Biorefinery to Convert Non-Food Plant Oils, Fats into Transportation Fuels

An Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) company is reaching the final stage of its project to build a biorefinery that will convert non-food canola oil and waste fats into next-generation, renewable transportation fuels that can replace or blend with conventional fuels. 

 

The company, SBI BioEnergy (SBI), has been working on scaling up its novel "catalytic" processing technology for the past three years, thanks to $1.4 million in funding from Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions (AI Bio). The process creates no emissions, generates no waste, and costs less than other alternative fuel technologies.

In just a few weeks, SBI expects to move into its newly built facility in the Edmonton Research Park, which will house a demonstration refinery capable of producing up to 10 million liters of renewable fuel per year. Commissioning the plant will take several months, but SBI hopes to start producing by year's end. The company's next goal will be to build a full-scale commercial biorefinery that will produce up to 240 million liters/year by 2018.

SBI is able to produce renewable diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel. AI Bio provided the funding to SBI in 2013 to advance its proprietary process from the lab to a demonstration-scale plant.

"Public investment helped move this innovation along to the stage where SBI has shown it can produce these unique, drop-in and replacement fuels derived from non-food Alberta farm products, and do so at a larger scale," said Steve Price, CEO of AI Bio.

"This will not only provide a new market for agricultural producers and companies, it will also help to diversify the provincial economy and bring environmental benefits by filling a technological gap and advancing the renewable fuel industry in Alberta."  

SBI uses a proprietary catalyst instead of hydrogen in its processing. It uses no water or chemicals and generates no waste. In addition, the process is continuous rather than producing fuel in batches, so further efficiencies are achieved. 

"This is new technology, invented in Alberta. It comes at the right time in the right place and the market is huge," says SBI President and CEO Dr. Inder Pal Singh, a chemist who founded the company. Alberta is currently importing 300 million liters per year of renewable diesel, primarily from overseas, to blend with conventional fuel, he noted.  

"AI Bio funding was critical in helping us move from proof of concept bench scale to the demonstration stage," Singh said. "AI Bio also assisted me in making the right connections because (the agency) works with so many people. This has been very helpful."

Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions is a provincial government agency that leads and co-ordinates science and innovation to grow prosperity in Alberta's agriculture, food, and forest sectors.

In addition to AI Bio funding, SBI has received about $460,000 in support from Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.

Also on March 10, the Alberta government announced the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) has earmarked a $10 million contribution for SBI to continue its work.