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'Ugly sister of biofuels' awaits Cinderella moment
Wood pellets praised for green potential
Margaret Munro
CanWest News Service
Friday, December 21, 2007
John Swaan's biofuel pellets have an image problem.
They resemble rabbit chow, for starters, and lack the high-tech allure of hydrogen fuel or solar cells.
And public concern and "misconceptions" about the pellets, which can burn cleaner than the natural gas heating millions of Canadian homes, killed plans to use them as "green" fuel in Vancouver's Olympic Village. The city opted instead to keep the world's athletes warm by scavenging heat from local sewers.
"We're the ugly sister of biofuels," says Swaan, who represents Canadian companies turning wood waste into fodder for high-efficiency furnaces.
But in an ironic twist, the pellets shunned at home are helping Europeans reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and meet their Kyoto targets.
Close to 700,000 tons were shipped out of B.C in the past year to help fuel the green revolution in the Netherlands and Belgium. There, the pellets made from Canadian sawdust and wood waste are fed into power plants to reduce reliance on coal.
"Europeans are basically looking at Canada as the source of its green energy," says David Layzell, executive director of the new Sustainable Bioeconomy Institute at Queen's University, who is working with government and industry to explore clean energy options.
It would be much better for the environment -- and for Canada's "embarrassing" reputation as one of highest per capita producers of greenhouse gases in the world -- to use the pellets to cut emissions at home and not ship them half way around the planet, says Layzell. He points to the exports as evidence of the "desperate need" for a Canadian strategy to better tap into the country's incredible, and largely unappreciated, "bioenergy" potential.
"We are so far behind," says Swaan, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, who can attest to the power of Europe's green policies.
Carbon taxes and restrictions add more than $100 a ton to the cost of burning fossil fuels in some European countries, and have created a huge appetite for biofuels. They are exempt from the carbon taxes and deemed "carbon neutral" because trees and plants suck carbon out of the air.
Oil, gas and coal are taxed for liberating carbon that has been buried underground for millions of years. It wafts into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, which scientists say is helping drive climate change and global warming.
Once the carbon taxes are added to the cost of making heat and electricity in the Netherlands and Belgium, the Canadian wood pellets are "almost a third" less expensive than using coal, says Swaan. Similar math is at work in Japan, which will start feeding B.C. pellets into one of its power plants in 2008.
But in Canada, there are few takers beyond a small "niche" in home heating. "Dragging a 40-pound bag of pellets across the living room floor," says Swaan, lacks the convenience of natural gas, available to most Canadians at the flick of a switch.
Electricity plants, steel mills and cement kilns are more logical customers, because of their huge appetites for coal and other fossil fuels. They could ramp up to use 20 per cent biofuel pellets without having to alter burner technology, says Layzell, who wants Canadian governments to introduce incentives to encourage use of more "bioenergy."
Research at the University of B.C indicates the pellets burn as clean and consistently as fossil fuels. Technology is also being perfected to transform and gasify wood wastes and pellets into fuel that can be substituted for natural gas and shipped down pipelines.
While bioenergy holds big potential, it is no panacea. Some greenhouse gas emissions are produced by drying wood and pressing it into pellets and shipping them to market. And trees and crops must be replanted to be carbon neutral and grown with a minimum of fertilizers and energy-intensive cultivation.
Wood pellets are now made from sawdust and wood waste that Swaan says is "rescued" from sawmills and beehive burners.
Close to 1.4 million tons of pellets were made in Canada in the past year, the bulk of them in the B.C. Interior. The pellets go by train to Prince Rupert and Vancouver and are loaded onto ships for export.
Swaan says there is enough sawdust and wood waste still going up in smoke in beehive burners to double production. That does not include the vast tracks of "dead, dying and decaying" trees in B.C.'s Interior forests, which have been devastated by the mountain pine beetle. Swaan's calculator practically smokes when he figures out the biofuel potential in the dead forests: "120 million tons of pellets -- that's 10 times the world's annual consumption today," he says.
There is interest in Canada -- the City of Vancouver chose burning pellets in high-efficiency incinerators as the "greenest" option for heating the Olympic Village. But critics raised the spectre of emissions wafting downwind to Vancouver's condominium towers and trucks rumbling into the heart of the city. "We were talking 40 trucks a year," says Swaan, who is still fuming over the protests that forced the city to nix the plan in favour of sewer heat.
He says the "fossil" gas heating homes in Vancouver generates "far more" emissions per unit of energy than the pellet system planned for the Olympic Village.
From RBC:
Canadian Hydro Developers (KHD): $6.19 - Acquisition of Le Nordais Wind Plant in Quebec
Outperform, Above Average Risk, Price Target: $34.00
Canadian Hydro acquired the 99-MW Le Nordais Wind Plant for approximately $120 million, which includes the assumption of
$6.3 million of debt. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and the consent of Hydro-Quebec and is expected to
close by February 28, 2008. The facility is located on the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec, and sells power to Hydro-Quebec under
a PPA that expires on December 17, 2033. The site also offers the potential for a 70-MW expansion, which could be operational
in 2010. If the expansion proceeds, it is expected that the electricity would be sold under the terms of the existing PPA. The
acquisition marks Canadian Hydro's entry into the growing Quebec wind power market. The province has stated its intent to
dramatically increase wind power and Hydro-Quebec recently solicited proposals for 2,000 MW of wind power. Canadian Hydro
issued 8.8 million subscription receipts at $6.25 for gross proceeds of $55 million. The company also plans to issue senior
unsecured debentures to repay a $72-million unsecured bridge facility related to the transaction. RBC CM’s analysis indicates
that the project is roughly neutral to cash flow, and over the longer-term adds roughly $0.25 per share to value.
Clean, carbon-neutral hydrogen on the horizon
November 12, 2007
University Park, Pa. -- Hydrogen as an everyday, environmentally friendly fuel source may be closer than we think, according to Penn State researchers.
"The energy focus is currently on ethanol as a fuel, but economical ethanol from cellulose is 10 years down the road," says Bruce E. Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering. "First you need to break cellulose down to sugars and then bacteria can convert them to ethanol."
Logan and ChengLogan and Shaoan Cheng, research associate, suggest a method based on microbial fuel cells to convert cellulose and other biodegradable organic materials directly into hydrogen in today's (Nov. 12) issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.
The researchers used naturally occurring bacteria in a microbial electrolysis cell with acetic acid – the acid found in vinegar. Acetic acid also is the predominant acid produced by fermentation of glucose or cellulose. The anode was granulated graphite, the cathode was carbon with a platinum catalyst, and they used an off-the-shelf anion exchange membrane. The bacteria consume the acetic acid and release electrons and protons creating up to 0.3 volts. When more than 0.2 volts are added from an outside source, hydrogen gas bubbles up from the liquid.
"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added to the process," said Logan.
Water hydrolysis, a standard method for producing hydrogen, is only 50 to 70 percent efficient. Even if the microbial electrolysis cell process is set up to bleed off some of the hydrogen to produce the added energy boost needed to sustain hydrogen production, the process still creates 144 percent more available energy than the electrical energy used to produce it.
For those who think that a hydrogen economy is far in the future, Logan suggests that hydrogen produced from cellulose and other renewable organic materials could be blended with natural gas for use in natural gas vehicles.
"We drive a lot of vehicles on natural gas already. Natural gas is essentially methane," says Logan. "Methane burns fairly cleanly, but if we add hydrogen, it burns even more cleanly and works fine in existing natural gas combustion vehicles."
The range of efficiencies of hydrogen production based on electrical energy and energy in a variety of organic substances is between 63 and 82 percent. Both lactic acid and acetic acid achieve 82 percent, while unpretreated cellulose is 63 percent efficient. Glucose is 64 percent efficient.
Another potential use for microbial-electrolysis-cell produced hydrogen is in fertilizer manufacture. Currently fertilizer is produced in large factories and trucked to farms. With microbial electrolysis cells, very large farms or farm cooperatives could produce hydrogen from wood chips and then through a common process, use the nitrogen in the air to produce ammonia or nitric acid. Both of these are used directly as fertilizer or the ammonia could be used to make ammonium nitrate, sulfate or phosphate.
The researchers have filed for a patent on this work. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. and the National Science Foundation supported this work.
Contact
Andrea Messer
aem1@psu.edu
http://live.psu.edu
814-865-9481
Vicki Fong
vfong@psu.edu
http://live.psu.edu
814-865-9481
Energem Resources starts trading on AIM
2007-11-28 15:12 MT - News Release
Mr. Brian Menell reports
ENERGEM RESOURCES INC - ANNOUNCES LISTING ON THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE - ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT MARKET (AIM)
Energem Resources Inc. has been listed on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market and is trading under the symbol ENM. The following announcement was made in London on Nov. 26, 2007:
Energem Resources Inc.'s common share capital has been introduced to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and dealings commenced at 8 a.m. GMT on Nov. 26, 2007. The common shares are already listed, and will continue to be so, on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Biofuels
The group's biofuels division currently has two projects. In Kenya, the group has a 55-per-cent interest in an ethanol plant, which produces alcohol and ethanol for the local Kenyan and Ugandan markets. In Mozambique, the group has a 70-per-cent interest in a new jatropha cultivation business. Jatropha is a hardy, inedible plant which grows year-round in difficult and arid environments common to southern Africa. Jatropha seeds can be pressed to obtain a crude oil from which biodiesel can be produced through a relatively simple refining process. After the initial set-up phase, the group intends to produce crude jatropha oil for onward sale and refining into biodiesel. Land acquired and identified by Energem for jatropha cultivation is not suitable for ordinary farming and Energem's jatropha cultivation does not require deforestation, any extensive clearing or the replacement of existing food crops.
The group's jatropha business is intended to exploit the growing demand for alternative fuel sources by using jatropha seeds to produce crude biodiesel. This business is at an early stage and the priority is to set up the initial farming operation while locating and acquiring more suitable land to increase production.
Jatropha oil can be produced commercially within three years of planting. In addition, the seeds, once pressed, form a seed cake as a byproduct which can be used as a fertilizer. Once jatropha plants are mature, they are expected to have a 35- to 40-year lifespan and produce a relatively high yield of approximately one tonne of oil from every three tonnes of seed pressed. Biodiesel refined from jatropha oil complies with current EU regulatory standards EN14214 and ASTMD 675. The directors believe that Africa's relative proximity to Europe makes it an ideal location for jatropha cultivation. It is estimated that Europe's anticipated biodiesel demand will exceed 10 million tonnes per year by 2011. This demand is largely being driven by an EU requirement for 10 per cent of all transport fuel to be biodiesel or biodiesel blends by 2020.
The company intends to sell crude jatropha oil to refiners in Europe for further processing into biodiesel. At this stage, the company does not propose to produce biodiesel by refining crude jatropha oil.
