Alberta funds a biorefinery to demonstrate SBI BioEnergy technology
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.
