British Columbia and Alberta are importing biofuel to reduce carbon emissions and meet government mandated inclusion rates in gasoline and diesel.
B.C. imports most of its biofuel requirements, including renewable diesel from Finland, said Michael Rensing, manager of renewable and low carbon fuels with the province’s energy ministry.
B.C. requires five percent renewable content in gasoline and three percent in diesel.
“We are not specific about what the fuels are; they just need to be renewable,” he said.
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The province has reduced its carbon emissions by 418,000 tonnes since the requirement went into effect last year. It is the equivalent of removing 82,000 passenger vehicles from the road.
“British Columbia followed the lead of California,” Rensing told the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association’s recent conference in Calgary.
“Our low carbon fuel standard has a few variations and we are experiencing the same issues as California.”
A California proposal announced in 2007 wants to reduce carbon emissions from fuel by 10 percent by 2020.
Diesel-hydrogen powered buses were used during the Vancouver Olympics, and the province is considering expanding its hydrogen fleet. The hydrogen comes from Quebec.
Alberta produces close to 70 percent of the 2.6 million barrels of oil that Canada produces per day, and imports biofuel to meet emissions standards. For example, biodiesel is imported from Imperium Renewables in Seattle.
“We send them crushed canola and they send it back as biodiesel right now,” said Susan Carlisle, director of alternative and renewable energy with Alberta Energy.
Carlisle said even with the importing and transportation factored in the biofuel is expected to reduce emissions by a million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.”
Alberta set a requirement in 2010 of five percent alcohol in gasoline and two percent renewable fuel in diesel. Blenders are not constrained to ethanol. The program started in April so no statistics are available.
Alberta produces 45 million litres of ethanol and 19 million litres of biodiesel per year, while 300 million litres of fuel alcohol and 150 million litres of renewable diesel are required to meet the province’s needs.
“We are seeing around 2014 when we could fulfill that entire requirement with local capacity,” Carlisle said.
Plant construction announcements have been made in the past, but the plants were never built.
“What happened with some companies was they had investors and the investors walked away because of the economy,” she said.
Plant location is also a concern because of a moratorium on water licences in the South Saskatchewan River basin.
“With their business planning when they go for permitting, they have to have a water licence. If they don’t get a water licence to meet their needs, they are not going to build.”
However, she said biofuel does not have a high water requirement.
“Ethanol may have a reputation of using a lot of water, but the water required has gone down. They have improved the technology and the processes so it is not as high as it used to be,” she said.
Most plants tend to locate close to a supply of feedstock and transportation.
Alberta also wants plants built to benefit the local economy rather than continuing to import.
“The spinoff benefits wouldn’t be recognized by straight imports and you wouldn’t see the regional spinoff benefits that you would get and the market opportunities for our farmers,” she said.
“You won’t see that if you are importing. You are just a consumer of biofuels. But if you are producing there is economic benefits from the farmer right up to the tax revenue.”
