for $40 million funding for energy efficiency projects

  The Canadian Bioenergy Association congratulates Enerkem, a leading next generation biofuels company and CanBio member, on being chosen by Alberta's Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) to receive $1.8 million for a market demonstration project.

  "This joint project is a stellar example of how developers, government and Canada's leading research centres can come together to make bioenergy technology even more climate friendly," says Douglas Bradley, CanBio executive director and president. "We encourage all of our members with innovative projects in Alberta to consider applying for the next round of $40 million in funding from CCEMC."

  Enerkem's project, one of five chosen from over 223 applications, will demonstrate the market potential of technologies that further reduce GHG's emitted by biorefineries. Targeted biomass-rich feedstocks will be converted into biofuels to compare the GHG reduction benefits of the Enerkem technology. The project will also focus on the direct use of CO2 in dry reforming - in the company’s synthetic gas conditioning process - and its incorporation in advanced chemicals.

  These tests will be conducted at a pilot plant at the Advanced Energy Research Facility in Edmonton, Alberta - a joint effort between the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions, and Enerkem. The technologies and products, once demonstrated, will be implemented in Enerkem’s commercial biofuels facility in Edmonton. Dr. Esteban Chornet, Enerkem’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, will lead the tests.

  Meanwhile, on June 23, the CCEMC launched the next Call for Proposals – Expression of Interest (EOI) – for more energy efficiency projects, with a total of $40 million available for project funding. The maximum CCEMC contribution for any individual project in this EOI is $7 million for eligible expenses.

  “We need to see more ideas for clean technology that will have a significant, immediate and sustainable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Eric Newell., CCEMC chair. “We feel there is tremendous opportunity to reduce emissions through energy efficiency efforts and we encourage people to bring their ideas forward.”

  The focus of the new call for proposals is on improvements in the energy efficiency of industrial production and processing through enhanced energy management and the application of best-available commercial and near-commercial technologies.

  Detailed information and the on-line application system will be accessible on the CCEMC website July 5. Workshops to support project proponents will be held in Edmonton on July 13 and Calgary on July 15. For workshop details and registration visit ccemc.ca.

District Heating - Lessons from the EU

  These days residents of Finnish cities, towns and villages, nestled among thick forests and cold lakes, are kept warm by wood. Clean, green energy from wood pellets, chips or bio-oil fuels a central boiler and pipes the heat into the local hospital, schools, and homes. For many of these towns, profitable district heating models have brought not only a lower carbon footprint, but the foundation for a thriving, local economy.

  So why aren’t the fledging forest towns in Northern Ontario, B.C. and New Brunswick following suit? The Canadian Bioenergy Association’s annual conference in Edmonton last autumn, set out to address that question. Leading community models and the latest technologies were put on show—and the speakers explored how they could be applied to position communities, like Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation, in Northern Ontario, as models for a sustainable future.

The Secret to District Heating? Planning and Cooperation

"In Finland in the early 1990s, we talked a lot about the potential of heating our communities with wood waste instead of fossil fuels, but it took a lot of time before things got off the ground", said Dominik Röser of the Finnish Forest Research Institute.

The situation is all too familiar for Canadian companies and municipalities looking to turn their rich wood resources into an economy with a future. From adding value to existing sawmill operations, heating the town’s large buildings with wood energy, or building a full-scale bio-refinery, Canada’s forestry towns and cities are talking and dreaming big. Most have no choice. A plummeting U.S. housing market has routed the Canadian sawmill industry, and globalization has sounded a death knell for many pulp and paper mills, and it looks as if the federal government is limited in its ability to come to the rescue.

Röser offered municipalities new hope at the Canadian Bioenergy Association’s annual conference and trade show in Edmonton, Alberta this October by sharing success stories from Finnish cooperatives that have implemented district heating systems.

“Heat entrepreneurship in Finland continues to rise,” said Röser. Beginning with just a few communities in the mid 1990s, there are over 430 district heating plants in Finland today. Röser said putting a solid co-operative or network of owners together is essential right at the beginning of any project. In Finland heating co-operatives take three forms — the most common is a network of forest companies looking to turn their existing forest waste into profit; the second is owned by the heating customers themselves and the third is municipality-owned.

“In Canada, all of these models can be applied,” said Röser. “All of these cooperatives are usually non-profit, so all the benefits stay with the members, which is very interesting for customers because they benefit.” He admits the forest company model would require a re-think as most of the forests are on crown land and recommends a case-by-case analysis. “To move things forward, it has to be municipalities and entrepreneurs that take charge, the key is that someone really has to take the initiative,” he said.

Doug Bradley, president and executive director of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO), points out that the Finnish co-op model could be easily applied in Canada if the co-ops were run by the Sustainable Forest License (SFL) operators.

Eco-heat in Eno, Finland

A typical example of a heating co-operative, are the district heating networks in Eno, Finland. In 2004, 3000 metres of heating pipes were laid in Eno Alakylä. Hooking up a municipal office building, health centre, fire station, retirement home, local businesses and ten terrace houses to a 1.2 MWth and another 0.8 MWth boilers, these buildings are now heated with local wood chips, peat and pellets. The system cost $1,384,000 (CAD), before renewable energy subsidies of $319,000. Across the EU subsidies differ, but typically a heat plant project receives up to 40 percent of the investment cost from regional, national and EU governments.

Subsidies for renewable heat are one critical area where Canada falls short. Biomass heating consultant and CANBIO’s Ontario director, Christopher Rees says to get off the ground, district heating appliances need a 30 percent capital subsidy rate and recommends the subsidy should be in place for a minimum of five years.

Quebec is pioneering one such program, launched in September by the Agence de l’efficacité énergétique du Québec, the “Program to Aid the Utilization of Forest Biomass Residues for Heat” provides subsidies to help institutions, commercial buildings, churches and other public buildings convert from light oil to heating systems using woody biomass. CANBIO also hopes the program will include options to fuel buildings with renewable bio-oil made from woody biomass, by Canadian companies like Ensyn and Dynamotive, rather than undergoing the process of installing boilers in every case.

District heating offers many benefits to rural communities. Eno has three small, district-heating systems owned by a co-operative of private forestry companies. Besides creating a new market for already existing material, the renewable heat from the cooperative replaces 1.6 million litres of oil every year and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by over 4,000 tonnes.

