EDMONTON — Treetops and branches landfilled or left behind when forestry companies harvest Alberta trees could soon provide clean consumer electricity instead, says Alberta's Environment Minister Rob Renner.
The province announced Wednesday it's giving Minnesota-based renewable power company Otoka Energy Corp. a total of $25 million in grants to develop a first-of-its-kind waste-to-energy gasification plant in Drayton Valley, 140 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.
"It's a win-win for Albertans," Renner said. "We're producing electricity, turning forestry waste into valuable commodities, and reducing Alberta's greenhouse gases."
The project will reduce Alberta's greenhouse gases by about 400,000 tonnes each year--equivalent to taking 80,000 cars off the roads, according to a government news release.
Of the provincial funding,$20 million comes from Alberta's share of the Canada Ecotrust for Clean Air and Climate Change. The project also received$5 million in July from a program administered by Alberta Energy to foster a sustainable bioenergy industry.
The Otoka plant in Drayton Valley still requires provincial approval. Construction would take about 18 months for the first phase of the project; completion of the full plant will take up to five years.
When operating fully, it's expected to convert about 180,000 tonnes of wood waste per year into synthetic gas to produce 25 megawatts of electricity, said Otoka chief executive Michael Muston.
That waste will include trimmings or roundwood, which was the feedstock for oriented-strand-board mills. The plant will keep residual wood from being burned or decomposing and releasing greenhouse gases, Muston said. Wood damaged by pine beetles could also provide feedstock, he said.
In later stages of the project, Muston said the plant will expand operations so that it also accepts agricultural residuals such as straw left over from wheat or barley production.
The next two phases will add a methanogenic reactor to produce natural gas and an upgrader to make ethanol.
The plant will be able to produce specialty chemicals and biofuels for transportation and feedstock for coal-fired plants, Muston said.
The company has announced renewable energy projects in North Dakota and California, and Drayton Valley was an attractive location for its next facility, Muston said.
"The forestry sector, agricultural sector and the energy sector all come to union in a community like Drayton Valley," Muston said.
"It has all the makings for a very successful project."
He did not immediately know how many jobs will be created in the $100-million first phase of the project or in the next two stages costing another $140 million.
While the biomass-to-energy industry is in its infancy in Alberta, Muston said he's confident about its future.
"It's our expectation that the U.S. will come forth with climate change legislation, that Canada will align and that Alberta will align with Canada such that there will be policies that will move behaviours in the direction we're setting out to participate in."
Drayton Valley Mayor Moe Hamdon said the project provides a boost to the community's Bio-Mile, its planned cluster of bio-industrial plants aimed at diversifying the local economy. It's also welcome news for a town that lost 130 jobs when Weyerhaeuser permanently closed its oriented-strand-board mill in 2008. The company still operates a dimensional softwood lumber sawmill in the community.
"Combine that with the slowdown in the oil and gas industry and things were a little quiet in this community," Hamdon said. "Our Bio-Mile looks at creating basically a whole new industry of using wood waste and creating several different products."
Edmonton-based Tekle Technical Services Inc. broke ground in August for a natural-fibre matting plant in the Bio-Mile and the town is talking with CLIB2021, a German bio-industrial consortium, about opening an office.
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