The jatropha business is operated through Energem Renewable Energy Mocambique Limitada, a wholly owned Mozambique company in which Energem holds a 70-per-cent interest. The company's co-investors, which hold a 30-per-cent equity interest, have conducted research into jatropha farming in Mozambique over a three-year period. The seedling nursery at Xai-Xai has to date produced an estimated two million seedlings which have produced 300 hectares of mature plantation, from which the test seeds have been produced. Tests on these seeds, carried out by the South African Bureau of Standards, indicate that their seed oil is suitable for refining biodiesel to EU standards.
Following on from these trials, 5,000 hectares in the Gaza province of Mozambique are being cleared and readied for the transplanting of jatropha seedlings. Transplanting is expected to begin during December, 2007. A further nursery at Bilene farm has been completed and this is expected to produce enough seedlings to plant up to 600 hectares per month. It takes approximately 18 months from transplanting the seedlings to achieving oil production. The directors expect that this division will be revenue-producing within three years.
In August, 2007, the government of Mozambique granted the company the right to use up to a further 60,000 hectares of land for jatropha cultivation. The company has submitted to the government its business plan for this land and the project is currently ahead of the targets set out in its business plan. Identification of more suitable land in other provinces in Mozambique, such as Sufala, as well as in neighbouring countries, has commenced.
$5M FOR WOOD-WASTE GAS
EDMONTON / A new Edmonton wood-waste gasification facility is getting a $5-million provincial grant under the new bioenergy strategy.
The $70-million Expander Energy plant will divert forestry and municipal wood waste from landfills in the region, vice-president Tony Lee said Monday.
It will use the carbo-V technology created by Germany's Choren Industries that produce a synthetic biodiesel fuel from wood waste subjected to heat and pressure. Carbon capture and sequestration are also key components of the plan, Lee said.
Expander is close to signing a deal on a site for the plant, which will be a scaled-down version of one in Europe. Choren's partners are Shell, Daimler-Chrysler and Volkswagen.
"It's been a long process, but we are at the engineering stage now," Lee said.
The grant is part of Alberta government's $239-million bioenergy plan designed to encourage the growth of a clean, renewable fuel industry.
Back to the wood stove?
Commercial forest-based bioenergy may be in its infancy across much of energy-rich Canada, but the 130 plus delegates at the Forest Biomass for Bioenergy and Bio-products Conference held last week in Edmonton, AB were given an idea of exactly where Canada may be one day soon. Gert Andersson of the Swedish forestry research institute Skogforsk described the use of forestry biomass for bioenergy in Scandinavia, measuring forest productivity in terms few this side of the Atlantic ever thought possible - in megawatt hours (MWh) per hectare.
“Right now we are averaging about 1 MWh/ha from post harvest slash, but I think it’s possible to get another 1.5 MWh/ha if we are more aggressive in our harvesting, including stumps,” the forest researcher told a confused audience used to dealing in m3/ha. Yet given the interest among audience members in new lucrative markets for biomass, and recent provincial and federal government initiatives in the billions to promote renewable energy sources, we may all start to measure forest production this way.
Bioenergy, biomass harvesting, bio-refineries – Little of it is new, even in Canada, where George Petty of Repap fame tried launching his Alcell pulp and biomass refinery back in the late 80s. What makes it all possible today is a mix of economic and political incentives: the consistently and seemingly permanent high price of energy and petrochemicals; and the recent explosion in public concern over global warming. Add to this the horrible conditions in traditional pulp and solid wood products, and a mass of deteriorating beetle kill wood coming on stream, and you have a lot of people wondering if there isn’t some money to be made from it all.
Hence the attentive crowd at the two-day Edmonton event, which drew a good mix of government, researchers, industry folks, and bioenergy system suppliers. Chief organizers of the excellent program were Juri Agapow of FERIC, Derek Sidders of the Canadian Forest Service (CFS), and David Patterson of FERIC's biofuels, bioenergy and bio-products program. Patterson is originally with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, but has been seconded to FERIC to help kick-start its bio-industries work. He was largely responsible for the slate of speakers at the event.
The first two speakers set the tone by outlining the massive volume of biomass material available, as well as its equivalent in energy terms – MWh or gigajoules. This is in the form of sawmill residue and post-harvest roadside slash in BC, while in the rest of the country roadside slash is the main potential feedstock, as sawmill residues are largely spoken for. Of course BC also has some 15 to 20 years worth of beetle kill wood to consider, immense volumes that are deteriorating faster than expected as far as lumber production goes.
Derek Sidders of the CFS painted a detailed picture of exactly what volume and energy equivalent is available coast-to-coast in Canada. Overall, some 92 million ODT is available each year in Canada, taking into account sawmill residues, roadside slash, urban construction waste, and insect/fire salvage. Add the potential for purpose-grown high-yield biomass, and the future looks even warmer. In the near term, the most promising of these volumes across Canada is logging residues currently left in the bush or burnt at roadside, an astounding 32 million of it already brought as far as the landing each year in Canada. The exception is BC, where unused mill residues are still the lowest fruit.
Nor is the demand wanting. Several provinces, including Quebec, Ontario and BC are actively seeking alternative energy projects, from wind power to bioenergy co-gen projects in an effort to add renewable energy sources to their power mix while meeting the growing need for more electricity. BC Hydro for its part is seeking a host of biomass energy projects to supply 10 MWh or less each to the provincial grid, priced a fair bit higher than the utility’s standard rate. Janice Larson of BC’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources spelled out both the general growth in demand across BC, as well as the bioenergy Expressions of Interest due April 17. The province sees growing demand for electricity dovetailing perfectly with under utilized sawmill residues (BC still has almost 50 beehive burners sending bioenergy up in smoke), and an overwhelming supply of deteriorating beetle kill wood.
The technology to harness this power is also available, as several speakers discussed options that varied from large centralized plants to bio-refineries that can be brought right to the woods. Systems discussed or that we ran across can be divided into two basic camps.
Direct burning of biomass in heating and/or co-gen plants. This requires an efficient way to move the feedstock, whether as chips or bundled slash. There is no shortage of existing suppliers of this technology, including Teaford Canada, whose Canadian agent Dan Ledoux participated at the Edmonton event.
Conversion to some form of denser, higher energy value fuel, either using pyrolysis or gasification. The idea is either to allow it to be used to directly replace an existing power source in an established infrastructure (like natural gas at Nexterra’s gasification system at Tolko’s Heffley Creek plant), to compete in higher-end existing oil markets, or to allow shipping of more value per truckload when distance is an issue. For gasification, there are a host of emerging technology suppliers, including Nexterra and Choren, a European company represented by Expander Energy in Canada. For pyrolysis, Dynamotive is perhaps the best known, with two existing projects up and running in Ontario, but other players include Advanced Biorefinery out of Ottawa and Alterna Energy out of BC.
Of course as FERIC's Patterson points out, there is more to biomass than heat, power or oil. Many of today's petrochemicals were originally extracted from our forests, and with rising demand and pricing, the opportunity exists to return to those biorefinery days. In fact, Expander Energy expects its first project to supply hydrogen to the oil sands, an alternative to expensive and diminishing natural gas reserves. Another attractive option is the production of synthetic diesel, or syndiesel, which according to Expander's Ivan Kawulka is both cleaner and higher in cetane than petro diesel, and does not share the cold weather clouding issues of biodiesel. There is a raft of other industrial wood-based products, with the only limitation being price and market.
Not easy street
Despite the supply, demand and technology being largely in place, there are still clearly many challenges to making this new economy work. Not surprisingly, it all comes back to economics:
Delivered cost: Peter Fransham of Advanced Biorefinery made the point best of all when it comes to the potentially devastating cost of collecting and processing forest biomass for bioenergy or bio-refining. With the exception of sawmill residues already on site, “there is no such thing as free biomass,” he told delegates. Obviously, there is a cost to handle and reduce (chip or hog) the feedstock even if it is “free” roadside slash, and then distance to the plant will be the all-important factor in determining whether conversion makes dollars and cents. In the end, energy prices in the market you’re selling to will largely determine economical shipping distance. Fransham sees 100 km one-way as the cut-off point for shipping slash or chips, although existing co-gen suppliers in New Brunswick are already shipping much farther than that to power plants in energy-hungry Maine. Much like incremental power demand in BC, it all comes down to what that last load of chips is worth to the plant manager.
When the slash is too far away for economical hauling, there are options to extract the air and water, densify it, and create more value per truckload. Advanced Biorefinery offers one such solution, using mobile pyrolysis refineries to convert biomass to bio-oil on site, likely in sort yards out in the field. In fact, Advanced has sold one unit to the Ontario MNR, and it will be going to production some time this year. The 50 ton/day system will start off de-bugging in an urban location, and then will move to a remote site to start converting slash.
Another option comes from South Africa, and is handled in Canada by Alterna Energy of Prince George, BC. The process converts biomass into a dense charcoal form that is a readily transferable energy source. The initial focus of this group will be on the readily available mill residue supply in BC, and the province’s tender for small power plants.
Still, if there was one weakness to the conference’s agenda, it was a lack of clear information on production cost for things like roadside slash handling and chipping (or chipping vs hogging), loading/unloading, hauling, etc…The systems were well described and compared by FERIC’s Jack Macdonald, part of an east-west FERIC team looking into biomass, led by Mark Ryans in the east and Tony Sauder in the west. Macdonald noted that costing info is on the way, so stay tuned.
Uncertain markets: What will all this power be worth, and where? Regardless of the supply of biomass in provinces like BC and Quebec, how much margin is there in a market where residential electricity costs are among the lowest in the world, and governments seem keen to keep it that way (both sell residential power for just over six cents per KWh). Yet industrial and residential power are different things, and as BC’s Janice Larson explains, the cost of incremental power is far higher than the core volume of power produced by hydro installations long-since paid for. This allows utilities to pay significantly more for flexible market power, like the 10 MWh or smaller bioenergy projects described earlier.
Opportunities may also exist serving markets with higher power costs. The price range is significant, as again Larson showed in her presentation. Take potential bioenergy or biomass production in Quebec. Sure, residential hydro is just six cents a KWh in La Belle Province, but just a few hundred miles away in Boston are North America’s highest residential electricity rates at over 32 cents. Rates in border states Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Maine are also all considerably higher, and demand growing. Sweden again may provide a look at the possible future, where Skogforsk’s Andersson says sawmills are already starting to fight with power plants over biomass, not always winning.
Fibre supply: The real question when it comes to the next best source of biomass – logging residue – is who owns it and what’s it worth sitting at roadside 150 km from town? It’s not an idle question, as provincial governments struggle to come up with policies to deal with this issue, particularly tricky in areas like Ontario with multiple users on the same land base. Yet until this is solved, investment in bioenergy is almost impossible, regardless of government incentives from other departments.
Politics: Bioenergy may make perfect sense as a renewable energy alternative to us in forestry, but don’t take the public for granted. Yes, global warming is the big issue today, and the government will support us on this front. Still, you’d think the same of wind power, yet today in Quebec an aggressive campaign to create 2,000 MWh of wind power is running into strong opposition in the communities where companies are trying to install the turbines. You can also expect strong competition for the greenest thumb by the agri-fuel sector. On this note, Bryce Stokes of the USDA Forest Service R&D division had perhaps the best advice of the conference during his dinner speech. Based on his experience promoting bioenergy down south, he stresses the need to inventory the available biomass, present it in terms of available MWh, gigajoules or litres of oil, and then sell the forest sector as a major, reliable, and very green alternative to petroleum and petroleum byproducts.
