FOAM LAKE, Sask. – Ethanol proponents across Canada likely all had Nov. 19 circled on their calendars.
Yesterday was the deadline to submit proposals under Phase 1 of the federal government’s ethanol expansion initiative. The head of Saskatchewan Agrivision Corp.’s ethanol development council expected several applications from the province would be among them.
Lionel La Belle told a conference on value-added opportunities here last week that the industry has a bright future in Saskatchewan despite the false start a year ago.
That’s when the provincial government announced it would build three 80-million-litre ethanol plants along with Broe Companies of Denver.
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None has been built yet because Broe has had difficulty securing its financing. The government and community proponents have said they expected further developments would be announced shortly after the Nov. 6 provincial election.
Last week, La Belle listed Belle Plaine, Weyburn, Shaunavon and Lloydminster among the Saskatchewan locations where he expects to see facilities.
Belle Plaine was supposed to be the first of the Broe plants. The Weyburn plant is a former distillery purchased last year by a Moose Jaw-based company that intends to initially produce 12 million L a year. A community group at Shaunavon plans to build a 150-million L plant.
And Lloydminster would be one of two 80-million L facilities proposed by Husky Energy, La Belle suggested.
They would join Saskatchewan’s sole existing facility at Lanigan, which produces 12 million L.
“We need them all,” he said. “We need to get this massive industry going.”
By 2010, Ottawa wants 35 percent of the gasoline sold in Canada to contain 10 percent ethanol.
Canada is now a net importer of ethanol, with capacity to produce 238 million L but consuming 240 million.
Sixty-two million L did not go into fuel, but was used for industrial purposes. La Belle said Canada will import almost 90 million L of ethanol this year.
Static capacity
Seven new plants or expansions have been announced in Canada since 1999 but no capacity has been added.
Meanwhile, other countries are far ahead. Brazil is the world’s leading producer, with capacity between 12 and 16 billion L.
“Three million vehicles a day run on pure ethanol and it sells for 50 percent less at the pumps,” La Belle said of Brazil.
In the United States, capacity is more than 10 billion L and 14 plants are under construction to push that to almost 12 billion.
“By 2008, 20 percent of all the corn in the U.S. is going to be used for ethanol production,” said La Belle.