Röser gave municipalities a step-by-step plan for building a successful district-heating network. Start by surveying the community and the potential buildings, he said, make sure you have sufficient heating space to justify the investment cost. Next calculate the power capacity of the boiler and shop around for different options. Then plan the heating pipe network and calculate the profitability for the co-operative and customers. Now calculate the network fees. In Finland, every member of the co-operative pays an entrance fee to join the network (usually about $25,000 – $30,000 CDN). Members also pay a flat monthly fee to cover fixed costs like loans, and an energy fee, which pays for the energy each member uses.

The co-operative should now be ready to put out a tendering contract for the plant. Röser said municipalities have to work hard to demonstrate the project’s feasibility and profitability to co-op members and potential customers before starting negotiations on equipment and suppliers. After that, municipalities will be in good shape to apply for subsidies, and after receipt, they can start building.

A Canadian District-heating Model

It’s easiest and cheapest to implement a district heating system in a brand new community. That’s why JP Gladu, president of Lake Nipigon Forest, an association of four First Nations communities around Lake Nipigon, and CANBIO director, is pushing for a district heating system when Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation moves back to its traditional territory.

In the 1960s, the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek people were forcibly moved from their traditional lands to make way for a provincial park. After decades of negotiations the Federal Government has agreed to cede the provincial park back to the First Nation, whose members who are now scattered around the region. JP says if all goes according to plan they hope to have the final approval in Spring 2010 and the first houses and large buildings on the land by 2014.

On a CANBIO study tour to Eastern Finland last May, Gladu saw Finnish district heating systems up close. Gladu is in talks with Röser and another Finnish expert, Jouko Parviainen, to draw up plans for a district heating system for the First Nation community.

“This project would be the first of its kind in Ontario. And with our First Nation building a new community, the opportunity to develop a district heating system with the Finns prior to erecting buildings and roads is exciting,” said Gladu who began talks with two other Finnish suppliers at CANBIO’s Edmonton conference.

The community plans to build a sawmill and use the residues from there along with forest harvest residue to fuel the district heating system. He says community support for the idea of heat from local wood is high because of the First Nation’s strong traditions of relying on a sustainable forest for subsistence and its ties to the land.

Pellets, Heat and Power – new technologies let municipalities produce all three

Most of the recent bioenergy activity in Canada’s western provinces and British Columbia involves building dedicated pellet plants that export much of the product to Europe. And market demand is insatiable. Canada’s pellet exports are expected to double from 1.5 million tones to 3 million tones in three to four years, says Doug Bradley. Meanwhile, in Eastern Canada, combined heat and power (CHP) plants are on the top of the agenda.

Christofer Rhén of GreenExergy put a new, more efficient solution on the table at CanBio’s annual conference. It’s a combination plant – producing green electricity, pellets and heat. “It’s a technology that’s available right now, combination plants are more energy efficient and profitable so they should be considered in Canada,” says Doug Bradley. Ontario Power Generation plans to eliminate the use of coal by 2014 and fuel some of its generators with biomass, to do so it will need two million tones of biomass. Communities like Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation will have a ready market if they were to consider pellet production, says Bradley, as will communities near ports because they can ship pellets to growing European markets.

The heart of GreenExergy’s combination plant is its innovative steam dryer, which can take all kinds of woody biomass, like sawdust, chips, wood branches and treetops, and upgrade them to an even quality and size. Then they can either go to a generator to produce electricity, a pelletizer to produce pellets and either a district heating grid to produce heat or a sawmill dryer to produce dried wood products.

GreenExergy is currently operating two combination plants in Sweden. Its Hedensbyn plant commissioned in 1996 has a 98 MW CFB steam boiler, a 34 MW steam turbine. Every year it produces 260 GWh district heating and 170 GWh of electricity along with 130,000 tonnes of pellets. Its Storuman plant commissioned in 2008 has a 32 MW steam boiler, an 8 MW steam turbine and annual production is 105,000 tonnes of pellets, 40 GWh of heat and 48 GWh electricity.

Rhén says Finland’s rural communities, which used to have the same high jobless rates as Canada’s forest towns, are reaping the rewards of bio-economy development. The trick, he says, is to focus wood energy development on rural communities with high unemployment and a need to diversify their local economies. By 2020 jobs in the forest fuel supply chain and in machinery supply in Finland are expected to increase five times, and management jobs will double.

Higher wages mean Finland and Canada can no longer compete with Asia and Latin America when it comes to forestry, says Rhén. “It’s time for us to cooperate in research and development and technology transfer to create new markets for our boreal forest resources.”

  Photo: The biomass feed system at a northerm Vermont hospital. Credit: CANBIO.

CANBIO applauds BC government change to boiler rules - paving way for biomass heat

  Tuesday March 9, 2010

  The BC government has updated an outdated requirement for low pressure thermal fluid (or steam) plants to have an engineer on staff for 24 hours, seven days per week.

  The old regulation did not take account of advances in control technology for non-pressurized systems. The new rule generally exempts non-pressurized plants of any size from the staffing requirement if they have automated control systems, commissioning systems, functional testing programs and maintenance programs that have been approved by a professional engineer, according to the BC Safety Authority.

  The Canadian Bioenergy Association applauds the move, saying it will pave the way for more local, renewable biomass-fueled heating in the province. Before the regulations were changed, state-of-the-art biomass boilers were simply uneconomic due to the staffing requirements.

  “For decades biomass projects have been stopped or delayed because of known regulatory barriers,” says Bruce McCallum, Vice President of CANBIO, who authored a report, “Addressing Barriers Restricting Bioenergy System Applications in Canada," which kicked off CANBIO’s campaign to amend the steam engineer stipulation.

  CANBIO supports the work of the BC Safety Authority on this issue and hopes other provinces will follow BC’s example.

  But more red tape needs to be removed if Canada is to seriously replace its carbon-intensive, fossil-fuel heat with sustainable biomass.

  Most state-of-the art biomass boilers are being manufactured in northern Europe, but regulations stand in the way of Canadians getting access to the best new technologies.

