Building on its strategic priority to capitalize on new environmental and renewable energy opportunities, the City of Greater Sudbury will be developing a biodiesel facility in the city.
The city plans to develop a biodiesel facility that will utilize biofuels developed through feedstock, such as canola, says Paul Graham, public works manager for the City of Greater Sudbury.
The plan is to develop a plant with the initial capacity to produce 3,000,000 litres per year, scalable to 30,000,000 litres per year within five years. At 3,000,000 litres per year, the project is anticipated to create about $13,500,000 in new economic activity for the city, and at 12,000,000 litres per year new economic activity is projected at $43,362,000.
The project will engage the agricultural industry in producing the feedstock, and there will be a guaranteed purchaser of the feedstock, he adds.
“So while we’re creating a biodiesel plant in Sudbury, we’re actually creating a regional agricultural industry that’ll provide feedstock,” Graham says.
Other facilities, such as a crushing facility for feedstock, will also be required. In addition, 10 per cent of what is created in the biofuel process is glycerin, a key product that is used in items like soaps, and in food items. As a result, the “city will be looking for entrepreneurs to take advantage of the waste stream from the plant,” Graham says.
Basically, the city will be looking for private-sector interest in setting up a plant within the biodiesel fuel plant to utilize the glycerin, he adds.
Unique transportation opportunities will also be created through this initiative, he adds, noting that part of the plan is to build ties with southern Ontario-based industries that utilize biodiesel fuels and to ship biodiesel produced in Sudbury to other areas of Ontario.
No timelines have been announced.