Given the need and the potential, it is hard to believe someone won’t drive this new energy market forward, and make some money doing it. The real question may not be if and when, but who? Will it be the struggling forest companies already in place and skilled at handling the remote operations and low-cost harvesting systems? Tight capital and risk aversion are hurdles. Or will it be the existing energy sector, flush with cash and looking to put one foot in the renewable energy sector with an eye to the future? They are already investing in many of the technology suppliers mentioned above. At over US$ 65/barrel for oil and US$ 7.55/MMBtu for natural gas at the hub at the time of writing, there’s money to be made.
http://www.canadianwoodproducts.ca/app/newsletter/view_article/2,1.html
City firm works on turning garbage into gas
Neil Scott
Leader-Post
Friday, November 23, 2007
A Regina company has formed a partnership with a county government in Alberta on a cutting-edge technology project to use garbage to produce energy.
The project, touted as the first of its kind in Canada, will involve Prairie Biogas Ltd. in a partnership with the County of Stettler (near Red Deer) in doing a feasibility study on a bio-energy project to convert waste materials into synthetic gas.
The Alberta government will assist by providing $137,000 for the feasibility study.
Jim Ireland, the president of Prairie Biogas Ltd., said the arrangement is big news for his relatively new Regina company. Prairie Biogas has only two employees right now, but has big plans for the future.
"We're small right now, but there's tremendous opportunity,'' Ireland said Thursday.
Ireland said the company plans to go full speed ahead with the feasibility study and have it completed in January.
The next step, assuming the project is deemed feasible, would involve detailed engineering work, Ireland said. If all goes well, the project could be in operation before the end of next year, he said.
The total construction and development cost would likely be between $5 million and $10 million, he said.
"This system will be the first such system in Canada,'' Ireland said. "The technology used in this project is cutting edge and very exciting."
As part of the development work, Ireland said a small model of the proposed facility will be built and put on display at the University of Regina.
The project would use new technology -- the Pyromex ultra-high temperature pyrolysis system -- to produce synthetic natural gas from municipal and agricultural waste.
Based on processing 25 tonnes of waste material per day, it is estimated the Stettler facility could produce two megawatts of electrical power plus additional thermal energy that could be used to heat buildings and other days.
The electricity would be sold for use on the Alberta power grid. But the selling price would likely have to be slightly higher than the usual price paid by Alberta for electricity to make the project feasible, Ireland said.
"This kind of facility is not only great for the environment, but offers a value-added opportunity for energy distribution,'' he said.
Ireland said the project is being done in Alberta for several reasons, including the participation of the Alberta government and the strong interest by the County of Stettler.
Ireland said he would certainly be interested in doing similar projects in Saskatchewan in the future.
"This project is great news for the county,'' said Vic Carey, the reeve of Stettler County.
"We are always thinking about how we can better protect our environment and that includes handling our waste better,'' Carey added in a news release issued by the county.
The money from the Alberta government will be provided in accordance with the province's $239-million plan to promote bio-energy-related projects.
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007
Close
Take a peak at FASC gentlemen.
http://FASC.NET
Siemens Gets Major Wind Turbine Order From Canada
Edited Press Release
FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Siemens AG's (SI) power generation unit Siemens Power
Generation, or PG, said Wednesday it will supply 86 wind turbines with a
capacity of 2.3 megawatts each for the Wolfe Island Wind project, which is
located near Kingston in Eastern Ontario.
The purchaser is a subsidiary of Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. (KHD.T), a
company that is exclusively investing in renewable energy projects in Canada.
With an installed capacity of nearly 200 MW, the wind project will have the
potential to provide clean power to nearly 75,000 households. The wind farm is
scheduled to be operational in fall 2008.
So far this calendar year, Siemens has secured wind turbine orders totaling
more than 750 MW in North America. The combined value of these orders exceeds
USD1.1 billion, or EUR770 million.
Prior to the new order from Canada, Siemens had received five major U.S. wind
orders with a total capacity of more than 550 MW in 2007. Customers include RES,
Babcock and Brown Ltd. (BNB.AU), AES Corp. (AES) and MidAmerican Energy. Further
project negotiations in the U.S and Canada are expected to be completed shortly,
adding to the order backlog.
"The tremendous growth of our wind business is evidence that wind energy will
continue to contribute toward a more diverse mix of environmentally compatible
power generation sources," said Randy Zwirn, Chief Executive of Siemens Power
Generation, Inc. and member of the PG group executive management.
"Globally, cumulated wind power installations are forecasted to increase from
60 gigawatts in 2005 to more than 150 GW in 2010 and more than 300 GW in 2020.
The Siemens wind business is well positioned to meet this growing demand. In
fact, we are growing faster than the global market, not only in North America
but also in other important markets in Europe and Asia," added Zwirn.
"We are also market leader in offshore installations and we intend to continue
investment and expand capacity in our wind business in order to ensure that we
position ourselves as one of the top players in the industry."
Since Siemens entered the wind market just three years ago, the company has
become the second largest wind turbine supplier to the U.S. market. This year
Siemens will greatly exceed the number of wind turbines it installed in 2006 in
the U.S.
With an average annual growth rate of approximately 25%, the North American
market is expected to continue to be the second largest regional market in terms
of total installed capacity, just behind Europe. According to the Global Wind
Energy Council, the U.S. market will be the most important national market in
the world during the 2007-2010 period.
Canada is expected to rank among the five largest wind power markets over the
coming decade, according to an Emerging Energy Research study.
To meet the fast-growing demand for clean wind power in North America, Siemens
has opened a new 30,000-square-meter turbine blade manufacturing facility in
Fort Madison, Iowa.
The first wind turbine blades manufactured at this new Siemens factory have
already been delivered to the Babcock and Brown Sweetwater 5 wind farm in Texas.
The Siemens wind business is one of the leading suppliers of wind turbines in
the industry with more than 3,300 employees worldwide.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-07-07 0438ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 04 38 AM EST 11-07-07
Wind power project eyed for region
Oct 30 2007
By ANDREA MILLER
Advocate staff
A fledgling Calgary company proposes a $200-million wind farm near Red Deer to feed Alberta’s growing power needs.
Greengate Power Corp. has talked to landowners about setting up 50 windmills on 30 quarter sections on and around Radar Hill.
Radar Hill is between Pine Lake and Red Deer, 16 km east of the Red Deer Regional Airport. The area is a high point of land once used by the Department of National Defence as a NORAD radar site.
Greengate president Dan Balaban said Radar Hill is one of six projects being considered at key sites in South and Central Alberta.
“Obviously we want areas that are windy — spots that are high relative to the land around them. Radar Hill is a high spot that has caught our attention.”
Selected sites have existing transmission lines with the capacity to accept new power. Having the infrastructure in place will lower costs and ease the approval process, said Balaban.
The Radar Hill project would produce up to 100 megawatts of power. Averaged over a year, that would power the homes in Red Deer, estimated Balaban.
Wind turbines would be connected through underground power lines that tie into a substation feeding the Alberta transmission system.
“It would be among the largest projects in Alberta,” Balaban said.
Enmax recently opened a wind farm near Taber. It has 37 windmills and is the largest in Alberta.
Balaban said his company met with about 50 landowners who, if they agree, would have the 80-metre-tall windmills erected on their properties.
But longtime farmer Jack Olson, who owns land in the area, said he’s skeptical that the project will proceed.
Olson said required setbacks for the windmills would make it difficult to place them in the more populated west end of the area.
Local land values are higher than some other wind farm sites in Alberta. But the compensation offered to landowners isn’t high enough relative to those values, he said.
“It may be hard to convince people,” said Olson, whose son also owns land in the area.
But Balaban said the concerns need to be balanced against the economic and social benefits. Landowners would receive compensation based on a percentage of production. As well, jobs would be created in setting up and maintaining the windmills.
Wind power is also considered environmentally friendly since it doesn’t produce greenhouse gases.
“If you go to Denmark, Spain or the Netherlands, windmills are all over the place and it’s quite common to see it in the landscape,” said Balaban.
Alberta’s power demands are increasing and renewable energy from windmills is part of the solution, he said.
“Wind power is the most advanced of the renewable energy technologies. It is also economically feasible.”
The company also proposes projects near Halkirk, Wintering Hills near Drumheller and various sites in Southern Alberta. The cost of each project is estimated at around $200 million.
Greengate Power is a private company that formed this year. It has four employees and about 30 consultants.
Balaban, a former management consultant and software company founder, said other companies are also looking to start wind farms, so Greengate is trying to gain a competitive edge.
The goal is to develop the Radar Hill project in three years.
Saving sunshine could soon be the law
By Kathryn Young
CanWest News Service
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The question is no longer "Who has seen the wind?" but "Who owns the wind?"
In the developing world of renewable energy, can neighbouring wind farms steal from each other? What if you put solar panels on your roof and your neighbour plants a tree that blocks them from the sun? Do you have a right to solar access?
These aren't just philosophical questions, but real-life challenges that are already lining lawyers' pockets in Canada and Europe.
"Who owns the wind over land, and at what height does that ownership start?" said John Marrone, director general of the CANMET Energy Technology Centre at Natural Resources Canada.
"Those are the kinds of issues that emerge. We never had to worry about these things, and now we do."
In the Drake Landing Solar Community in the Alberta town of Okotoks, just south of Calgary, Sterling Homes inserted legal encumbrances into its purchase agreements, stipulating that the 52 new homeowners could not plant vegetation that shaded solar panels.
And there are lots of solar panels in the leading-edge community. Each home has two 1.2-by-2.5-metre panels on its roof to supply hot water to the family living down below.
Added to that, the 52 detached garages hold 800 panels that contribute solar power to run a district heating system that all neighbours share.
"It's not just that you're covering your own solar panels, you're covering the whole neighbourhood's solar panels," said Marrone, whose department helped develop the community.
Keith Paget, manager of special projects for Sterling Homes, said the encumbrances, which also allow utilities access to the panels, will bind all future property owners in the community.
"Future purchasers have to agree to the same thing," Paget said.
Sterling didn't have any models to use, and lawyers spent three months and about $190,000 to devise the legal wording for the purchase agreements and register it on the land titles.
Homeowner Denise Francis said she had no problem approving the encumbrances when she and her husband bought their Drake Landing home in June 2006 and doesn't foresee any conflicts with neighbours.
"We all have solar panels so we're all in the same boat," she said, adding that it will be a while until their small trees are tall enough to worry about anyhow.
Although these agreements have solved the solar access issue in Drake Landing, the situation would be different for an individual homeowner.
"If your neighbour planted a tree next door that would shade your house half the day, there's not much you can do about it," Paget said. "You might have a little difficulty."