  It has been nearly impossible to use state-of-the-art European biomass pressure vessel appliances in most Canadian provinces, says McCallum. Canadian provinces, which regulate boilers in Canada, recognize the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) boiler design code. But complying with ASME is very difficult for all but the largest of European boiler manufacturers. So Canadians have not had access to some of the best European biomass technologies. This can easily be overcome if Canadian provinces also recognize two key European Union Standards governing biomass appliances, says McCallum.

  “The BC Safety Authority has also made provision to accept non-ASME boilers if they can be shown to meet equivalent standards. This is also a step in the right direct, but we need to see how it will work in practice. Can boilers certified to EU standards (for example) be deemed to meet an equivalent boiler standard or do subtle differences in standards still stand in the way,” said McCallum.

  Another hurdle is the approval process for automated residential biomass appliances under UL and CSA. A small company wishing to sell state-of-the art biomass boilers must spend at least $20,000 and often a year just getting approvals to sell the product in Canada and the USA.

  Insurance companies defer to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to certify domestic wood burning appliances like pellet boilers, giving them undue influence on appliance design and marketing.

  “In the case of European pellet boilers, we are asking manufacturers to re-certify appliances that have already gone through a rigorous EU certification process. This hinders and delays the introduction of state-of-the-art biomass appliances in Canada,” says McCallum.

  He recommends recognizing European standards is the answer. He wants provincial governments and insurance companies to recognize the EU standard EN 303-5 for biomass boilers up 300 kW.

Biomass has huge potential, CANBIO conference told

  At its annual conference in Edmonton, Alberta the Canadian Bioenergy Association delivered the message of the great potential for biomass business in Canada - and the great need for major infrastructure and policy support to make it happen.

  The Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal all reported on the event. Reporters from Bioenergy International, Biomass Magazine and Farm Business Communications attended the event - look for reports from those magazines on this website soon.

  Photo: Delegates took a study tour to Enerkem's new waste-to-energy facility.

Lassoing B.C.'s renewable economy

  Dwindling supplies of sawmill residues are making it tough for bioenergy project developers looking to start-up a business – because they have no raw material.

  The dive in British Columbia's lumber production following the US housing crisis means the ceiling for sawmill residues, the traditional biomass feedstock, has been hit. But BC, Canada’s first province to put a price on carbon, is counting on bioenergy to be a big part of its plan to tackle climate change.

  "The good news is that there is plenty of biomass to go around,” says Douglas Bradley, President and Executive Director of the Canadian Bioenergy Association. “Residual wood, forest slash, and non‐merchantable timber sits un‐used in many Canadian forests – and the key to any successful bioenergy project, big or small, is supply chain management.”

  CANBIO’s workshop in Vancouver, Moving Beyond Mill Residue, shares how different jurisdictions across Canada are opening up access to fibre for bioenergy. This all-business workshop features speakers from Canada, Europe and the U.S. on the hottest issues facing bioenergy developers on the ground: accessing biomass feedstock; project financing in an economic downturn; supply chain management and developing new markets at home and overseas.

  Leading Canadian energy companies like Alterna Energy, Nexterra and Ontario Power Generation share their stories of making biomass business happen. Delegates span the entire industry - from financiers, to forest industry and pellet industry experts.

  On August 28th, a special study tour visits Dockside Green, a commercial/residential development in Victoria. It's the world's first LEED Platinum certified community - and one of only 16 "climate friendly" communities on the planet. Eco-designed from the ground up, get a chance to tour a roof garden, see a heat and hot water system from waste wood using Canadian gasification technology by Nexterra, waste water treatment system and more.

Energy Biomass in Ontario: Getting beyond the promise

A bioenergy conference was held at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario May 31st and June 1st, organized by the Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy (QIEEP) and the Sustainable Bioeconomy Centre, both of which are part of Queen’s University. There were 185 participants, including 3 CANBIO Board members (John Swaan (who was one of the presenters), Jane Todd and Jim Richardson). The strong level of recognition of the potential importance of biomass and bioenergy in Ontario was demonstrated by the number of senior figures involved in the program. Two Ontario Cabinet Ministers – the Honourable John Gerretsen, Minister of the Environment and the Honourable Donna Cansfield, Minister of Natural Resources – were dinner or lunchtime speakers. (The Minister of Energy and Infrastructure had been invited.) Three Deputy Ministers of Ontario Government Ministries chaired program sessions, and the Principal as well as several Vice-Principals of Queen’s University also had different roles in the program. Colin Andersen, CEO of the Ontario Power Authority, was the keynote speaker.

The conference program included four sessions with a total of 12 speakers dealing with biomass supply, transformation/transportation, fossil fuel substitution and next steps. There was some repetition in the key points made by speakers, but this helped give emphasis to important issues. One message that came through clearly is that Ontario is trying to be a leader in bioenergy development, particularly through the open-ness of the Ontario Government to cap and trade and its recent announcement of the introduction of a feed-in tariff for biomass electricity.

Although the theme of the conference was ‘Getting beyond the promise’ [of energy from biomass in Ontario], it is clear that there are still a number of challenges. One that received much attention in Kingston was the issue of access to biomass, particularly forest biomass, which is closely related to the issue of forest tenure. There seemed to be a recognition that the historic forest tenure patterns on public forest land need to change. Cost of biomass is also still a concern, though not perhaps mentioned as much. Government policies can also be a challenge. One such policy, related to pressure-vessel regulations and steam boiler supervision, whose reform CANBIO has been championing, was not mentioned.

The focus was mainly on large-scale applications of bioenergy, perhaps related to the predominant mind-set of the electricity generating industry, although there was clearly also interest in small-scale applications. Power generation – both distributed and centralized – was a large part of the discussion, but other uses for biomass, including heat, liquid fuels and bioproducts, were not ignored.

Wood pellet projects are attracting considerable interest in Ontario, driven largely by the moves of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) into co-firing with biomass at several of its large generating stations. However, the conference also learned that the wood pellet industry is suffering presently in the West as a result of the major downturn in the forest sector. With sawmills closing, sawmill residues are less available, and moving to forest residues for pellet production is proving to be a challenge in terms of cost and logistics.

This was billed as QIEEP’s 2nd Annual Conference on biomass for energy. Presentations from the conference, and the preceding one held in 2008, are available on the QIEEP website at http://www.queensu.ca/qieep/conference2/index.html.

