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Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative to develop biomass supply chain with Comet Biorefining

Cellulosic Sugar Producers Cooperative, an Ontario, Canada-based farmer's cooperative, has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Comet Biorefining to collaborate on the development of a sustainable agricultural biomass supply chain in southwestern Ontario.

Comet Biorefining recently announced Sarnia, Ontario, as the location of its commercial-scale biomass-derived sugar facility.

The plant will require over 60,000 tonnes of corn stover or wheat straw per year producing dextrose sugar.

The production of these sugars and co-products would support the production of bioproducts, such as biofuels and biochemicals.

The Cooperative board of directors has approved the jointly developed business plan for the agricultural biomass-to-sugar value chain in southwestern Ontario and is now engaged in completing its regulatory requirements to complete an equity raise anticipated to occur in the third quarter of 2016.

The business plan includes a full assessment of the specific costs for the aggregation, transportation, and storage of agricultural biomass, particularly corn stover from the farm to the gate of the cellulosic conversion plant, and the potential financial returns for participation as an equity partner in the cellulosic sugar production facility.

"Farmers can expect this project to be the first step towards the future commercialisation of a large scale cellulosic sugar business,” said Dave Park, president at Cellulosic Sugar Producer's Cooperative and director at Grain Farmers of Ontario.

“Farmers in the region can add value to their crops without increasing their land base. Corn stover is a very sensible feedstock because it is like super-imposing a crop on top of an existing crop, while not taking away any land from food production," Park said.

The project was funded in part through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.





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