"We have some concern about this," said Elizabeth McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association. "We will be facing these issues and I think there's a lot of need for discussion in the communities where this will impact."
The issue even arose in a TV episode of The Simpsons, when Mr. Burns constructed a giant, movable disk to block out the sun, so Springfield residents would have to constantly use electricity, thus boosting profits for his nuclear power plant.
Solar energy is not the only area where problems can arise. A "wind theft" court case has arisen in Germany, where an existing wind farm claims that a planned neighbouring windfarm's giant turbines will create a slipstream, decreasing the speed of airflow, cutting into profits.
"This fact can neither be found in the Bible nor in the German Criminal Code," says the German magazine Der Spiegel. "In a wider sense, we are talking about larceny although the loot is invisible."
"It's absolutely true -- of course that could happen," said Marrone. "If you have a lot of machines, you're changing the pattern of the wind."
That situation has not yet arisen in Canada, where we have fewer wind farms and more space to spread them out, but it could eventually happen at the best wind sites, Marrone believes.
Conflicts between wind farm owners have occurred in many countries where the best sites are close together -- Germany, Britain, Denmark and New Zealand, said James Glennie, director of business development for the Wind Energy Institute of Canada -- a non-profit research and testing facility in Prince Edward Island.
However, Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said wind theft might not become an issue in Canada if we learn from the problems that arise elsewhere.
Other emerging technologies that could bring new legal wrangles include wave energy, tidal energy, biofuels and micro-hydro on small rivers and streams.
Marrone said the situation is similar to what the oil and gas industries went through when they first emerged.
"I'm sure the first time somebody drilled a hole, some of these issues came up -- if somebody drills a hole right next to you and he's taking... your oil," Marrone said.
"Somehow, we've gotten through all that and now there's all this jurisprudence and everyone knows what to expect of each other's rights and privileges."
© CanWest News Service 2007
Maple Leaf to produce biodiesel from Yellowhorn trees
2007-10-16 13:22 ET - News Release
Mr. Raymond Lai reports
YELLOWHORN TREE BIO DIESEL AND COOKING OIL PROJECT WITH XINJIANG GOVERNMENT
Maple Leaf Reforestation Inc. has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Jilin Saar County of Xinjiang autonomous region of China to establish a biodiesel production chain for shiny-leaved Yellowhorn trees. The MOU requires the approval of Maple Leaf's board of directors to become effective, and can be altered or revoked by either party until the formal agreement is signed. While negotiations continue toward a formal agreement for the project, Maple Leaf currently has a team in China evaluating the project.
Under the terms of the MOU, both sides agree to do the following.
Jilin will:
Provide 400,000 mu (or 68,000 acres) of land to Maple Leaf free of charge for 70 years to grow the Yellowhorn trees (mu is a Chinese unit of area equalling 0.17 of an acre);
Assist Maple in obtaining all the necessary governmental approvals and permits to use the land, and will provide the required labour force, free of charge, to plant the seedlings;
Assist Maple Leaf in obtaining 300 mu of land for building a cooking oil and biodiesel processing plant in the county, with the cost below 5,000 renminbi per mu (or $3,000 (Canadian) per acre; $1 (Canadian) equals 7.7160 Chinese renminbi as of Oct. 15, 2007);
Guarantee Maple Leaf a monopoly to operate the processing plant in the county (with the exception of growing the Yellowhorn);
Allow Maple Leaf to dig enough irrigation wells to water the Yellowhorn (the norm is one well per 1,500 mu of land), and Jilin will also assist Maple Leaf in installing the necessary infrastructure for the plant and farm;
Provide Maple Leaf with subsidies and special tax treatment, and assist Maple Leaf in applying for subsidies and grants from the central government of China with respect to developing biodiesel production.
Maple Leaf will:
Develop this project under the guidance and supervision of Jilin and according to the laws and regulations of China;
Provide the necessary capital for developing the tree farm and the processing plant with 100,000 tonnes capacity, and it will guarantee the quality of the Yellowhorn trees and operation of the processing plant;
Implement new research and development ideas to improve the quality of the biodiesel production chain: from growing Yellowhorn to processing biodiesel;
Put up a building fund deposit with a bank for the purpose of developing this project, such amount to be determined at a later time by both parties. These funds will only be released with signatures from both Maple Leaf and Jilin; however, if for any reason Maple Leaf is unable proceed with the project according to the plan, upon returning all permits to Jilin, Maple Leaf can dispose of the funds on its own accord. During the development of this project, both parties will be able to obtain technical support and advice from several research centres in China regarding biodiesel development.
The project is expected to start generating revenue after two years and, upon execution, will operate for 70 years. During the initial six years of the project Maple Leaf will primarily purchase Yellowhorn fruit from local farmers at market prices in order to produce and sell biodiesel and cooking oil; as the biodiesel market matures during the course of the six-year period, Maple Leaf will shift its fruit production and processing plant toward biodiesel production. Maple Leaf will be undertaking financings to provide the necessary capital for the tree farm and the processing plant. The detail of future investments by Maple Leaf will be disclosed later after more analytical work is done. Yellowhorn's scientific name is Xanthoceras Sorbifolia Bunge. The Yellowhorn is a local species in China that it is well known for its endurance to desert weather. Its root can go very deep and grabs on the surrounding soil, so it is also good for stopping desertification. The Yellowhorn's fruit has high oil content which can be used for biodiesel, cooking oil (very low cholesterol content) and various medical applications. It usually takes three years for a Yellowhorn to reach maturity and five years to harvest the fruit. The technology for extracting oil from the fruit of Yellowhorn is quite mature and reliable, and is not as complicated as other types of oil and biodiesel plants.
Raymond Lai, president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf, is very excited about this new Xinjiang project as it is the milestone of a new course for Maple Leaf's future development. It will also complement Maple Leaf's seedling operation and represent a big step forward toward achieving Maple Leaf's mission.
Lignol stays on track for 2008 pilot plant opening
2007-10-03 07:29 MT - News Release
Mr. Ross MacLachlan reports
LIGNOL PROVIDES BUSINESS UPDATE AND COMMENTS ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING INITIATIVES
Lignol Energy Corp. has provided an update on its recent progress in advancing its strategic objectives in 2007 and commented on government funding initiatives.
Strategic objectives
Earlier in 2007, Lignol identified several key objectives to enhance shareholder value and accelerate the path to commercialization for its unique cellulose to ethanol biorefining process, which included:
* Building intellectual property strategy and portfolio;
* Increasing access to government funding;
* Developing commercial interest from potential strategic partners in the forestry, energy and chemical sectors;
* Establishing primary commercial operating conditions for selected cellulosic feedstocks;
* Engaging third party engineering support for commercial plant designs;
* Improving balance sheet and access to capital.
Lignol's year-to-date progress on these primary objectives:
* Filed five provisional patent applications to complement Lignol's three existing patents;
* Obtained an additional $1.0-million in government funding agreements and filed $37.0-million in new funding applications;
* Signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Suncor Energy Products Inc. and its affiliate, Suncor Energy (U.S.A.), to recognize Suncor as Lignol's "lead energy partner" and to provide support for its U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) application for funding support for a commercial-scale demonstration plant;
* Signed MOU with Huntsman International LLC to investigate novel uses of Lignol's high purity lignin (HP-L)) for Huntsman's product applications;
* Established process conditions for a range of hardwood and softwood species;
* Developed third party engineering designs for a range of plant configurations;
* Completed private placements of approximately $20.0-million, year-to-date (including the exercise of warrants).
"Since 2005, Lignol has grown from three full-time employees to a staff of 21. Our research and engineering teams consist of leading professionals who are regarded as being among the best in the industry, and our progress has accelerated in recent months as the team has grown," said Ross MacLachlan, president and chief executive officer of Lignol. "We have recently completed upgrades to our existing pilot plant, which is now operating with two shifts per day for up to six days per week, conducting trial runs on behalf of certain organizations."
"We believe we have established one of the most advanced laboratories in North America for cellulosic ethanol development and lignin application work," continued Mr. MacLachlan. "Our laboratory and pilot plant provides us with the ability to obtain an increasing database of operating conditions across a wide range of feedstocks that can be used to develop engineering designs for commercial-scale plants."
Lignol is now poised to launch a new industrial-scale pilot plant in the first half of 2008, which will establish the operating conditions and scale-up parameters for each of the major unit operations of the Lignol process. The facility is expected to provide the means by which Lignol's technology can progress to a commercial scale more efficiently, in less time and with less risk. Discussions are under way with potential corporate partners and various governments with a view to establishing the scope, scale, location and timing of a subsequent commercial plant.
Government funding
In the last few years Lignol has been awarded approximately $3-million in funding from several government agencies in both Canada and the United States that are supporting the development of environmentally friendly renewable fuels. To date, Lignol has confirmed funding of:
* 1.7 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC);
* Up to $870,000 from the government of Alberta.
These funds will be received in stages and are conditional upon the completion of certain agreed-upon work plans. Lignol has also applied for and is currently in discussions with, several government and government-funded agencies for additional funding of approximately $7.0-million in total. Additionally, Lignol recently applied for a $30.0-million (U.S.) grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to work with Suncor to jointly construct a commercial-scale demonstration plant in the state of Colorado.
On Sept. 12, 2007, SDTC, with funding support from the government of Canada, launched the new $500-million NextGen Biofuels Fund to support the development of large-scale demonstration facilities that produce renewable fuels from Canadian biomass. The NextGen Biofuels Fund will support up to 40 per cent of eligible project costs for the establishment of first-of-kind large demonstration-scale facilities for the production of next-generation renewable fuels. Lignol is now working closely with its corporate partners to determine how best to approach this major opportunity.
We seek Safe Harbor.
Globe says Epcor looking at pond scum for profit
2007-10-01 05:06 MT - In the News
The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition the Alberta Research Council is turning to algae to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Globe's Shawn McCarthy writes the process could turn pond scum into a profit centre. Alberta researchers are hoping to mimic the photosynthetic process that occurred early in the Earth's life, when blue-green algae absorbed massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and released oxygen. If successful, the technology could eventually save oil companies and coal-firing utilities billions of dollars a year as they face growing pressure to reduce emissions associated with global warming. Algae could be mined to produce biodiesel, hydrogen, methane and nutraceuticals, says ARS president John McDougall. Alberta researchers are looking at using cooling ponds or tailing ponds for the algae growth. However, huge hurdles remain before it can be commercialized. "It really looks like it's got some promise," says Epcor Utilities senior vice-president David Lewin. Epcor is co-sponsoring the project along with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and others. "Over the next 15 years or so, as these things mature, who knows where it could take us."
Alberta regulators free the wind
Electric power generation cap removed
Geoffrey Scotton
Calgary Herald; CanWest News Service
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
CALGARY - The Alberta government and its electric system operator are lifting a controversial cap on wind power generation that critics say has stymied growth in the province of one of the fastest-growing sources of power in the world.
"It's removing the threshold," said Alberta Electric System Operator spokesperson Ally Taylor of an event today that will see Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight and AESO chief executive Dale McMaster announce the change and next steps for potential generation projects.