Making Bioenergy Projects Work by Supply Chain Management

  Biomass projects, big and small, face the same major issue – minimizing cost of biomass supply. This issue was put under the microscope at the latest Canadian Bioenergy Association event, Making Bioenergy Projects Work by Supply Chain Management Workshop, Tradeshow and Study Tour, held outside Sherbrooke, Quebec.

  “Biomass buyers don’t care where the feedstock comes from, they just want it delivered at the mill door for the right price,” CANBIO Ontario Board Member Chris Rees told delegates.

  Three keynote presentations on Accessing Fibre, from Louis Paquet of the Quebec MNR, Joe Maure Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), and David Palmer of the York Sunbury Charlotte Marketing Board, highlighted the vast amounts of forest fibre that are being released by the provinces to create a biomass industry.

  “The key is to limit the huge amount of administration required to get it,” says Doug Bradley, President and Executive Director of CANBIO. “Communities simply do not have the resources that the forest industry had to ensure all of the administrative requirements for fibre were met.”

  Tapio Ranta, supply chain expert from Finland advised that Canadians use truck-based bundlers for higher productivity in the Canadian context. While Raida Jirjis, a moisture management expert from Sweden, had participants madly scribbling notes on secrets to reducing costs that the Swedish industry has attained in 25 years of supply chain management. Conference delegates get free access to all presentations. CDs can also be purchased from CANBIO, email Jim Richardson, jrichardson@on.aibn.com, to order your copy.

  Two days of study tours followed the event – Enerkem treated delegates to well-organized tours of their second generation biofuels pilot in Sherbrooke and their new commercial scale plant in Westbury just completed in December, led by scientist-entrepreneur and Enerkem co-founder Esteban Chornet. At a stop at grinder operator, Broyage Mobile d’Estrie, delegates became part of a press conference to announce the company’s progress, read the French newspaper article here. Domtar took delegates into the woods to see their local grinding operation followed by an insider’s look at their co-gen operation, and a rare look at PM7, the largest fine paper machine in Canada.

  The next day Timothy Maker of the Biomass Energy Resource Center took delegates on a tour of biomass district heating facilities in Vermont. Many of the facilities were just months old spurred by Vermont’s Fuels for Schools Program to modify fossil fuel heating systems to fit biomass to ramp up bioenergy heating. The program provides generous incentives for public facilities like schools and hospitals to modify their existing heating systems to biomass-based wood pellet and wood chip boilers, incentives that are sadly not available in Canada. Luc Desrochers, a Bioenergy Researcher at FP Innovations was surprised to hear that most of the feedstock was being purchased from Quebec forests.

  “The original plan to buy biomass from local forest operators fell apart because the sawmills couldn’t guarantee a steady supply and the feedstock delivered was a variety of different qualities, making it more challenging to use,” says Desrochers, “so the facilities decided to go for a higher quality woodchip, and they’re all using a Montreal broker.”

  The tour inspired at least one Ontario logging operation to consider switching to wood chip or pellet production. However, owner of Opeongo Forestry Service in Renfrew, Bill Hall says Canadian provinces need the same economic incentives as in Vermont for biomass heating to make economic sense. “The tour was inspiring because in Vermont industrial buildings heated with wood pellets are meeting up to 60 percent of the heat load. But in Ontario we need a similar policies that make natural gas more expensive than wood pellets on a BTU basis.”

  “The speakers and site visits at this Quebec event made it clear that the province is at the forefront of bioenergy action in Canada,” says Douglas Bradley, CANBIO President and Executive Director. “As the national bioenergy association we are committed to partnering with Quebec industry, communities and existing organizations like the Quebec Wood Export Bureau, to help stimulate further investment in this sector – we want to be part of the action.”“The speakers and site visits at this Quebec event made it clear that the province is at the forefront of bioenergy action in Canada,” says Douglas Bradley, CANBIO President and Executive Director. “As the national bioenergy association we are committed to partnering with Quebec industry, communities and existing organizations like the Quebec Wood Export Bureau, to help stimulate further investment in this sector – we want to be part of the action.”“The speakers and site visits at this Quebec event made it clear that the province is at the forefront of bioenergy action in Canada,” says Douglas Bradley, CANBIO President and Executive Director. “As the national bioenergy association we are committed to partnering with Quebec industry, communities and existing organizations like the Quebec Wood Export Bureau, to help stimulate further investment in this sector – we want to be part of the action.”

China’s rise to a bioenergy powerhouse - CANBIO builds partnerships between China and Canada’s bioenergy industries

The World Bioenergy Association chose the perfect place for its second Board Meeting: Beijing, China. Douglas Bradley, CANBIO Executive Director and President, swayed the WBA to support CANBIO’s campaign to recognize European boiler standards in Canada – currently imports must be ASME-certified (an American standard), leading to an unfair playing field for Canadian buyers and EU makers.

Bradley was happy to see how the Chinese have circumvented the problem, they manufacture and sell biomass boilers that have both types of certification. “This shows how far they’ve come in China in recent years, Dragon Power’s sister company, the National Bio Energy Company, has become one of the world’s largest boiler makers.”

Bradley was scheduled to present at a WBA-sponsored investors forum at the Great Hall of the People on Tian’anmen Square, but it was closed to foreigners just prior to the WBA event because of the Swine Flu scare. He presented the Canadian bioenergy situation to a large group of government and private sector bioenergy delegates at an alternate venue.

“I outlined biomass availability in Canada, leading-edge Canadian bioenergy technologies available for license, and domestic bioenergy projects in need of financing partners. Delegates were really excited to find out about how Canada has become a leader in second generation biofuel technology – I talked about great companies and technologies here like Enerkem, Ensyn, Dynamotive, Lignol, Alterna and Iogen. So I’ve started setting up meetings with these companies and interested investors, which I hope will lead to technology imports to China,” he says.

China burns 43 percent of the world’s coal – and that number is rising. According to the British Petroleum statistical review, coal consumption jumped by 7 percent in 2008, despite a 73 percent price increase over 2007.

