A Los Angeles-based company called Rentech Inc. announced today that it is building a biofuels plant four hours north of Sault St. Marie, Ontario, that will be dedicated to turning forest waste and “unmerchantable” tree species into renewable jet fuel and naphtha, which is a chemical feedstock for making all sorts of products. This is big news for an Ontario steel and forestry area that was hit hard by the economic downturn. The plant, called the Olympiad Project, is expected to be operational in 2015 and will employ up to 1,000 people during peak construction. There will be about 83 direct full-time jobs once the plant is operational and over 300 indirect and “induced” positions — whatever that means.

Rentech’s approach is to gasify the biomass, condition the resulting synthesis gas (syngas), then convert it into jet fuel and naphtha using a Fischer-Tropsch process. The plant, called the Olympiad Project, is being designed to produce approximately 85 million litres (23
million gallons) annually of renewable and certified low-carbon jet fuel. Rentech will get its biomass from Ontario crown land through a deal with the province. In total, Rentech will have access to up to 1.1 million cubic metres (1.3 million U.S. tons) of Crown timber per year. The company has applied to receive up to $200 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada’s NextGen Biofuels Fund. That amount is expected to be paid back over time from project cash flow.

The ultimate impact of this fuel on the environment, according to Rentech, will be a reduction of 600,000 metric tonnes per year of CO2-equivalent emissions. “This equates to removing more than 100,000 passenger cars from the road,” the company says. The green jet fuel is “virtually” free of sulfur and aromatics. It has lower particulate matter, NOX and  SOX compared to conventional jet fuel (kerosene). The fuel is certified and was tested in 2010, though as a mix that contained 40 per cent conventional Jet-A fuel.

Anyone who has read this blog knows that I’m a big supporter of developing biofuels specifically for aviation purposes and adopting an electrification strategy for light-duty vehicles. We can’t electrify commercial airliners or military jets, so greening up those fleets will require some sort of biofuel solution. The bonus is that distributing this green jet fuel to airports is much easier than delivering to the thousands and thousands of gas stations across North America. Rentech, for instance, could do a deal with CN rail, which delivers jet fuel directly to Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

I plan to chat with Rentech’s CEO this afternoon to get more detail about where the company plans to sell its green jet fuel and related products. Also, next Tuesday, there will be a panel on bio-jet fuel innovation at BIO World Congress in Toronto. I plan to attend and will report back.

Those of you who frequent this blog know that I mention Sustainable Development Technology Canada quite regularly (picture to the left is of SDTC chief Vicky Sharpe). That’s because the federal agency, which was created nine years ago, has introduced me over the years to so many interesting, innovative and ambitious clean technology companies. SDTC does the screening. It carries out the due diligence. It offers funding for demonstration projects. It forces the hand of private investors that might not otherwise open their doors or pockets. It offers guidance. Introduces partners and customers. Need I say more? This agency has given dozens of promising green technologies and the companies behind them a solid chance of success. For every dollar of public money it has invested, it has tapped into twice as much (actually more) from the private sector. Over the past few years, that has translated into $515 million in public funding being leveraged to attract about $1.2 billion in mostly private funds.

That’s why in my Clean Break column this week I argue clean technology, and specifically the efforts of SDTC, need to be part of the country’s election dialogue. We need to build on the progress SDTC has achieved to date, not abandon the momentum at a time when major world economies — Germany, China, India, Brazil, the United States – are racing to establish a dominant position in the emerging global green economy.

The leaders of the political parties looking to run the next government need to be asked: How are they prepared to support clean technology innovation and green economic development in Canada?

My Clean Break column is a defense of electric vehicles, which are often dissed by auto reviewers who can’t wrap their heads around a world not dominated by noisy, smelly, polluting vehicles. Yes, the internal combustion engine can become and is becoming more efficient. Yes, the internal combustion engine will be here for decades to come. But electric vehicles, despite the pronouncements of some skeptics, will not be dead on arrival. What these folks fail to take into account is that many of the problems associated right now with electric vehicles are likely to be overcome within the next 10 or 20 years as the rate of adoption begins to pick up. The amount of innovation going on in this area is unprecedented, and the benefits will become clear enough by 2020. Nobody is claiming electric vehicles will completely take over. Nobody is saying the adoption of electric cars will be quick. But electric cars are coming – get used to it – and the world will be a better place for it.

It’s time to stop stubbornly clinging to the past.

You’ll recall that last year the Canadian federal government refused to inject more funding into Sustainable Development Technology Canada, an agency that has proven crucial to helping Canadian energy and environmental innovations cross the “Valley of Death.” SDTC has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to clean technology demonstration projects and leveraged twice as much from the private sector. It has enough money to fund probably one more round of projects, after which it will exist simply to manage its existing portfolio of projects (it also manages and issues grants from a separate biofuels fund). To stop funding new clean technology innovation now would be a huge mistake, and SDTC officials have made this clear to the federal government. We’ll find out at 4:30 pm today, after details of the federal budget go public, if the Harper government will continue to fund the agency’s activities. If it doesn’t, this will be a sad day for cleantech in Canada…. stay tuned.

I was supposed to go to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last week as a guest of Ford, but I got sick last minute and unfortunately had to back out. Fortunately, you can watch this overview by the crew at Inhabitat.