Woodland Biofuels project to receive $9.8 million from SDTC for cellulosic ethanol plant

Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), an arm's length, not-for-profit corporation created by the Government of Canada, has awarded $9.8 million to a project led by Woodland Biofuels Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario for the construction and testing of a cellulosic ethanol plant.

Woodland Biofuels Inc. and its partners will build the facility to efficiently produce cellulosic ethanol from wood waste. The plant will use Woodland's patented Catalyzed Pressure Reduction (CPRT) technology, which can be used to produce sustainable fuels from virtually any type of biomass, including wood waste and agricultural waste. The technology generates no toxic emissions and eliminates the need to use food, such as corn, to produce ethanol.

Woodland's technology has the potential to help solve some of the world's biggest problems by taking what is effectively waste and turning it into clean burning fuel. The flexibility of our technology, its ability to convert basically all forms of biomass into ethanol, means it is relevant to every corner of the globe. - Greg Nuttall, CEO of Woodland

CPRT is an emission-free technology that produces energy products from renewables. It converts organic materials into ethanol or industrial chemicals, and electrical power (schematic, click to enlarge). The plants are configured to produce the product most suitable for efficient energy recovery from the feedstock at hand.

CPRT accomplishes efficient conversion of renewable feedstock into valuable end products via three major phases:

1. Gasification - Gasification is widely used in the chemical, petroleum refining and steel industries, as well as generation and cogeneration processes
2. Catalyzed chemical reactions - Catalysts and catalyzed reactions are the backbone of the chemical manufacturing industry, accounting for 60% of all chemicals produced today, in 90% of chemical processes
3. Distillation - Distillation technology is well established, used wherever purified chemicals are needed

The industrial chemicals produced (schematic, click to enlarge) compete with those typically produced from fossil fuel refining and meet chemical industry standards. The ethanol competes against the production from fermentation of grains such as rye, wheat, barley and corn. During normal operations, no greenhouse gases are produced.

Unlike conventional fermentation and chemical manufacturing plants, Woodland plants are smaller scale, modular units which can be built in a wider range of suitable locations. This is an important economic benefit for plants with ethanol output, which cannot be shipped by standard pipelines and must be transported by rail or truck to its destination:
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Typical biomass feedstocks handled by CPRT process include:

• All forms of wood: commercial logging or forest management (silviculture) residue; mill residue from all softwood and hardwood operations, residue from pallets; dimensional lumber, construction wood, demolition wood, engineered wood products; urban wood waste collected from households and classified as municipal waste; coated wood product residues manufactured with resins, glues, binders, and wood impregnated with preservatives; beetle-infested wood.
• Most other forms of cellulosic materials: cotton gin waste, hay, dried distillers grain, bagasse, rice straw, etc.
• All forms of sewage sludge: biosolids "cake", processed at a wastewater facility to contain ~ 20% solids; raw sewage containing 3% solids; dry biosolids pellets.

The plant is expected to be located in Atlantic Canada and in addition to fuel ethanol will also produce green energy for use by a neighbouring industrial facility. This will eliminate the need for the neighbouring facility to use 19,000,000 litres per year of Bunker C oil to provide energy, providing further environmental benefits.

Sustainable Development Technology Canada is an arm's length, not-for-profit corporation created by the Government of Canada that currently operates a $550 million fund to support the development and demonstration of clean technologies - solutions that address issues of clean air, greenhouse gases, clean water, and clean soil, to deliver environmental, economic and health benefits to Canadians.

SDTC fills the void in the innovation chain between research and commercialization - helping clean technology developers move through the development and demonstration phases, in preparation for commercialization.