Popular concern over climate change as well as pollution concerns is causing China to seek friendlier energy solutions – including clean coal, wind and solar – but bioenergy is seen as especially promising. In 2007, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture announced a plan for bioenery to make up almost 25% of the nation’s total energy consumption by 2020, making it the second largest renewable after hydropower.

Biomass –which is the only renewable energy source that can be directly substituted for coal in power plants – can directly replace coal and feed some of China’s energy needs today. That was the message from tireless entrepreneur, Kai Johan Jiang, the CEO Dragon Power, who became China’s largest bioenergy producer in just seven years, and was recently named China’s entrepreneur of the year. His company generates 92 percent of the Chinese biomass power market, with 19 operating power plants and more under construction. He’s also WBA’s Board Member for China.

“I’ve also began to line up companies to exhibit and speak at our annual conference in Edmonton this October,” says Bradley. “Full service provider Dragon Power from China has already committed and I believe we will have a Singapore-based company also.”

The WBA delegation met with several high-ranking government officials during the visit including Wei Diansheng, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, State Forestry Administration, and Li Nu Yun, Deputy Director General for the Office of Forestry Bioenergy, both of whom are interested in following up with Canadian technologies.

The WBA visited Dragon Power’s first biomass-fired power plant in Shandong province's Shanxian county. The 25 MW plant generates electricity from corn straw, cotton stalks and peanut shells. “It’s a really tight operation” impressed Bradley. “The plant gathers all of the biomass from surrounding farms that was formerly burned in the fields and turns it into renewable power, giving extra income to the local farmers. That model is the one Dragon Power now is using all over China and one that is immediately transferrable to rural Canada. It’s a really good operation with very few start-up issues. It is no small change either. Dragon Power now has 19 plants producing 408MW and will have 1000MW producing by 2010.”

Dragon Power is planning to bring its experience and expertise to Canada at CANBIO’s Annual Conference as a speaker and tradeshow exhibitor in Edmonton this October, says Bradley.

Nine steps Canada should take to remove red tape around bioenergy projects

Now more than ever, Canada needs bioenergy – to rejuvenate failing forestry towns, replace high carbon fossil fuels with clean renewable energy, and create much needed jobs.

Developers are ready to embrace new, advanced bioenergy technologies in Canada, but there’s one major problem – red tape. “For decades biomass projects have been stopped or delayed because of known regulatory barriers,” says Bruce McCallum, author of a new Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO) report, “Addressing Barriers Restricting Bioenergy System Applications in Canada.”

McCallum points to three big regulatory hurdles and recommends nine steps to address them – and make bioenergy projects shovel ready.

The first is staffing regulations. Boiler plants above 1.5 MW (thermal) capacity, about the size a large high school would use, require round-the-clock staffing by boiler engineers. This huge operating expense makes most small-scale bioenergy heating plants too expensive to ever get off the ground.

McCallum points to Sweden’s latest boiler regulations as a good model for Canada to adopt. Both steam and hot water boilers above 3MW can be operated during the week with only two operator inspections every 24 hours.

World Biomass Association (WBA) President Kent Nyström says Canada needs to change its restrictive regulations to build a profitable, sustainable market. “You must have a regulatory system that corresponds to the performance capabilities of the equipment. In Europe, with modern computer monitoring technology, we safely operate biomass plants larger than 1.5 MW without continuous staffing,” says Mr. Nyström.

The second challenge is boiler regulatory issues that make it almost impossible to use state-of-the-art European biomass pressure vessel appliances in most Canadian provinces. Canadian provinces, which regulate boilers in Canada, recognize the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) boiler design code. But complying with ASME is very difficult for all but the largest of European boiler manufacturers. So Canadians don’t get access to some of the best European biomass technologies. This can easily be overcome if Canadian provinces also recognize two key European Union Standards governing biomass appliances, says McCallum.

The final hurdle is the approval process for automated residential biomass appliances. A small company wishing to sell state-of-the art biomass boilers must spend at least $20,000 and often a year just getting approvals to sell the product in Canada. As an example, an Austrian small-boiler manufacturer spent two and a half years getting certified, and to do so had it to import the steel from the US to make the boilers for subsequent export to Canada, a hopeless example of inefficiency. Insurance companies defer to the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to certify domestic wood burning appliances like pellet boilers, giving them undue influence on appliance design and marketing. “In the case of European pellet boilers, we are asking manufacturers to re-certify appliances that have already gone through a rigorous EU certification process. This hinders and delays the introduction of state-of-the-art biomass appliances in Canada,” said Bruce McCallum.

McCallum says recognizing European standards is the answer. He wants provincial governments and insurance companies to recognize the EU standard EN 303-5 for biomass boilers up 300 kW.

“This CANBIO report points the way forward to unleashing Canada’s huge biomass energy potential,” said Doug Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association. “We urge our provincial governments to move quickly to implement its recommendations.”

PHOTO CAPTION: These Danish Tarm 40 kW (150,000 BTU) boilers have finally been approved for use in Canadian homes. But red tape still prevents them from being used as pressurized boilers in commercial buildings because the company is not an ASME approved boiler manufacturer.

 

Ontario Green Energy Act is good for biomass - but where's the heat?

  Ontario’s Green Energy Act, tabled yesterday, has all the right tools to make renewable energy a much greater contributor to the province’s energy mix, but there’s one thing missing: heat. “In a country as cold as Canada, we’ve got great potential for heat from biomass, but too often it’s left out of the equation,” says CANBIO President and Executive Director Douglas Bradley.

  “The feed in tariff is a very good thing for electricity from renewable sources,” says Bradley. European countries, like the Netherlands and Germany, have proven that a feed-in tariff, which essentially sets a fixed price on renewable energy sources for electricity generation, can really shift the energy market from fossil-fuels to sustainable, green renewable sources and CANBIO solidly backs such initiatives in Ontario.

  “But only reserving incentives for electricity, not heat, artificially promotes biomass cogeneration plants to be less efficient because plants are the most efficient when they are able to use all of the heat produced, not just the electricity generated,” says Bradley. “But the Act is still in the big idea phase, and now is the time to push for heat from renewable biomass to be included. For the wind turbine and photovoltaic sectors electricity production is the only focus. But for bioenergy heat production is just as important if not more important than electricity generation. We’ll be talking with the Ontario government to try to make this happen,” says Bradley.