Further transmission expansion in Alberta's southeast may be part of those plans.
Generation industry officials said Tuesday they were delighted with the decision.
"We applaud the government and the AESO for lifting the cap," said Evan Bahry, executive director of the Calgary-based Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta.
"We are in a market where we believe anyone should be free to invest here as long as they can build efficient plants and are prepared to compete in our marketplace."
Bahry noted that Alberta is blessed with many excellent sites for wind generation, characterized by generally steady winds in the southwest portion of the province around Pincher Creek and Taber. Early next month, for example, City of Calgary-owned Enmax Corp. will officially open an approximately 80-megawatt wind farm in the Taber area.
"We have a phenomenal wind resource in this province, one of the strongest documented anywhere. We've had great success in attracting facilities and it's obviously technology that consumers respond to," said Bahry.
"With demand for wind power in an open market, customer choice is very important. This will help Alberta maintain its national leadership in the wind power industry."
Alberta has historically been Canada's leader in wind power generation, but is set to be overtaken by other jurisdictions, including Ontario and Quebec, where massive wind power generation construction plans are underway.
Although as a renewable wind power is highly valued by environmentalists, it is not benign, with the potential to alter local wind and climate patterns and to be lethal to birds. It also almost always relies on government subsidies, consumer surcharges, or both to be economic.
The decision by the government and the AESO to remove the cap rather than to simply raise it from its 900 megawatt current level suggests windpower advocates have won the debate about completely freeing the rapidly growing power source.
"This was a complicated issue for the AESO to resolve. Lifting the cap is a good thing," said Bahry.
In May 2006, the AESO imposed a 900- megawatt cap on wind power generation, citing inadequate transmission and fears the intermittent nature of wind power could destabilize the provincial grid system if it's heft on the system became too weighty.
The 900-megawatt threshold was chosen because it reflected roughly 10 per cent of Alberta's generating capacity, however proportions in other jurisdictions, including some European countries, reach as high as 25 per cent. That target was set to be met as early as next year and had prompted vociferous cries from the wind generation industry to lift the cap.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Texas to sell offshore wind leases
Bloomberg
Friday, September 14, 2007
Texas, the top producer of wind power among U.S. states, will hold the nation's first competitive sale of leases for offshore wind-power facilities.
The state is seeking bids for four offshore tracts with a combined 73,098 acres, the Texas General Land Office said.
Texas overtook California as the top wind-power producing state last year, with wind turbines capable of generating 2,768 megawatts installed as of the end of 2006, according to the American Wind Energy Association. California had turbines that can generate 2,361 megawatts at the end of the year.
Companies that generate wind power in Texas include FPL Group Inc., while TXU Corp. is the state's largest purchaser of wind power.
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Winfield gets extension to lay out plans in detail
2007-09-12 12:43 ET - News Release
Mr. Robert Foley reports
WINFIELD RESOURCES LIMITED: REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS
Trading in Winfield Resources Ltd.'s shares remains halted by the TSX Venture Exchange pending clarification by the company of its affairs and present business operations.
In the past several months, the company has announced a number of proposed initiatives and potential business opportunities that it is investigating, including oil and gas refinery construction and operation in Libya and Tunisia, and possible ethanol manufacturing facilities in Northern Alberta and Rwanda. While none of these projects have been finalized, the exchange has requested that the company provide evidence of the status of each matter, and details of and evidence to support the company's statements made in its news releases.
The company is preparing a response to the exchange, and has requested and received two extensions (expiring Sept. 14, 2007) to its original Aug. 24, 2007, deadline. The company's shares will remain halted from trading until the exchange's review is completed.
Boost for biofuels
Sep 13, 2007 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton
THE TORONTO STAR
Alternative energy firms receive a lift from Ottawa as crude-oil price tops $80 U.S. for first time ever
The Harper government made good yesterday on its promise to boost next-generation biofuels with the launch of a $500 million fund aimed at jump-starting a large-scale demonstration of new technologies.
Industry proponents called the investment a massive commitment that will help ethanol producers wean themselves from food crops such as corn, while at the same time making Canada more competitive in the race to develop sustainable biofuels.
"We want Canada to be a jurisdiction that's recognized for this," said Vicky Sharpe, president and chief executive officer of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, an arms-length foundation created by Ottawa that will manage the new fund, called the NextGen Biofuels Fund.
The renewable fuel industry got a further boost yesterday after the price of oil briefly surged above $80 (U.S.) a barrel for the first time. By the end of the day, light, sweet crude had jumped $1.68 to close at a record $79.91 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Rising oil futures gave strength to the Canadian dollar, which gained 0.53 of a cent (U.S.) to close at 96.52 cent, a 30-year high.
Bliss Baker, vice-president of corporate affairs at Canadian ethanol giant Greenfield Ethanol, said new investment in biofuels and rising fossil fuel prices are working in concert to stimulate the market.
"Can we compete with gasoline? Well, today with oil at $80 a barrel we can," said Bliss, adding that on a per-capita basis the new fund is more substantial than comparable federal support in the United States.
"We're thrilled. It's going to mean a giant step forward for our industry and Canada. It puts Canada in the horse race internationally."
Andrew Kingston, CEO of Vancouver-based Dynamotive Energy Systems Corp., which converts wood waste like bark into a product called "bio oil," said the new fund is "timely and appropriate" and gives momentum to a trend gripping all developing countries.
The so-called first generation of ethanol production depends on starch-based food crops such as corn and wheat. The process is proven, and several production plants based on it have been built in Canada – although critics say the approach uses too much energy and plays havoc with food prices and supplies.
Next-generation or "cellulosic" ethanol involves the processing of the cellulose content in biomass, which can include everything from crop residue, such as wheat straw and corn husks, to forest debris and municipal solid waste. Even dedicated crops, such as fast-growing switchgrass grown on marginal lands, can be used.
Cellulosic ethanol, while expensive today, is considered the future of biofuels because it's more energy efficient to make and it relies on non-food materials that hold low value and are plentiful – particularly in Canada, with its vast forests and agricultural lands.
Companies such as Ottawa-based Iogen Corp., Biox Corp. of Oakville, SunOpta Inc. of Brampton and Lignol Energy Corp. of Vancouver are leading the market.
Even Greenfield, traditionally just a builder and operator of ethanol plants, has spent the past three years researching and developing new approaches to cellulosic processing. It plans to tap the fund.
"We have a decent critical mass of young Canadian companies that have done some really good work in this area," Sharpe said. "I don't think people have grasped what the bioenergy industry could look like."
The fund will target technologies that have moved beyond the pre-commercial pilot phase, and requires that demonstration facilities be located in Canada. Investment in individual projects is limited to 40 per cent, capped at $200 million, of total start-up costs.
And it's not a handout. After any facility becomes operational, companies are expected to pay back the money over 10 years from cash flow. "Companies can apply for this money any time," Sharpe said. "We anticipate some applications in the next three months."
Foreign companies looking to set up shop in Canada are welcome.
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/256025
Hopefully it won't remain halted permanently....the NR on SW from August 28th is also not very promising:
Winfield Resources' IR consultant Badshah leaves
2007-08-28 14:57 ET - News Release
Mr. Robert Foley reports
REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS
Winfield Resources Ltd.'s Anwar Badshah, due to personal commitments, has resigned as the company's investor relations consultant.
The company salutes Mr. Badshah for his unstinting support in good times and in bad. It wishes him well.
oas
Too bad about WWF. Ya never know with these pennies what is going to happen.
From the latest MD&A:
The Company’s shares were halted from trading by the TSX Venture Exchange on August 7, 2007 pending
clarification of a change of business. The TSX Venture Exchange announced on August 23, 2007 that the halt would
be continued pending clarification of company affairs and clarification of a change of business. The Company is
cooperating with the TSX Venture Exchange’s review.
Clarification of company affairs sounds rather ominous.
Lignol signs MOU with Huntsman for HP-L development
2007-08-30 09:28 ET - News Release
Mr. Ross MacLachlan reports
LIGNOL SIGNS MOU WITH HUNTSMAN TO DEVELOP NOVEL APPLICATIONS FOR LIGNOL'S HIGH PURITY LIGNIN HP-L(TM)
Lignol Energy Corp.'s wholly owned subsidiary, Lignol Innovations Ltd., has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Huntsman International LLC, which establishes a framework within which the parties will work together to develop one or more applications using Lignol's proprietary lignin HP-L.
Under the terms of the MOU, the parties expect that this arrangement will comprise several stages and be covered by separate definitive agreements. If the development project is successful and Huntsman decides to commercialize the application, then it is anticipated that the parties will enter into a supply agreement on terms to be mutually agreed.
"This MOU demonstrates Huntsman's continuing commitment to investigate the use of biorenewable components, both for feedstock and for product applications. Huntsman strongly believes that lignin, a byproduct from agriculture, has significant potential in the chemical industry," said Niek van Wiechen, Huntsman's global director for core science.
"The MOU with Huntsman represents an important step in the development of a number of large commercial applications for the company's proprietary lignin HP-L as we advance our strategy to become a key player in the development of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants," said Ross MacLachlan, president and chief executive officer of Lignol. "Lignin HP-L is an important co-product produced from our proprietary biorefinery process. The lignin plays an important economic role for future industrial process plants and has a substantial hydrocarbon-derived fuels and oils replacement feature. By incorporating the lignin into products or replacing products which are today produced from hydrocarbon-derived fuels and oils, the lignin provides an alternative to bioethanols produced from agricultural crops."
Materials with superior and novel properties can be developed from HP-L and from combinations with industrial adhesives such as phenol formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde resins, isocyanates and epoxy resins and coatings, and acrylonitrile for carbon-fibre production, thereby reducing the use and dependency of crude-oil-based and natural-gas-based petrochemicals.
About Huntsman
Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. Its operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances, and packaging. Originally known for pioneering innovations in packaging and, later, for rapid and integrated growth in petrochemicals, Huntsman today has 13,000 employees and over 70 operations in 24 countries. Huntsman had 2006 revenues from all operations of over $13-billion.
We seek Safe Harbor.
Run of River to acquire Western Biomass
2007-08-27 08:26 ET - News Release
Mr. Jako Krushnisky reports
RUN OF RIVER TO ACQUIRE WESTERN BIOMASS
Run of River Power Inc. has reached agreement to purchase 100 per cent of the issued and outstanding shares of Western Biomass Power Corp. Run of River will issue 3,786,726 shares, subject to a voluntary escrow agreement, which will escrow 66.6 per cent of the shares for release as key milestones are achieved.
Jako Krushnisky, president of Run of River Power, stated: "Western Biomass presents a compelling value proposition and we are delighted to join with them to enhance shareholder value for our shareholders and the shareholders of Western Biomass. T.J. Grewal, Western Biomass's president, has assembled a package of opportunities that we are confident will provide a sound basis for growth in the wood-fired power generation industry."
