The Greening of Tomorrow's Energy

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By Mike Pettapiece

In a McMaster University lab, biophysicist Duane Chung – along with fellow researchers at University of Waterloo – studies algae, one of the world’s most
abundant aquatic plants in search of tomorrow’s fuels.

In Mississauga, Norm Rathie works with a U.S.-based partner on “a 100% chemical approach” that can use grass clippings, corn stover (stalks left behind after harvest) or other biomass while husbanding its carbon content.

And at a farm near Cobden, in eastern Ontario, brothers Fritz and Paul Klaesi generate their electricity from manure, or rather the methane from manure pits and crop residue.

They are all part of the leading edge of power brokers that seek renewable energy from alternative sources. Some of the ‘green’ fuels being developed in Canada are here now, some will take much time to get to market. Some may never get there.

“To be realistic, I would say it’s going to take a while before we’re beginning to make this happen,” said Chung, the head of Centurion Biofuels, about his plans to turn algae lipids into an economical energy option. It’s a fair statement, easily applied to much of the research going on around the world as scientist-entrepreneurs seek new solutions to the problems of rising oil and gas prices, the need for a secure energy supply, and toxic greenhouse gases (GHGs).

With biomass, says Rathie, president of Met-Tech Inc., it’s all about “yield, yield, yield,” as researchers seek renewable fuels that can compete cost-effectively with petro-fuels.

The Klaesi brothers use the ultimate recycling fuel – dairy cattle manure – to yield a system that produces 750 kilowatts of electricity daily, enough power for the farm and two homes. The system cost almost $300,000, Fritz told agricultural specialist Lorne McClinton, but “it will pay for itself in 10 years.”

There are great expectations from biofuels. But there are great obstacles too. Feedstock costs, research and development financing and taking green fuels to market are among the barriers to creating an economically viable industry.
“It’s still a tough area and clearly, part of the issue you’ve got is there are other alternatives out there that are more cost-effective,” said John Neate, of the non-profit OCETA (Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement). Too many people look for “the silver bullet,” he says.

OCETA ran a one-day biofuels workshop at McMaster in late October. The seminar zeroed in on some of the barriers. They included:

• The need to integrate a renewable-fuels structure within existing petro-fuel production and supply systems as much as possible.
• A system for environmental gains to be ‘monetized’, such as through tradeable GHG emissions-reduction credits.
• The necessity for diversified product-revenue streams to help offset the ‘sunk costs’ of harvesting, preparation, and transport of bio-feedstocks.

Here’s another obstacle: Ironically, just like petro-fuel facilities, green fuel production has lately taken flak for environmental and economic fallout, whether it’s about smell or land spoilage and deforestation.

The cornfood-to-ethanol strategy has reaped a bumper crop of criticism. Critics have slammed subsidies and use of nitrogen fertilizers. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development suggests the global biofuel rush pushes up food prices.

The debate has been so intense that the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association complained in November to the United Nations about a harsh UN special report.

Association president Gordon Quaiattini wrote that biofuels provide “one of the most sensible and attractive solutions to date, particularly considering (their) contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions.”

The biofuels industry in the U.S. has run into “stranded ethanol” problems as supply outruns infrastructure, said Jay Mullin of OCETA. In any event, points out his colleague, Mona El Hallak, biobutanol is more similar to gasoline than is ethanol, with a higher energy density.

Yet the successes are undeniable. Gasoline and diesel prices that hover at $1 or more a litre help fuel the push to less carbon-intensive, cleaner-burning biofuel. So, researchers are looking at microbes, biomass conversion, syngas from garbage, biodiesel made from used restaurant grease and other feedstock options.

Oakville-based Biox Corp., with its initial production plant in Hamilton, processes raw materials, including animal fats, recycled cooking oils and palm oil. The company hopes to go public with an IPO plan.

Sarnia-Lambton, for decades a petro-chemical valley, is evolving slowly into a bio-industrial corridor. Down Highway 401, the new Guelph pyrolysis plant of B.C.-based Dynamotive Energy Systems is turning wood waste into BioOil.

Governments are using both push and prod to move the country toward renewable fuels. Ottawa, for example, has set up a $500 million NextGen Biofuels Fund to jumpstart production of large-scale, first-of-kind demo-scale plants. The 2007 federal budget included a renewable-fuels producer payment offering $1.5 billion over seven years to domestic ethanol and biodiesel producers.

In Ontario, the government is providing more than $500 million over 12 years to aid increased ethanol production. In Alberta, a new federal-provincial initiative will help develop micro-algae systems that would capture CO2 from industrial sources.

Ottawa is also mandating that gasoline consist of 5% renewable content by 2010. Diesel fuel and heating oil must be 2% green by 2012.

Biomass is the great green hope in Canada. Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) believes there is enough grass and forest feedstock to satisfy about 6% of the country’s energy needs through production of non-digestible cellolosic ethanol.

One biofuels industry estimate puts the energy value at 2.2 exajoules a year – or 17% of Canada’s total energy – within the next decade or so, if there is increased use of waste biomass and crop dedication to biofuels. (That 2.2 exajoules works out to an energy equivalent of about 62 billion litres of gasoline.)

“We have a decent critical mass of young Canadian companies that have done some really good work in this area,” Vicky Sharpe, president and chief executive officer of SDTC, administrator of the NextGen fund, said this fall. “I don’t think people have grasped what the bioenergy industry could look like.”

Mike Pettapiece, a journalist for more than 30 years, most recently at the Toronto Star, writes and edits the newsletter for the Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network, based at McMaster University in Hamilton.