  CANBIO Director Christopher Rees, who promotes bioenergy heating solutions in Ontario, is concerned that the definition of “Appliances,” in the Act only refers to electricity-using appliances. CANBIO would like to see the definition include the most energy efficient heating appliances such as residential furnaces and industrial/commercial boilers that can use either pellets or chips for single site application or for district heating systems. CANBIO promotes the concept of capital incentives for the installation of such furnaces and boilers. In business cases that we have examined to date, a 30% subsidy rate would be correct level of incentive and should be put in place for a five-year minimum.

  The streamlining of the project approval process is another plank in the Act that CANBIO strongly supports. “In the past, we’ve had complaints from many of our members that thick red tape and legislation not designed for biomass projects, such as steam engineer regulations, have been a major barrier to completing bioenergy projects,” says Bradley. CANBIO also supports easy and simple access to biomass resources.

  CANBIO is encouraged by the provision in the Act to create a Renewable Energy Facilitation Office in the Ministry of the Environment. It should offer a one-stop shop to openly discuss all renewable energy projects and facilitate their implementation.

 

 

CANBIO President to court EU investors in upcoming mission

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is supporting a European tour by Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CanBio) to meet key bioenergy investors and to stimulate new business and investment projects in Canada.

The visit, from January 24 to February 6, will stop in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden – but Bradley, who’s putting together carefully targeted presentations to show off Canada’s potential as a biomass supplier and operator – is confident the hectic schedule will be worth it. “I’m going on the tour with one mission: to develop new business opportunities for Canadian entrepreneurs, farmers, foresters and municipalities and encourage foreign investment here,” says Bradley.

International partnerships offer some of the best opportunities for Canadian entrepreneurs and municipalities to develop bioenergy. European companies have been building sustainable bioenergy projects for the last two decades: investors are looking for new markets and power projects need raw material. Canada, with its vast supply of forest resources, agricultural residues and organic waste, is well positioned to take advantage.

The investment mission starts in Italy where Bradley is scheduled to meet some of the world largest technology suppliers and producers of biodiesel.

In Belgium, Bradley will speak at the International Energy Agency’s Sustainability Workshop and he will tour Electrabel’s Les Awirs power station in Flemalle – the former coal-fired power station was converted to 100 percent biomass in 2006 – and it sources a considerable volume of pellets from Canada.

He will then move on to the Netherlands where he will join a roundtable discussion on biomass policy with various organizations and government representatives including the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture. The discussion will cover the current policy in both countries as well as consider opportunities for investment and cooperation between the Netherlands and Canada in biomass technology, R&D and trade.

In Spain, Bradley will tour CENER, Spain’s National Renewable Energy Centre and the Institute for Diversification and Saving of Energy, before meeting with a company who builds and operates small and medium-scale co-gen and biomass power plants.

In Sweden, Bradley will make a special presentation titled “Canadian Pellet Trains: producers, users and export markets,” before participating in a roundtable lunch with 8-10 biomass companies. As Canada’s Board Member on the World Bioenergy Association, Bradley will sit down with WBA President, Kent Nyström, and deliver a liquid biofuel seminar at the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm.

 

 

Agro-biomass can fuel Canadian industry, January 2009

  “Ontario farmers looking to turn a bigger profit should take a good look at the resources in their own backyards,” Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO), announced today.

  Building regional agricultural co-operatives to supply agro-biomass to industry is a huge opportunity waiting to happen.  “There are 142,833 acres of arable land in Lennox & Addington County, near Kingston, alone,” says PaulKennedy, a local landowner and entrepreneur.

  “If you wanted to reduce coal burning in a company like Lafarge by ten percent, only 2.5 percent of L&A County’s arable land would be required to produce energy crops or collect agricultural residues. There are also thousands of bales of hay sitting unused on local farms, all of which can be converted to fuel pellets,” says Kennedy.

  The problem? Municipalities and farmers need co-operative models so they to build a bulk supply and stable supply chain that industry can rely on. Export pellet markets are there, but supply chains to manufacture and deliver agricultural pellets are not. Machinery for making and collecting residues or energy crops is new and unfamiliar to some landowners.

  But from Missouri to Finland, farmer co-operatives producing agro-pellets from leftover crop waste or dedicated energy crops are turning a profit. “Substituting some fossil fuels with bioenergy not only cuts carbon emissions, it’s also a great business opportunity for Canadian farmers,” says Bradley.

  That’s why the Canadian Bioenergy Association is hosting “Fueling Canadian Industry with Agro-Biomass,” a focused workshop at the Donald Gordon Centre at Queen’s University on 31 March 2009. CANBIO is partnering with large companies like Ontario Power Generation and Lafarge, and with R&D experts like Queen’s University’s Sustainable BioEconomy Centre and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, to help farmers get started in the bioenergy business.

  OPG and Lafarge will talk about their immediate and future demands for renewable fuels. Steve Flick, founder of Missouri’s renowned Show-Me Energy Co-operative and Craig Copeland, a local farmer and landowner from Kingston, will show delegates how a co-operative will financially benefit all area farmers while at the same time contributing to the solution of carbon emission reduction. A small Canadian pellet machine that can produce agro-pellets on-site will be demonstrated by Ekofuel Technologies, and Doug Bradley will talk about export markets and how to build a business plan.

 

CANBIO Conference highlights progress with bioenergy, October 2008

CANBIO’s Annual Conference and Trade Show, which wrapped up in Ottawa recently, testified to rapid industry momentum in 2008.

“What a difference a year makes,” Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Program Manager for the Northwest and CANBIO Director, Jane Todd, told the 200-strong crowd. The province's major power utility is intensively testing biomass to ready itself should the Province decide to convert the coal-fuelled plants to biomass. From just one biomass-testing program at its Nanticoke plant last year, OPG is now in the throes of an “aggressive testing program in all of our plants,” said Todd.

Large co-generation isn’t the only area making big strides this year. Communities in Quebec are working co-operatively to develop bioenergy to boost a slowing forest economy. Carl-Éric Guertin, marketing director of the Quebec Wood Energy Board, and CANBIO Director, told delegates that while government is working to remove barriers to biomass for energy, the real crusaders in Quebec can be found at the local level. The Bas-Saint-Laurent region alone plans to install ten central heating projects by 2010. Many of the Finnish companies in the trade show followed the conference with side-trips to Matapédia, Temiscaming and Ville Marie in Quebec and Hearst in Ontario to help these communities move forward with bioenergy solutions.

