Ontario will soon be home to a new 750,000 liter (200,000 gallon) cellulosic ethanol plant, thanks to the closing of a $4 million common equity investment. The money is part of a $12 million investment made by the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund, Investeco Capital, and David LeGresley, former vice chairman of National Bank Financial, to support the development of Mississauga, Ontario-based Woodland Biofuels Inc.’s proposed demonstration-scale facility.

According to Greg Nuttall, president and CEO of Woodland, the plant is currently scheduled to be operational by mid-year, noting that detailed engineering work is already underway. The facility will be located at the Bioindustrial Innovation Center in the University of Western Ontario’s Sarnia-Lambton Research Park.

The proposed plant will feature Woodland Biofuel’s patented Catalyzed Pressure Reduction technology, which can produce bio-based fuels and chemicals from a wide variety of feedstocks, including wood waste, agricultural waste and municipal solid waste. The gasification technology is billed as an emission-free process that uses modern, off-the-shelf equipment.

While it is possible for the process to produce biobased chemicals and other renewable fuels, Nuttall says Woodland Biofuels intends to remain focused on cellulosic ethanol. The flexible nature of the technology is an asset, he said, “but our number one priority is ethanol.”

Nuttall also says that the facility will employ wood waste as its primary feedstock. “It’s a good feedstock because it’s uniform in nature and the infrastructure is already in place to collect it,” he continues. “Agricultural waste is also something we can use, but the infrastructure isn’t really there right now to collect massive amounts of it.” 

—Erin Voegele