Western Biomass is a private company that was formed to provide solutions to the growing need for power and the disposal of the large biomass inventory created by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, which has devastated vast areas of pine forest in the interior of British Columbia.
Western Biomass intends to build a series of wood-fired plants using pine-beetle-killed trees as well as logging and mill wastes. The first of these projects is expected to be a 50-megawatt to 100-megawatt plant located in the traditional territories of the first nations which make up the Tsilhqot'in national government (TNG), located west of Williams Lake, B.C.
Western Biomass has entered into a letter of intent with the TNG and is finalizing a joint venture, which will advance this project to the feasibility stage. TNG and Western are engaged in consultation with the traditional users of the land to ensure that the project has the necessary community support.
B.C. Hydro has announced that a separate call for biomass-generated power will be made later this year or early in 2008 and Western Biomass is expecting to submit a bid in response to this call.
Mr. Grewal, Western's president and chairman, will be joining the board of Run of River. Mr. Grewal is a successful entrepreneur based in Prince George, B.C., with business interests throughout the interior of the province.
Mr. Grewal stated: "We recognized that a strong financial partner was necessary to bring these projects to fruition and Run of River has been very successful in raising over $30-million of debt and equity over the past two years. Their commitment to green power development has the company at the forefront of this emerging sector in B.C. This all dovetails well with the B.C. government's energy plan which sets out the goal of energy self sufficiency from clean and green sources."
The agreement to acquire Western Biomass is subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. The transaction is considered a related-party transaction as 24.2 per cent of the issued shares of Western Biomass are owned by Michael Sweatman, the chief financial officer of Run of River, and Richard Hopp, a director of Run of River.
Top
Researchers aim to solve Biodiesel Glycerol problem
http://greenoptions.com/2007/06/28/researchers_aim_to_solve_biodiesel_glycerol_problem
SD
EU biofuel policy is a 'mistake'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6949861.stm
you are right. But a seasoned investor (lot like myself) will turn this to his advantage. Lots of monay to be made in the coming months / years, not only in U3O8.
SD
that's what I'm saying...the prices are starting to be really hard to resist. CZQ is no exception...they've all fallen similarly...check out EFR, FSY, URE which actually have significant proven reserves and could be considered medium-term producers. Many other juniors trading at well over a buck a few months back are now a less than a quarter...many of these companies were trading at these prices when U308 was $10/pound.
You gotta love U3O8 to still be in it Join the club. CZQ: 5.70 CAD a few months ago, now at 1.20 CAD and going down.
GL!
SD
Wish I was out of WWF (and a lot of others this week!). I never would have imagined some of the drops we've witnessed - particularly with uraniums. It's impossible to call the bottom but I think there's starting to be some good deals out there. I mean we're still at $105/pound. Word on SH is the exchange halted WWF...can't be good if that's the case.
WWF halted for a week?
Wonder what is up?
Good week not be trading I guess
Glad I am out though
Canada's Integrated Grain Processors Begins Construction on Ontario Fuel Ethanol Plant, an Industrial Info News Alert
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Member-owned Integrated Grain Processors Co-operative, and wholly owned subsidiary IGPC Ethanol Incorporated has closed on a financing package and has begun construction on a new fuel ethanol plant.
For details, view the entire article by subscribing to Industrial Info's Premium Industry at http://www.industrialinfo.com/showNews.jsp?newsitemID=117076, or browse other breaking industrial news stories at www.industrialinfo.com.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns. For more information send inquiries to alternativefuelsgroup@industrialinfo.com or visit us at www.industrialinfo.com.
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Contact:
Joe Govreau
713-783-5147
Source: Market Wire (July 26, 2007 - 4:03 AM EST)
I haven't done the research to find out.
I've owned it under $20
Not considering it at $30
Your impressions are probably correct.
I don't know if it is really on topic as an alternative energy company as I bet 98%+ of its power generated comes from conventional sources.
Thanks. I haven't done much DD yet. You think it is overpriced here, or what is your general impression?
According to the brief look I did it produces energy from all sorts of resources. Gas, coal, wind, thermal, etc.
Seems like a good basket in one
TA Used to have a 5% divvy, was considered a pretty conservative type play.
Takeover speculation juiced it up recently I guess.
Recent electrical rate hikes haven't hurt either I bet.
Wind power is nice but coal is still king here.
21 wind created MW created as I post compared to the 7273 MW currently req'd.
http://ets.powerpool.ab.ca/
TransAlta looks interesting. It benefits from both traditional energy and green energy production demand
Alberta wind power cap under fire
RICHARD BLACKWELL
Globe and Mail Update
July 30, 2007 at 6:14 PM EDT
Wind power advocates are unhappy with the Alberta government for suggesting that the current cap on wind energy in the province might be raised, rather than eliminated completely.
Last year the province's energy operator set a “threshold” of 900 megawatts for wind power production, because of concerns that amounts above that level could destabilize the power grid. As wind is intermittent and requires backup, anything above that level could be a problem, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) said.
About 500 MW of wind power is generated in the province already, and many more projects in the planning stages would push past the 900 MW mark.
The wind industry was unhappy with the cap, saying that it is unnecessarily stalling wind development in the province, and wind players have been lobbying for its removal.
But Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight reignited debate on the issue when he told The Calgary Herald in a recent interview that the cap might be shifted to around 1,500 MW on an interim basis.
Mr. Knight was not available on Monday, but his assistant Jason Chance said the Minister was “just speculating about where we might be going in the future.”
While the government's goal is to see the cap much higher than where it is now, “we need to work with the AESO to ensure that it's done in a responsible manner,” he said.
Opposition politicians and the wind industry have criticized Mr. Knight for suggesting that any cap is necessary.
NDP Leader Brian Mason called the cap “unjustified” and said removing it entirely would “unleash Alberta's green economy”.
Jason Edworthy, managing director of market development for TransAlta Corp.'s wind power operations, said putting in place another cap on wind power, at a higher level, is really “the easy way out.”
A better solution, Mr. Edworthy said, is to come up with a plan that would allow greater amounts of wind power to be integrated into the power grid without destabilizing the system. If wind power grows too quickly, there could be a system of “dashboard warning lights” at certain levels that would require adjustment of the plan, rather than hard caps that hamper the industry, he said.
Already the wind industry has been working with the AESO to create a plan that includes much more accurate forecasting of wind, geographic diversification of wind farms, better transmission lines, and controls on wind turbines to avoid power surges when the wind blows too hard.
Warren Frost, vice-president for operations and reliability at the AESO, said the plan to integrate more wind into the province's grid is well under way. As a result, the AESO's target is to eliminate the 900 MW threshold by year end, without having to set a higher interim level, he said.
A key component is wind forecasting, and AESO is working with the industry to develop new techniques to make it much more accurate.
In the longer term, the province will have to improve its transmission lines, and create better interconnections with other states and provinces to allow more cross-border trading of power.
While Alberta has been the focus of much national attention in the wind industry because of its cap on wind power, other provinces have also limited growth, but in more subtle ways, Mr. Frost said.
Most other provinces control wind development through the tendering of power projects. They issue “requests for proposals” only when their grids are in a position to absorb the power that will be generated by the turbines.
Alberta, which has an open market system that buys whatever power is generated by private developers, can't use that mechanism, he said.
Euh... we will be "around" but not in a way we would probably like it. Since we're talking about alternative energy here, I might bring up the subject of energy via dead body mass... (sorry for the messy subject). There has been a feasibility study of generating fuel-like substances from body greases...
In theory it would be possible according to what I've heard. Maybe you could volunteer?
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/yes_men_strike_.html
Do I smell money in Saskatchewan!) That place will be rocking in the coming years, oil/potash/corn/wheat/etc.
Corn Again: Iowa Finds Salvation
BARRIE MCKENNA
From Monday's Globe and Mail
July 23, 2007 at 3:47 AM EDT
EMMITSBURG, IOWA — These days, the smell of money is the slightly acrid scent of fermenting corn that occasionally wafts over town.
Here in Iowa, and across a growing swath of the U.S. Midwest, making ethanol has meant a second chance for a rural economy that lives and breathes corn.
"This town was dying a slow death," said Craig Brownlee, a third-generation corn farmer from Emmitsburg, located 260 kilometres northwest of Des Moines. "We weren't making any money and we were living off crop subsidies. Now, people are spending money like they haven't in a long time. There's a buzz around town."
A vast new industry is rising out of corn fields. The ethanol refinery here, owned by Poet LLC of Sioux Falls, S.D., is one of 27 ethanol plants operating in Iowa. Another 19 are under construction or undergoing major expansions. Add to that a dozen biodiesel plants, which convert soybeans into truck fuel, and it's little wonder many farmers proudly sport "I grow oil" bumper stickers on their trucks.
Iowa has become the Texas of the ethanol industry - the heart of an industry that is now feeding the country's cars, not just its people and livestock.
This year, more than a quarter of the Iowa corn crop will go to feed ethanol plants, up 20 per cent from last year. The state already accounts for roughly a third of the six billion gallons produced nationwide, and has visions of grabbing an even larger bite. In all of Canada, there are just eight ethanol plants, producing about 185 million gallons (700 million litres). Poet alone produces more than a billion gallons, second only to Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.
If all the Iowa plants now on the books get up and running, the largest corn-growing state in the U.S. could one day become a net crop importer to sustain all of them.
And if Iowa is the new Texas, Emmitsburg (pop. 3,867) might just be its Spindletop - the 1901 gusher well that launched the modern-day oil industry.
It wasn't that long ago that ethanol - a 200-proof alcohol gasoline substitute - was a bit of a curiosity in the farm belt.
Farmers saw it as a way to get a few more cents a bushel for some of their crop.
The scheme has worked beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Thanks to hefty government subsidies at the pump, new renewable fuel mandates and strict import restrictions, ethanol production is gushing.
There are so many plants in northwestern Iowa that most farmers are now within 50 kilometres of at least one refinery. Many Emmitsburg farmers sell nearly everything they harvest to the refinery. More than 100 residents, including farmers such as Mr. Brownlee, have also earned small fortunes as minority investors in the plant.
For decades, the price of corn fluctuated between $2 (U.S.) and $2.50 a bushel. But thanks in large part to new demand from ethanol plants like this one, the price of corn has nearly doubled in the past year alone. And most experts say it will stay high for some time. In Iowa, farmers were getting an average of $3.56 a bushel in June, up from less than $2 a year ago.
Across the United States, the corn price surge has put an extra $9-billion into farmers' pockets.
The Poet plant's towering silver corn storage silos, conveyor belts and fermenting tanks rise prominently out of the lush yellow and green corn fields that spread out as far as the eye can see.
On a rail siding beside the plant, dozens of tanker cars wait to haul ethanol to gas refineries as far away as the East and West coasts. A steady stream of hopper trucks drive their load of yellow gold into a double-ended unloading building, dumping their cargo onto conveyor belts beneath the floor.
Poet has big plans for Emmitsburg. The company is poised to spend $200-million to more than double the plant's capacity to 125 million gallons, putting it among the largest ethanol refineries in the United States.
