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.

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Image. By Ulrichulrich

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Win This Space Challenges Entrepreneurs.

From Tyler Kula, Sarnia Observer.

In a bid to spur local entrepreneurship, the Sarnia Lambton Business Development Corporation is offering to cover the cost of two storefront leases for a year.

Monday marked the start of the not-for-profit’s Win this Space contest, which taps cash from a number of sponsors to fund the lease costs for start-ups, or existing but storefront-lacking businesses, in Sarnia-Lambton.

Good business ideas are never in short supply, said Tracy Ranick, community economic development officer with the business development corporation (SLBDC) that daily counsels people on getting their ideas off the ground. 

“It’s just the cost is sometimes prohibitive for people to get their business launched and make their idea happen,” she said. 

Getting a free space for a year could be a 'game changer,' she said. 

It’s the second stint for the contest, inspired by similar initiatives in other communities, she said. 

A counseling business for couples won last fall, she said, and is doing well in space off Christina Street. 

“It was a little different than what we maybe anticipated, but that’s part of the excitement of this type of a program is you don’t know what ideas you’ll get,” Ranick said.

“We certainly encourage people with all different types of ideas to apply.”

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Image. FreePik.

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Sarnians Interviewed on Municipal Best Practices.

Business View Magazine interviews representatives from Sarnia, Ontario, as part of our focus on best practices of Canadian cities.

Sarnia is a City in Southwestern Ontario, located where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River at the Canadian/U.S. border. It is part of the traditional territory of the Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potowatami nations. The French explorer, Robert de La Salle, first sailed the area in 1679, and gave it the name then in use by the First Nations, “The Rapids.” Before dredging began in the 1850s, Sarnia was known for its shallow and turbulent water at the mouth of Lake Huron. It was surveyed as Port Sarnia in the 1830s and incorporated as the Town of Sarnia in 1857. Sarnia grew to become an important center for lake freighters and oceangoing ships.

Sarnia’s role in the petrochemical industry stems from its proximity to the oil fields of Petrolia and Oil Springs, which have been drilled commercially since the 1860s. A burgeoning oil refining industry developed in East London and eventually consolidated into Imperial Oil. As rail connections and drainage improved, Imperial Oil relocated to Petrolia, and then to Sarnia in 1898 after Standard Oil purchased the company, establishing Sarnia as a refining center. The petrochemical industry expanded rapidly after 1942 when Polymer, a federal crown corporation, established a synthetic rubber factory in Sarnia.  This factory was built by local tradespeople in order to supply the allies in World War II with synthetic rubber (from oil) when the supply of natural rubber had been cut off. The supply was considered a contributing factor to the success of the war effort.  The plant was built in an amazingly short period of time and operated very profitably providing a return to the Canadian taxpayers. 

This achievement was celebrated by the Canadian government by depicting the Polymer Corporation on the Canadian $10 bill.

Today, Sarnia and neighboring municipalities are home to 36 petrochemical and refinery facilities, employing some 4,500 people.  But things are changing in this waterfront city of 72,000. Once known mainly for its petrochemical industry, Sarnia is now deep in the process of diversifying its big oil industrial base to include big bio.  For the hybrid chemical system, future growth will come from bio-based industry.  But the region is also committed to maintaining the petroleum industry as they work hard to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and look at ways to partner with the bio-based industry.  “We’re actually seen as a leader in North America in the bio-industry process,” says Alan Shaw, Sarnia’s Director of Planning and Building. “We’ve seen people come in from as far as Europe and California to set up plants and operations here in Sarnia.”

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Images. Wiki, Businessview.

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