But the President of the World Bioenergy Association, Kent Nyström’s keynote address showed Canada has a long way to go before bioenergy becomes a critical part of the country’s energy system. Nyström said the turning point for his country, Sweden, was the implementation of a national carbon tax. Citizens were given an income tax break in return for paying a tax on carbon and as a result public acceptance was high, he said.

“One thing is clear, whether it be through a carbon tax or trading of carbon credits, Canada needs to put a value on carbon now,” said CANBIO President Doug Bradley, summing up a panel discussion on Canada’s renewable energy industry.

The conference stayed true to its theme of “Bioenergy in Action.” Twenty-five tradeshow exhibitors from Ireland, Finland, Sweden, the US and Canada including the latest technologies and equipment. This year’s new business-to-business session, where interested delegates signed up for one-to-one meetings with trade show companies, were a major hit with 57 tête-à-tête’s taking place.

A study tour to Abitibi-Bowater’s co-generation plant in Hull, Quebec, a biomass harvesting and processing operation, Camionnage Normand Sans-Cartier, and Plasco’s waste-to-energy demonstration plant in Ottawa was also extremely popular.

CANBIO organizers were proud of the outcome of the Conference. The CANBIO Board is already discussing plans for next year’s event, which it hopes to hold in either Sherbrooke or Edmonton next Autumn.

View selected presentations from the Conference:
Forest biomass: volumes and supply chain costs - Doug Bradley
Business development through biomass in Sweden - Hans Gulliksson
Biomass under pressure: an elephant in the bed - Bruce McCallum

View complete list of presentations.
All presentations are now available on-line to participants and CANBIO members. For information contact info@canbio.ca.

Photos: Crystal Luxmore.

 

 

Canada takes centre stage at World Bioenergy 2008, June 2008

When the 77-strong Canadian delegation stepped off the plane in Sweden, they knew they were in bioenergy country. “The whole Arlanda airport is heated with biomass,” said Paul Smallman, a woodlot owner from Prince Edward Island. Like many Canadian delegates on the trade mission to World Bioenergy 2008, the biggest biomass conference in the world, Smallman went to Sweden with a mission: to learn from the best, network and turn the experience into a viable renewable energy business back home. “The wood and forestry sector is going broke by relying on conventional markets, I want to set up a small pellet plant, and use large wood burning furnaces to make renewable heat and power and sell it here, in PEI, to local people. Scandinavians are world leaders in bioenergy technology and markets, and you if you want to do the same, you go learn from the best.”

“Our international colleagues knew we meant business when Canada brought the largest delegation to the World Bioenergy event,” said Doug Bradley, president of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO), who organized the trade mission. Held in Jönköping, Sweden last month, CANBIO led a trade mission of 42 participants from six of the country’s ten provinces and another 35 delegates came independently. Participants came from the across the bioenergy sector, including forest owners, biomass-rich communities, researchers and technology providers. But everyone was there for the same reason: to do business.

International partnerships offer some of the best opportunities for Canadian entrepreneurs and municipalities to develop bioenergy. Finnish, Swedish and Austrian technologies and consultancies have been building sustainable bioenergy chains for the last two decades – and Canada, with its vast supply of forest resources – is well positioned to take advantage. Like its Scandinavian counterparts, Canada can utilize forest residues without competing with the pulp and paper industry for virgin fibre. Right now there are 16 million tonnes of excess tree bark sitting in “heritage piles” in Canada—enough energy to provide the needs of close to one million Canadians. Another 11 million tonnes annually of harvest waste is burned or left to rot every year. The massive pine beetle infestation in British Columbia has killed 450 million cubic metres of pine—six years’ worth of harvest at pre-infestation levels, and as a result BC has the largest amount of wood available for energy. .

World Bioenergy 2008 provided a lot of room to seed new bioenergy business ventures. Alexandra Volkoff, the Canadian Ambassador to Sweden, kicked off a popular Canada-Sweden side event that showcased Canada as a place for bioenergy business and partnering. Eighty five participants from 17 countries, including Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Spain, Brazil and Columbia came to the event, showing interest in Canada from the international bioenergy industry is high. Speakers, including CANBIO President Douglas Bradley and Board Members Bruce McCallum and Carl-Éric Guertin, gave presentations on biomass supply, sustainable forest management and regional bioenergy situations. All presentations can be downloaded at: http://www.infoexport.gc.ca/iei/Post.jsp?did=c20917&sitid=411

Another big draw was the site visits on offer. Roland Kilpatrick, Industrial Technology Advisor for the National Research Council, went on a full or half-day study tour each day of the five-day event. Kilpatrick, who moved to Northeastern Ontario five years ago, sees potential to shift its struggling forestry to a more profitable bio-based economy. He says the field tours were a highlight, allowing him to see state-of-the-art wood pellets and chippers, powering everything from a small farm to the town of Mullsjö, which has a three pellet boilers at three megawatts providing heating to 8,000 people. “We went to a school heated by a pellet boiler that sat in the schoolyard – it was so benign that you could see where the kids bounced their soccer balls on it,” said Kilpatrick.

He and other trade mission participants hope to bring some of the solutions they saw in Sweden back to Canada. Meeting prospective development partners on the trip will help with their task. “I heard talk of prospective development of large-scale projects with offshore partners, and a myriad of smaller-scale heat and power projects across the country – so keep your ears peeled for announcements,” said Bradley.

Delegates said some of the most promising business ventures happened between fellow Canadians. “Travelling with sixty other Canadians helped me to find new synergies and build relationships that could turn into significant bioenergy projects at home,” said Jamie Bakos, CEO of Titan Clean Energy Projects, a Saskatchewan- based biomass project developer. “I talked to a lot of potential customers from Canada interested in switching from traditional forestry to biomass for energy or renewable products,” said Luc Bernard of ALPA Equipment, a biomass machinery dealer in the Maritimes.

