Ag-West Bio Inc. is following through on a Conference Board of Canada recommendation to establish a biofuel and bioproduct centre in Saskatchewan.
In a report released this summer, the consulting firm said that should be the No. 1 priority of the province’s life science industry.
Immediately following the report, Ag-West Bio began working on a business case for such a venture and is in the process of finalizing the plan.
“Clearly the business case indicates that we should proceed with the establishment of a biofuels and bioproducts centre in the province,” said Ag-West president Ashley O’Sullivan during an interview at the association’s annual meeting Sept. 11.
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The steering committee for the project, which includes representatives from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Research Council, National Research Council and Agriculture Canada, wants the centre to be run under the auspices of Ag-West Bio rather than as a separate stand-alone entity.
O’Sullivan said the next step involves raising the $400,000 required to get the people in place and the centre up and running for the first two years of operation.
“We’re hoping that we can have the centre established by late October or November,” he said.
The centre will determine what biofuel technologies the province should pursue. For example, should it invest in grain ethanol, cellulose ethanol or biobutanol?
It will also act as a conduit for linking partners to commercialize new technologies and enable “world-leading research” into identified priority areas.
O’Sullivan said the centre’s mandate will differ from that of the Saskatchewan Biofuels Development Council, which is dedicated to getting the proper government policies and incentives in place at the provincial and federal levels.
The market-driven organization will work closely with the biofuel industry. It has already received considerable support from science and business sectors.
One initiative it will explore is the idea of establishing biofuel refineries that will produce the same variety of industrial products as today’s petroleum based refineries.
O’Sullivan said companies such as Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and DuPont are already making plastic, nylon and fibre out of crops.
“All these companies are beginning to understand that as the price of oil goes higher and as the source of the oil becomes less secure, that it makes sense to be investing in renewable feedstocks.”
Saskatchewan already has what O’Sullivan calls first generation biofuel refineries – ethanol plants that produce fuel and dried distillers grain for an attached livestock operation.
However, he said the province needs to take the next step and attract one of the large processing facilities such as the ones Cargill, ADM and DuPont are building.
“That is going to be the real exciting opportunity in the future.”
