From Paul Morden, Sarnia
Observer.
A
California-based bio-chemical company set to open a commercial-scale
demonstration plant in 2018 at the Arlanxeo site in Chemical Valley is already
expanding in Sarnia.
It was
announced this week that Origin
Materials is moving a pilot plant it purchased from Tennessee-based Eastman
Chemicals to the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park, next to Modeland Road.
Bioindustrial
Innovation Canada, a government-funded agency based in Sarnia, said in a news
release it is supporting the $6-million pilot plant project in partnership with
Lambton College and the research park.
“We’re
quite excited about it,” Origin Materials CEO John Bissell said Wednesday.
“We
really wanted to establish what we’ve been calling a ‘beachhead’ in Sarnia.”
Initially,
the company plans to use the oxidation pilot plant at the research park to work
with terephthalic acid, “but we’re probably going to expand it to some other
chemicals,” he said.
Oxidation
is ‘on the trickier side\ of chemical processes and ‘the staff and the safety
culture in Sarnia is just incredibly important to us,’ Bissell added.
“It makes (us)
a lot more comfortable than a lot of the other places you can imagine starting
something like this up.”
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