Bakos sees teaming up with either Canadian or Scandinavian business partners as the only way to ensure bioenergy takes off. “We need to look at bioenergy as a worldwide industry. We’re up against a long-entrenched fossil fuel industry and chemical giants, and if we think of ourselves as independent competitors, we’ll all lose. We need to think of the biomass industry as one big market and work together to make impacts.”

 

Canada joins new World Bioenergy Association, May 2008

Douglas Bradley, President of the Canadian Bioenergy Association (CANBIO) was appointed to represent Canada as a Board Member on the newly formed World Bioenergy Association (WBA). “Finding the best paths for sustainable biomass use is a global challenge, requiring global solutions,” said Mr. Bradley. “But the bioenergy industry is fragmented compared to other renewables such as wind and solar power; biomass ranges from animal waste to leftover wood, and end uses range from heat and power to renewable products that can replace synthetic chemicals and plastics. But for bioenergy to take off, we need to speak with one voice – this is what the World Bioenergy Association is all about.”

 

The WBA aims to be the global voice for bioenergy, and to promote the use of biomass in a sustainable and economically efficient way. The organisation will also promote trade with biofuels and biomass, standardisation of fuels, technical development and research. An important task is to monitor potential for bioenergy in different parts of the world. WBA also plans to help to develop certification systems to ensure that bioenergy is produced in an environmentally-friendly way, and under acceptable working conditions.

Chaired by Kent Nyström, president of the Swedish Biomass Association, intended members include Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan, India, Brazil, Sweden and other EU countries. WBA invites other national and regional bioenergy associations, and associated commercial enterprises, to enquire about membership.

“Up to now there hasn’t been any organisation for the bioenergy business on the global level,” said Mr. Nyström. “Bioenergy use can and should be increased in a sustainable way in light of high prices of fossil fuels and their environmental impact on the climate, and by representing bioenergy producers worldwide, WBA can help.”

Bioenergy industry representatives and some Board Members from the World Bioenergy Association are expected to attend CANBIO’s annual conference and trade show, Bioenergy from words to action, on October 6-8, 2008.

Photo credit: Maral Kassabian, Bioenergy International - www.bioenergyinternational.com.

 

The pine beetle outbreak is not all bad news

Concern over large amounts of carbon emissions from B.C.’s forests due to the pine beetle infestation is not critical in the long-term, says Canadian Bioenergy Association president Doug Bradley. The felling of over 130,000 trees since 2006 should be seen as an opportunity for strident management of forests—including salvaging renewable energy from the dead wood.

Dr. Werner Kurz’s predictions that by the time B.C.’s pine beetles are finished with the interior forests, over a billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide will be released in the atmosphere are not new, but they caused alarm in some of Canada’s newspapers after the findings were published in Nature last week.

Kurz, a senior ecologist at the Pacific Forestry Centre, writes that B.C.’s forests have been setting themselves up for a natural infestation since the late 1800s when large forest fires cleared the way for vast stretches of pine forests. Later fire prevention programs were sufficiently effective that forests were heavy with mature trees and thus more open to mass infestation beginning in the 1990s when higher temperatures extended the lifespan of the pine beetle.

“Kurz’s findings merely reflect how natural disturbances are a normal event in Canada’s boreal forests and are a necessary part of forest health. If left unchecked, CO2 emissions will continue due to the slow decay of trees killed by the beetle and, in all likelihood, natural fires will occur in dead dry stands, resulting in major CO2 releases. Over time, of course, new trees will grow in their place absorbing back all of the carbon that was lost,” said Bradley.

Bradley maintains the best and fastest way to reduce net CO2 emissions is to do exactly as the B.C. Government is doing: harvesting the dead or dying trees, thus storing the carbon in long-lived forest products, such as lumber for housing and enabling new forests to grow.

“What also needs to happen, is to further reduce CO2 emissions by turning the massive amounts of forest waste, most of which is sitting at roadside, into bioenergy. Using this fibre for energy enables us to use less fossil fuel, resulting in an immediate net reduction in CO2 emitted to atmosphere. This forest fibre doesn’t compete with food production, making it an attractive and sustainable renewable resource,” Bradley said.

B.C.’s dead wood, much of which is currently going to waste, could be used to produce power, replacing what would otherwise come from CO2-emitting coal or natural gas plants, or it could be used to make heat for industrial processes or homes, also replacing oil or natural gas.

Bradley underlined the importance of leaving dead wood on some areas of the forest floor as nutrients, especially where soils are not particularly fertile. He cited the work being undertaken by Dr. David Paré of the Canadian Forestry Service and Dr. Evelyne Thiffault in Quebec as important to finding soil nutrient solutions. “It will help us to best balance the amount of harvest waste to use for energy, while maintaining the productivity of our soils, and the health of our forests,” he said.

 

New domestic markets for pyrolysis oil from wood, August 2007

A recent technical study by UOP for the US Department of Energy indicates that pyrolysis oil made from wood can be an economic feedstock in existing oil refineries to produce gasoline.

A process called Fast Pyrolysis converts, in less than 2 seconds, residual biomass from the forestry and agricultural sectors, to light liquid bio-oil, for use in the production of bio-energy and bio-chemicals. Canada is the world leader in the development and production of pyrolysis oil. Ensyn, Ottawa, has designed, built, and commissioned seven commercial pyrolysis oil plants in the US and Canada, and has been processing 100 tonnes of dry residual wood per day in its largest plant, located in Renfrew, since 1989. To date it is the only fast pyrolysis technology that has operated on a sustained commercial basis. Dynamotive Energy Systems, Vancouver, has expanded it’s West Lorne, Ontario, plant to 130-tpd, and has commenced start-up of the world’s largest pyrolysis plant, a 200-tpd plant in Guelph Ontario. Dynamotive has focused on energy; fueling turbines to make power, or fueling boilers by replacing fossil fuels. Ensyn initially targeted the food and chemicals markets, which were more lucrative when energy prices were low, but it is very much a renewable transportation fuel company, especially with today’s price of crude.  

Research in the US by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest Laboratory on the use of pyrolysis oil suggests that at current crude oil prices it is economic to convert pyrolytic lignin to gasoline. Research by NREL is being dusted off, and Dynamotive is actively investigating this process with promising results to date. The article by UOP can be found here.

 

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