A company that wants to make ethanol from straw is approaching an important milestone.
Iogen Corp., an Ottawa-based biotech company, expects to start producing ethanol at its $30 million demonstration plant in Ontario early next year.
The demo plant will allow Iogen to test and fine-tune the technology it will use to convert straw into ethanol.
Once the company is satisfied with the results, it will decide where to locate its first commercial scale plant, said Iogen spokesperson Stephanie Ryan.
Several community development groups in Saskatchewan and one in Manitoba are keen to see the plant locate in their area.
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Their enthusiasm is driven by the prospect of jobs and economic development. Iogen has said it will pay $35 per tonne for wheat, barley and oat straw to supply a commercial ethanol plant.
Ryan said research into potential sites for the plant is still preliminary. Saskatchewan and Manitoba are in the running, but there is also a possibility the plant will be built in the United States or the United Kingdom.
“It’s an even field,” Ryan said. “No site has been ruled out.”
Meanwhile, there have been delays in getting the demonstration plant into production.
Iogen had difficulties earlier this year getting delivery of material needed for the plant. Other material that arrived did not meet specifications.
A commercial plant would need 700,000 tonnes of straw a year. Ryan said Saskatchewan typically produces enough surplus straw to support eight commercial ethanol plants.
Iogen’s efforts to develop a reliable way of converting agricultural residue into ethanol fits with the federal government’s desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Last year, as part of its action plan on climate change, Ottawa said it wanted ethanol production in Canada tripled from the current level of 250 million litres a year.
The federal government wants as much as 25 percent of Canada’s total gasoline supply to contain 10 percent ethanol within a decade, said John Embury, a spokesperson for federal natural resources minister Ralph Goodale.
The details remain sketchy as to how the federal government will reach some of the goals set out in its action plan on climate change.
