The Ontario government is partnering with the private sector in a pilot project to convert forest waste to bio-oil to advance the development of clean, renewable energy sources so Ontarians have cleaner air and a healthy environment.

As part of the bio-refinery pilot project, the Ministry of Natural Resources is investing C$771,000 to build a mobile plant to convert forest waste into bio-oil. A related project is determining how much forest waste is available in Ontario.

Project details:

· the prototype bio-refinery, to be built by Advanced BioRefinery Inc., is portable, self-contained and can process 50 tonnes of forest biomass every day
· the plant will undergo testing and be ready for operation in 2006. The pilot project is for a period of three years
· a plan will be developed to consider the supply and production of bio-oil, as well as distribution and markets. The key market sectors are energy, specialty chemicals and materials manufacturing
· potential benefits of this project include: supplying bio-oil to produce heat and electricity for communities in northern Ontario, where some areas are not on the power grid and still depend on diesel oil and other areas that are on the grid could switch to a district energy system; providing opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as jobs for communities in northern Ontario, and; using forest biomass to make value-added bio-products such as plastics and glue, which are currently made from fossil fuels
· unused biomass has great potential for generating energy in the future

Biomass research project

A project is currently underway to help determine how much unused forest biomass exists in Ontario and where it‘‘s located. It is a research and development partnership between the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), Tembec, Grant Forest Products, Temple-Inland, BIOCAP and Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network (ULERN).

The partnership has developed a model that provides a geographic inventory of the location and species type of unused forest biomass. This information will be used in a second model to provide financial analysis and scenario planning for making business decisions. Making use of forest biomass could help develop small to medium-sized businesses, promote job creation and foster energy self-sufficiency.

A sustainable supply of unused forest waste or biomass is available in Ontario‘‘s forests, such as tree tops, limbs and waste left after logging operations; trees destroyed by fire, insects and disease; and logs that cannot be sold. * Unlike forest fibre that is used for sawlogs, pulp and various value-added wood products, there are no quality requirements for forest biomass to be used for energy, chemicals or other materials. Biomass in any condition can be used.

Recent increases in the cost of petroleum are enabling biomass to become more competitive as a raw material for a range of industrial uses. For a number of years agriculture has been capitalizing on this market to a much greater degree than the forest industry.

Forest biomass is already making key contributions in Ontario . Two million cubic metres of mill residue are used by sawmills and paper mills for energy, or sold as raw material for the secondary wood products industry, such as particle board and oriented strand board.
>>