Alberta funds a biorefinery to demonstrate SBI BioEnergy technology

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The Canadian province of Alberta is taking action on climate change through its Climate Leadership Plan. A key component of this plan is its new emissions intensity carbon pricing program. The revenue will be fully reinvested into measures that reduce pollution (clean technology, renewable energy and energy efficiency). It will also go towards a program to assist coal-dependent communities, indigenous communities, low-income families and small businesses to adjust to a lower carbon economy.

Within this framework, the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) has earmarked a $10 million contribution (revenue from the price that large emitters of Alberta pay for releasing GHG) for the construction of a $20 million plant that will demonstrate the technology of SBI BioEnergy to produce renewable fuels from sustainable feedstocks. SBI had already received support from other organizations in the innovation chain of the province in the past. Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions committed $1.4 million in funding to SBI in 2013 to support technology development. Alberta Innovates Technology Futures provided about $460,000, as well as mentorship, lab and storage space.

The project

In just a few weeks, the company expects to move into its newly built facility in the Edmonton Research Park, which will house the demonstration biorefinery capable of producing up to 10 million litres of renewable fuel per year. Commissioning the plant will take several months and the start-up is scheduled by the end of the year. The project will generate 35 jobs in the Edmonton region and have an estimated GHG emissions reduction of more than 112,000 tonnes by 2020. The facility gives Alberta farmers a new market for off-grade canola. The next goal of the company will be to build a full-scale commercial biorefinery that will produce up to 240 million litres/year by 2018.

The process

SBI uses a proprietary hydrogen-free catalytic process that can deoxygenate and crack various oxygenated feedstocks including off-grade canola oil, waste cooking oil, animal fat and tall-oil. SBI can also use other non-food oilseeds from crops grown on marginal land unsuited for food production.

Figure 1. Simplified flow diagram process of SBI technology (extracted from “SBI Bioenergy Presentation – October 2012”)

In the first step, methanol and lipids are mixed in a PICFTR (Process Intensification & Continuous Flow-Through Reaction) reactor to produce glycerol and biodiesel. In a second PICFTR reactor, the biodiesel is converted into renewable gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. Methanol is also recovered in the system and can be reused. The catalyst is heterogeneous, insoluble and non-consumable. The biofuels produced can be fully mixed with petroleum-based fuels and require no special storage or handling. Since SBI process does not require hydrogen, the capital cost is supposed to be lower than in other technologies to obtain advanced biofuels from vegetable oils as hydroprocessing.

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