And Poet thinks it has an answer to where it will get all that corn. A quarter of the expanded plant's output will come from a newly developed cellulose process that will turn corn husks, as well as the kernels, into automotive fuel. The process will allow the company to produce 27 per cent more ethanol from an acre of corn, and consume less water.
The expansion, dubbed the Liberty Project, earned an $80-million government grant aimed at promoting renewable fuels and weaning the United States off foreign oil.
The plant's impact goes far beyond the 40 jobs the plant has already created. Poet estimates its Emmitsburg plant pumps $60-million into the local economy every year - in corn purchases, wages and various goods and services it buys.
"That money turns over several times," plant manager Daron Wilson said. "It's not just the corn we buy."
Like much of rural Iowa, the town had been shrinking, as generations of young people moved away and older farmers retired. That trend has now stalled. Ben Gustafson, the ethanol plant's 28-year-old technology manager, never imagined there would be work for him in Iowa after earning a chemical engineering degree in the late 1990s.
"When I went to college, it was before the ethanol boom, and I just figured I'd wind up leaving Iowa to work," said Mr. Gustafson, who moved here with his family from another small Iowa town. "To be back in my home state is pretty great."
The economic ripple effects can be seen here, and across Iowa. Emmitsburg still looks like small towns anywhere in the United States. The downtown is dominated by several empty store fronts. But on the fringes, new businesses are opening up. Chain stores, a couple of motels, the area's first McDonald's and a large casino resort have opened in the past two years.
It has also meant brisk business for farm equipment suppliers and car dealerships. Many farmers have invested in GPS-guided combines and vast storage silos so they can warehouse corn to sell later when prices could be even higher.
"Farmers have a lot more money to spend," agreed Rick Jones, vice-president of business banking at Iowa Trust & Savings Bank in Emmitsburg. "This whole ethanol thing is changing so fast."
Farm real estate has gone though the roof, turning every landowner with more than 200 acres into a millionaire on paper. Local real estate agent Mike Wentzel of Farmers National Co. said farmers could count on a steady 5- to 7-per-cent rise in farm values through much of the 1990s. In the past year, good farmland has shot up as much as 60 per cent, sometimes fetching more than $5,000 an acre and generating record rents for investors.
"I never thought in my wildest dreams we'd see land at $4,500 an acre," Mr. Wentzel said.
Across Iowa, farmland prices are up an average of 16 per cent in the past year, spurred by a stunning realization that there might not be enough corn in Iowa to meet the auto industry's growing appetite.
Most of the United States is mired in a housing slump. Not here. Iowa is among just a handful of states where house prices are still rising. Emmitsburg saw its first house sold for more than $500,000 this year - unprecedented in a market where houses typically sell for less than $50,000 - and the rental market is hot as newcomers move in.
And yet even ethanol's biggest local boosters, such as Mr. Brownlee, worry the boom may not last. He said Poet will need to collect just about every corn cob within 50 kilometres to feed its expanded refinery.
"Eventually the industry will have to stop building in Iowa," acknowledged Mr. Brownlee, who sits on the ethanol plant's board. "There won't be enough corn."
Critics also warn that high corn prices, combined with the industry's relentless consumption of government subsidies and its unquenchable thirst for power and water may trigger its undoing. The industry may embrace other, cheaper sources of biomass, in Iowa or elsewhere.
But for now, Iowans are content to ride the corn-ethanol binge.
"Long range, is corn the answer? I don't think so," Mr. Jones, the banker, bluntly conceded. "I think it's a means to the end. The race is on to find the next source."
Ethanol's Trickle-down Effects More Helpful Than Thought?
ROBERT GALLANT
Globe and Mail Update
July 22, 2007 at 11:31 PM EDT
In recent weeks, ethanol has been accused of driving up the price of everything from chicken to ice cream. While this may make for eye-grabbing headlines, these accusations are overly simplistic and ignore the real economic factors affecting rising food prices.
The fact is that energy prices are the main cause. This should come as no surprise, since energy is the cornerstone of our economy. Oil prices have risen more than 30 per cent this year alone and this increase is driving all commodity prices up. Much of what we eat travels hundreds or thousands of kilometres to our dinner tables. The diesel-driven tractors in the field, the container ships on the ocean and the transport trucks that deliver food to your local grocery store all require expensive energy.
Recent reports indicate that we could soon see $100 a barrel for oil as supplies tighten due to global demand and dwindling reserves. A large component of this global demand can be attributed to unprecedented economic growth in China and India. In fact, many commodity prices, including copper, aluminum and palm oil have been rising steadily given the demand from these two countries. So why would food be immune to this global demand phenomenon?
The North American ethanol boom has certainly had some effect on grain prices, but to suggest that it's unilaterally driving up food prices is the epitome of sensationalist reporting. After all, corn (the primary feedstock for ethanol in North America) accounts for less than 5 per cent of the retail cost of a box of Corn Flakes. My local store sells Corn Flakes for about $3.69 for a 525-gram box, with corn accounting for less than 20 cents of the cost. Surely Canadian farmers deserve more than 20 cents from a box of Corn Flakes? Perhaps Canadian farmers can finally make a living growing the food we eat if they can get a little more for their grain.
What is most troubling about this debate is that it ignores the overwhelming benefits created by ethanol and other biofuels.
Canadian farmers have long recognized the importance of creating a value-added market for their grain and have pushed hard for an industry in Canada. Geri Kamenz, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said recently: "Ethanol is becoming a recognized fuel source for society's engines and farmers want to produce crops for more ethanol production."
Ethanol production also benefits rural economies. Production plants are typically built in rural areas where corn is grown. An average plant employs about 50 people with well-paying, high-skilled jobs and provides hundreds of spinoff jobs through local providers of goods and services. More than 70 per cent of the revenue from an ethanol plant is spent within a 150-kilometre radius of its site. This is precisely why more than 35 rural communities across Canada, according to the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), are currently looking at ethanol production as a way to rejuvenating their economies. One only has to look at booming Iowa to see what ethanol production has done for its rural economy.
Ethanol production in Canada is expected to rise from 650 million litres in 2007 to more than two billion by 2010, according to the CRFA. It says this newly created production will create a market for more than 200 million bushels of grains and oilseeds annually and create more than 9,000 new jobs in rural Canada.
When it comes to the environment, ethanol will play a big role in helping Canadians reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions as the biofuel industry grows. According to GHGenius, a climate-change model used by the federal government, the greenhouse-gas reductions from corn ethanol are more than 55 per cent. The U.S. Department of Energy's life-cycle analysis says ethanol from cellulose — the next generation of biofuels to be commercialized in the near future — reduces greenhouse gases by 90 per cent over gasoline.
So, the next time you see a sensational headline that tells you ethanol is to blame for hiking food prices, think twice.
Robert Gallant is president and chief executive officer of GreenField Ethanol, Canada's largest ethanol producer.
don't think we will be around if oil ever runs out
Get a battery packed scooter lol
What Good Is Green If the Poor Go Hungry?
ERIC REGULY
Globe and Mail Update
July 20, 2007 at 7:25 AM EDT
ROME — Rome's obsession with food goes beyond the pizzerias and the trattorias that make it a gastronomical wonder. Appropriately, the city is also home to three United Nations food agencies whose job, ultimately, is to keep the undernourished fed. They wonder whether biofuel is an item that should be struck from the planet's menu.
Biofuel is any fuel made from plants. Corn from Canada, sugar cane from Brazil and jatropha from India can be used to make fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. As oil prices climb, more and more agricultural land is being devoted to fuel crops, not food crops. Less food translates into higher food prices and perhaps more hunger. Fill your tank with ethanol and you might contribute to famine in Africa. As if you didn't feel guilty enough owning an SUV.
No one is suggesting - yet - that biofuel production is leading to starvation. But biofuel is suddenly a big business and demanding the attention of farmers everywhere.
In the United States alone, some 100 ethanol plants are under construction and vast amounts of corn are being grown to supply them. Soaring biofuel production is at least partly blamed for food inflation (Statscan this week reported a 3.1-per-cent rise in Canadian food prices from last year).
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Air farce, Italian style
The Globe and Mail
In Rome, the World Food Program, the UN agency charged with fighting famine, said its budgets are being strained because of surging food prices. It blames biofuel production, rising food demand from China and India, and harsh weather. The agency will have to find more donor money or feed fewer people; there are no other options.
There is no doubt food prices are climbing rapidly. Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe told the Financial Times this month that food prices are set for "significant and long-lasting inflation." The International Monetary Fund recorded an unprecedented 23-per-cent rise in food prices in the past 18 months. The U.S. Agriculture Department says global grain inventories are at their lowest levels in 30 years. The International Grains Council predicts industrial use of grains will rise 23 per cent to 229 million tonnes in 2007-08, with the ethanol industry chewing through almost half that amount.
Is a biofuel backlash coming? The world has 800 million cars. If filling them with ethanol and other plant-derived fuels keeps pushing prices up, the world's two billion poor people will have something to say about it. Retaliation seems inevitable.
While clamping down on biofuels seems the humane thing to do, it may not necessarily be the best thing to do. The first thing to remember is that agricultural commodity prices have declined dramatically, measured in real (inflation-adjusted) terms for the past 40 years or so. In spite of the recent rise, prices are still well below their historic norm.
The second thing to remember is that biofuels may (or may not) fit into any farmer's needs. Farmers around the world have three basic requirements - they need cash, they need food for themselves and they need to feed their farm animals. If growing plants for biofuels boosts cash generation with scant damage to the other two requirements, the farmer might be better off.
Vinit Raswan, a technical adviser in Rome to the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), also notes that technology has to be factored into the equation. In a plant, the greatest sugar content resides in the stock, not the fruit or the leaves. The latest plant technology might allow farmers to grow plants with bigger stalks. If this works, biofuel production could rise without severely hurting food production.
What is certain is that farmers, like other business people, react to market signals. The signals now tell them to plant crops for biofuels. The problem is that, in many parts of the world, biofuels are heavily subsidized by the taxpayer. This is especially true in the United States and Canada, where corn-based ethanol would not exist without the endless government handouts. The market signals, in other words, are warped.
Left on its own, the market in time would find a balance between food and fuel production. As it is, the billions in subsidies are encouraging a dramatic rise in biofuel production that would not otherwise occur.
This is partly why the UN food agencies are worried. Too much biofuel is coming to the market too quickly and the casualties might be the poor who can't afford the sharply rising food prices.
Are Biofuels the Future?
By Lindsay Williams 19 Jul 2007 at 11:07 AM GMT-04:00
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=34034
JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Energy has traditionally come from fossil fuels provided by the mining sector, but the agricultural sector may be the only sustainable source of our energy needs for the future.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Last night we spoke to Jessica Cross, chief executive of the VM Group - formerly Virtual Metals - about the base metals market. Lead seemed to be the pick of the bunch, but all had interesting stories. Tonight we look at a very interesting story indeed, and that’s the energy market - and also the close link to the agricultural market. Jessica, you never used to cover these things but I don’t suppose you can ignore them, and the fact that you are covering them now means that they are in focus. Crude oil in the last two to three days has hit very close to all-time record highs - the highs that we saw in August 2006 - but today it’s come off a little bit. Goldman Sachs came out with a $95 per barrel target within the next six months if OPEC doesn’t play ball - what do you think?
