GATINEAU, Que. – Canada’s ethanol industry is celebrating this week the impending imposition of a federal five percent requirement for ethanol in Canadian gasoline, proclaiming the industry a great Canadian success story.
On Dec. 15, the federal five percent ethanol mandate takes effect, creating a stable and captive market for ethanol producers.
“This is a milestone moment for biofuels,” Canadian Renewable Fuels Association president Gordon Quaiattini said Nov. 30 as the CRFA kicked off its seventh annual meeting.
“It is easy to overlook how far we have come,” said outgoing Association chair Doug Hooper.
The industry this week produced a report card on itself that finds itself at the head of the class.
It said during the past five years, $2.3 billion has been invested in ethanol plants that now have the capacity to produce more than 1.8 billion litres of ethanol, creating more than ten thousand jobs, greenhouse gas reductions and as much as $1.5 billion in local, provincial and federal taxes.
“We have more than delivered on our promise,” said Quaiattini. “What we have done is evidence of what more we can deliver. We are indeed growing beyond oil.”
However, there has been far less progress on the canola-based biodiesel side.
The production capacity of existing plants is 205 million litres per year, another 115 million litre capacity is being built and 660 million litre capacity is proposed.
But Canada does not have a world-class biodiesel plant in Western Canada to take advantage of the canola feedstock, speakers lamented.
Ottawa still has not committed to the timing of imposing a two percent biodiesel component requirement for Canadian diesel users.
And Canada remains a biodiesel deficit country, shipping canola to plants in the United States that then create biodiesel and ship it back to Canada.
“This is a record we must correct in 2011,” said Quaiattini.
He said next year will be a transitional year from success in ethanol to advances in biodiesel and development of next-generation biofuel technologies including use of cellulose fibre from trees and agricultural residue.
Hooper, chief executive officer of the Canadian Bioenergy Corporation and a promoter of biodiesel development, told the CRFA conference that Canadian industry must do better.
“We have failed to build a world-class biodiesel industry that Canada is capable of producing,” he said.
