Project Wheatland biofuels facility receives CAD$5 million in funding

A wheat-based biofuels facility in Alberta, Canada has received CAD$5 million in funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) in an effort to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the province, ERA has announced.

Known as Project Wheatland, the CAD$285 million biofuels plant is being developed by Carbon Clean Energy (CCE) and will produce low carbon intensity ethanol in line with Alberta’s new renewable fuel standards. The facility is designed to produce 16 million litres of denatured ethanol for fuel blending, 1.76 mmBtu of biogas and 12MWh of green power generation per year.

The project is one of three to receive funding through ERA’s Partnership Intake Program, which allows organisations with fair and transparent processes to share projects to be considered for funding. Together these three projects are expected to cut 9 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“This project meets the provincial and federal government’s mandate to focus on new technologies that assist in the overall economic diversification of the province,” said Bruno Rizzuto, vice president of corporate development at CCE. “With the support of both governments, CCE will continue to be a catalyst for local companies to test their innovation for scalability purposes in the energy, agricultural, supply chain, and transportation industries in an operational setting.”

ERA has also granted over CAD$2 million to SYLVIS Environmental Service’s BIOSALIX process, which will be trialled at Westmoreland Coal’s Paintearth coal mine near Forestburg, Alberta. The innovative process uses municipal biosolids and other organic residuals as supplements to existing topsoil and feedstocks in topsoil production in order to grow willow wood biomass crops on reclaimed mine land. The biomass can then be used as feedstock in clean energy, reclamation or bioproducts development, according to the company.

“This as an opportunity to meet federal and provincial carbon strategy policy targets. It also provides sustainable management of municipal biosolids, while offering the prospect of small community transition and growth from a mining hub to a clean technology industry,” said John Lavery, principal scientist at SYLVIS Environmental.

To date, ERA’s Partnership Intake Program has committed CAD$28.4 million in funding to projects in Alberta.