JESSICA CROSS: I actually agree with that, and in fact we are looking at a wider trading range. We are looking at oil possibly going to over $100, and that’s on the back of very strong global demand, and especially in these emerging markets. China appears to be building its own strategic crude oil reserves, there’s the tensions in the Middle East that we all know about, with possibly OPEC producers appearing to calibrate their output to maintain prices over $60 a barrel for Brent. On the back of that, the discovery of new reserves seems difficult, and they’re expensive to extract. Large producing states are politically unstable and are just not coming to their full potential in terms of output.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: I think the great thing though from the world’s point of view is that if we can take the pain of this potential spike above $100, eventually it will force us to find renewable energy sources - and more efficient energy sources - and the world will be a better place after probably a few years of a bit of unpleasantness.
JESSICA CROSS: Exactly. It’s interesting to see that consumers appear to already be adjusting to the higher prices. I think we’re at the cusp of a turnaround in technology and the way we fuel motor cars in future. I think really this must be when it’s going to happen, and that in five years, although our cars might look fairly similar on the outside, inside they’re going to be completely different. This is what is so interesting - and what we are looking at so closely now.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Of course one day if crude continues to go to $100, $105 and $110 and goes on from there, the biofuel market will finally fulfil all its potential - because from what I understand, it’s terribly expensive to produce something like ethanol from corn and wheat and sugar, but it is viable at certain prices. What is the situation from the VM Group’s point of view with this biofuel market potential?
JESSICA CROSS: We think there’s a race on. Geographically there appears to be different emphases - there’s corn, wheat and the sugar race - but we are also looking at a new technology which is just called for want of a better word cellulose ethanol, which can essentially distil ethanol out of any plant structure with a celluloid plant structure. I think this is really where the technology is going to come from. We’ve got the hybrid engine at the moment - and interestingly enough motor manufacturers in 2000 said hybrids will never come to be, they’re intermediary technology, we’re not going to invest in this, we’re going to go the fuel cell route which must be the future. Yet when you take a look at the capital cost of fuel cells, although the technology is there for road transport, it’s just still too expensive. So the ethanol route seems to be the way it’s going, and this is now affecting corn, oil and sugar prices. Sugar prices had their big run recently although the market in fact is actually is surplus, but with corn and wheat there actually is such a rush on that it’s feeding very swiftly into inflationary pressures into food prices. The papers were full of it this morning - the Business Day newspaper was - and you’re seeing it world over, that it’s feeding into the cost of meat products, even apparently ice cream with the cost of ice cream going up because of this. This is inflationary, and how the central banks around the world react to this - and what they do with their monetary policy - is going to be very interesting. Clearly they are going to pay sharp attention to it, and we could see interest rates going up, which will have a knock-on effect on economic growth, so the whole thing starts to feed through.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: It’s very interesting because, as you say, the newspapers are full of it at the moment - you mentioned the Business Day newspaper this morning talking about local food inflation being up to 12%. When you look at CPIX itself being only just above 6% you can see the sort of effect food is having on the economy of the whole country. Looking at the Financial Times a couple of days ago, that ice cream story you were talking about is because of firstly the milk price being at record highs in the United States, and also because of the input of corn because corn makes a few of the sweetener additives to go into things like ice cream so the knock-on effects are everywhere. Which of those three that you’ve spoken about - sugar, wheat or corn - is the most efficient to make ethanol?
JESSICA CROSS: You have got me there. On the technical side, I couldn’t answer on the cost side. It’s really where it is grown - and the fact that these products are also highly subject to weather. You can superimpose on this “ethanol rush” a drought or a very bad weather patch in the corn belts of the U.S. and that would feed into the corn price almost instantaneously, and similar the wheat fields. So you’ve got to superimpose on these agri-commodities a very strong weather pattern which can start affecting the prices over and above any technical issues that we might be talking about.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Wheat was in the news again glancing through a few of the international papers this morning. The European Union has this “set aside policy” where one-tenth of a farmer’s field has to be set aside and left fallow. That was when there were massive surpluses, but now they’re thinking of scrapping that because of the shortages of certain commodities, and in particular wheat. Wheat seems to be the one that’s grabbed the imagination - especially with what happened in Australia last year, and also with the fact that stockpiles are at 30-year lows.
JESSICA CROSS: Indeed. We have just done a strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Swot) analysis where we have got various strengths for the wheat industry and wheat market - exactly what we have been talking about - and when it came to weaknesses we just said there was one bullet point “no major weaknesses.” We are looking at a trading range of about $4.40 to $6.90 for a bushel of wheat - which is a very strong price with substantial upside.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: That’s actually quite a scary prospect.
Bio-Extraction advertises White Paper technology review
2007-07-16 05:20 MT - News Release
Mr. Chris Schnarr reports
BIOEXX ANNOUNCES PUBLICATION OF COMPREHENSIVE BIO-EXTRACTION INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY WHITE PAPER
Bio-Extraction Inc. has commissioned and is in receipt of a comprehensive White Paper that analyzes both the BioExx technology and the potential markets for that technology. Given that bio-extraction is a relatively unknown industry, the intention of the White Paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of this industry, in terms of technology and market opportunities, most particularly as these relate to BioExx, for the benefit of shareholders, investors and analysts. BioExx believes that this first publicly available in-depth study will provide a framework for greater appreciation of the fundamental value of its technology and its business. The White Paper has been posted for public review on the BioExx website.
Summary of key White Paper findings:
The global value of oil and other bio-active compounds extracted from biomass (plant, marine, and animal sources) for use as nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, foods and industrial inputs exceeds $300-billion annually.
The cost associated with these bio-extractions, and therefore, the value from a toll-processing perspective, immediately following the extraction, is estimated to be in excess of $75-billion annually.
The patented BioExx low-temperature extraction technology offers two key improvements, compared with conventional technologies:
lower operating temperatures lead to reduced energy consumption (which translates into reduced operating costs) and reduced carbon emissions;
high-solubility proteins, which have not been denatured by conventional extraction processes, provide an opportunity for material incremental revenues through separation and sale into high value aquaculture and human food and supplement markets -- potentially doubling the gross margin available to producers in the massive global oilseed industries (including food oils, bio-diesel and industrial products).
New planned projects not yet constructed in the fast-growing biodiesel industry alone are expected to generate annual revenues in excess of $20-billion per year.
Many existing and proposed biodiesel projects would not be economically viable without substantial government subsidy. The BioExx "protein-retention technology" provides a unique opportunity to generate significant incremental revenue from existing feedstocks, thus facilitating improved and sustainable profitability in biodiesel production.
BioExx technology can assist in the mitigation of the current global "food versus fuel" dilemma, by preserving oilseed food value in the form of protein while at the same time recovering the bio-oils for fuel.
The White Paper concludes with the following statement:
"BioExx has developed a unique technology that addresses many of the significant economic and social issues associated with global markets for edible oils, animal/aquaculture feeds, proteins and bio-diesel. In lowering the cost of production, substantially improving the environmental emissions impact and providing a significant secondary revenue stream by capturing optimal value from high-quality residual proteins, the BioExx technology has the potential to emerge as the technology of choice for producers in its selected markets."
BioExx is currently engaged in a project to prove that the proteins remaining in oilseed biomass after oil extraction can be separated and concentrated on a commercial scale. Once this work is completed, BioExx intends to commence construction of its first facility in Canada, and has already begun planning efforts toward construction of a facility in the United States. In the interim, BioExx will continue its market development program through the engagement of key partners in selected industry areas.
The White Paper also addresses the unique ability of BioExx to preserve and extract other valuable and sensitive plant compounds for the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. This includes various phytochemicals (carotenoids, flavonoids, polyphenols, isoflavones etc.) for nutraceutical products such as betulin, lutein, astaxanthin, lycopene and beta carotene -- as well as pharmaceutical opportunities in artemisinin and paclitaxel, among others. Accordingly, BioExx continues efforts to move forward on existing opportunities in these markets, and to engage additional partners to pursue new opportunities. BioExx is confident that an operating extraction facility or facilities as noted above could attract a profitable range of such products, on a stand-alone basis or as a capacity infill measure.
The White Paper provides a valuable strategic and operational planning tool for BioExx, through an independent assessment and confirmation of major market opportunities where competitive advantage is greatest, and where creation of long-term sustainable shareholder value can be maximized. In this context, despite strong technical success with its trials in the industrial metals cleaning market, BioExx has determined that this market is non-core and of limited size, relative to its other much more significant markets. Accordingly, BioExx has decided, on an interim basis, to defer any allocation of its limited capital, technology, and human resources to this niche market.
The White Paper was prepared by Ronald Skinner, BSc, MBA, who has been retained by BioExx on a continuing basis as a consultant to the company. Mr. Skinner has more than 25 years of practical experience in analytical chemistry and bio-extraction technology related to food technology, nutraceuticals and extractions.
Conporec gets residential waste compost certification
2007-07-11 08:29 MT - News Release
Mr. Jean Beaudoin reports
CONPOREC OBTAINS CERTIFICATION FOR ITS COMPOST PRODUCED FROM RESIDENTIAL MIXED SOLID WASTE
Conporec Inc. has obtained the first certification in Canada for a compost produced from residential mixed waste. Last July 4, 2007, after a rigorous and standardized process that lasted several months, the Bureau de normalisation du Quebec (BNQ) issued to Conporec a certificate of compliance (No. 936) for the compost produced at its sorting-composting facility in Sorel-Tracy. This compost therefore achieves some of the most stringent agronomic and environmental quality criteria and standards in the world. This major achievement is a first in Quebec as well as in Canada for compost made from residential mixed solid waste, considering that the other certified compost products are made from other type of organic waste (SSO).
"The BNQ certification for our compost is the result of our innovative technology developed through 10 years of sustained research and development efforts. This recognition clearly demonstrates the efficiency of the sorting-composting process, and the high quality of the end product. It provides assurance to municipalities and citizens that they can achieve the highest waste recovery rate at competitive price, while being able to use a certified and high-quality product," declared Jean Beaudoin, Conporec's chairman of the board and chief executive officer. With its sorting-composting facility in Sorel-Tracy, and based on this BNQ certification, Conporec can guarantee the high quality of the compost produced from a two-stream collection system, a system that greatly simplifies the tasks both for citizens and municipalities. Moreover, the Conporec solution allows the MRC du Bas-Richelieu to claim the highest waste recovery rate in Quebec with more than 75 per cent, which surpasses any other region of Quebec or any other technology.
yeah
Hold my freebies for a bit
No more trades with this thing
Makes You Wonder
Who was buying on the way down. The OSC has to be a compliant part of these scams, allowing halts without looking.
fringe
Kinda bs how WWF got walked down, halted, then another hokey funny money release.
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