A recent visit to the Prairies left officials of Iogen Corp. impressed with the potential for a straw-driven ethanol venture in the region.
However, the corporation remains months away from announcing where it will locate a $300 million plant, which would extract cellulose from cereal straw for conversion to ethanol.
“The trip was a success all the way around,” said Iogen communications officer Tania Glithero. She said part of the purpose of the visit in late March and early April was to gauge farmer interest in committing straw to the venture.
Read Also
Rented farmland jumps 3.4 million acres in Saskatchewan and Alberta
Farmland rented or leased in the two provinces went from 25.7 million acres in 2011 to 29.1 million in 2021, says Census of Agriculture data.
“From what I understand, the interest from that side was very high and very good.”
The ethanol plant envisioned by Ottawa-based Iogen would produce 160 million litres of ethanol per year. About 1,400 tonnes of straw per day would be needed to reach that production.
Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom are candidates for the venture, which would become the first of several that Iogen believes could be built. Government policy and support for renewable energy development are among the factors that will influence which country is chosen, Glithero said.
A decision about where to locate the first plant could be made by September, she said. If Canada is chosen, the company would take possibly another four months to decide which province.
On the Prairies, the communities of Vegreville, Alta, Birch Hills, Sask., and Killarney, Man., are in the running as potential sites.
Ed Wieclaw, director of development services for Minburn County, which has Vegreville as its hub, is confident Iogen will locate in Canada. One reason for his optimism is that the Canadian government has provided strong support, including $18.7 million in grants and repayable loans for research and development.
Wieclaw said he is also confident that his community will be the chosen location, partly because of an abundance of cereal straw in the area, but also because Vegreville already has identified markets for a number of the byproducts that would arise.
At stake is the opportunity to land 150 permanent jobs plus a variety of economic spinoffs, Wieclaw said. For farmers, it would mean an added market for their straw.
The price they could expect is one of the main things farmers were eager to learn from Iogen officials, he said. Neither Wieclaw nor Glithero would give an exact number, although both said the price would have to be economical for the ethanol maker while profitable for farmers.
Farmers in Wieclaw’s area also wanted to know what percentage of their straw would have to be committed each year if they wanted to participate. They were told they would not have to commit all their straw every year, but could instead look at signing half their production each year or all of their straw every second year.
