A California biofuel and energy company is ready to build a plant in northeastern Ontario that makes jet fuel from wood biomass.
Los Angeles-based Rentech Ltd. announced it has been selected by the Ontario goverment to receive a supply of 1.1 million cubic metres of Crown wood annually to build a new plant in White River which will make a clean, low-carbon jet fuel.
It is the largest wood allocation awarded in the province's wood supply competition and the company says it will give reliable long-term biomass supply for its proposed Olympiad project, scheduled to be in service in 2015.
The announcement was made in Sault Ste. Marie attended by Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle; D. Hunt Ramsbottom, president and CEO of Rentech, White River Mayor Angelo Bazzoni and First Nation Chiefs Roy Michano of Pic River and Johanna Desmouluin of Pic Mobert.
The project will employ 83 full-time employees and create more than 300 indirect jobs.
The plant will produce 85 million litres annually of fuel and also produce 43 million litres of naphtha, a chemical feedstock.
Rentech is hoping to land some money from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, which has a $500 million NextGen Biofuels Fund.
Pic River First Nation will get an 18 per cent equity interest in the project.
