Benefuel to Build Biodiesel Refinery in Sarnia.

From Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer.

Benefuel, a company with offices in Ottawa and Texas, is working to build biodiesel refinery in Sarnia expected to begin operating in 2020 with more than 40 workers.

Sarnia-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, a government-funded agency working to help new sustainable technologies reach the market, said Tuesday it has invested in Benefuel to allow it to complete engineering needed as a final step before building a plant in Sarnia.

“We recognize the need for low carbon transportation fuels and Benefuel provides an important step forward to meet these goals,” Sandy Marshall, executive director of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada, said in a news release.

Rob Tripp, chief executive officer of Benefuel, said the company is planning to build a plant in Sarnia with an annual capacity of 75-million litres.

“We’re looking at leaving room to double the capacity down the road,” he added.

Tripp said the company is still working through estimates for the cost of the Sarnia plant. He added, “We typically don’t disclose financial information.”

Benefuel uses a unique refining technology to make biodiesel, Tripp said.

“It is capable of processing all of the hard-to-process waste oils that are high in free fatty acids,” he said.

The target feedstock for the Sarnia plant will be used cooking oil and distiller’s corn oil, which is a by-product of ethanol refining.

Link to the rest here.

Image. By Ulrichulrich

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Another Sarnia Research Park Success Story.

Photo by Zach Neal.

From Cathy Dobson, Sarnia Journal.

Professor Charles Xu is one satisfied customer.

Nearly five years after leasing space at the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park so his team could work on turning forestry waste into adhesives and insulation, the product is out of the lab and ready for a testing plant in Thunder Bay.

But before Xu relocated his staff of 10 Master’s and PhD students, the project spent about $500,000 in Sarnia and attracted a handful of new residents.

And while that initiative has moved on, Xu was so pleased with the park’s facilities and personnel he’s applying for a grant to work on another one to convert corn stalks or wheat straw.

“If we are successful in getting the funding we may be back to Sarnia this year,” he said.

Link to the rest here.

Thank you for reading.