BioRefinex receives funding from the Government of Alberta to build a biorefinery in Lacombe

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF. 

The Government of Alberta will provide 10 million CAD from the TIER fund through Emissions Reduction Alberta to build a 45 million CAD biorefinery in Lacombe (Alberta, Canada) based on the technology solution of BioRefinex. 
Press release: “TIER funds leading-edge tech in Lacombe”, 22/10/2020. 

Figure 1. BioRefinex platform (taken from the website of the company) 

The Lacombe Biorefinery will be the first facility to showcase the commercial application of the thermal hydrolysis platform developed by BioRefinex. This technology uses high heat, high pressure and water to turn animal and plant waste from agriculture and food processing into organic fertilizer and renewable natural gas. The fertilizer will be available to customers in Alberta and the renewable natural gas will go into the local distribution system. The facility will have the capacity to generate enough renewable natural gas to heat more than 1,000 homes each year. 

The Lacombe Biorefinery will support up to 80 construction jobs and about 25 full-time jobs in Lacombe and Calgary. The facility will also cut about 40,000 tons of emissions each year. 

This funding is part of the province’s commitment of 750 million CAD for job-creating emissions reduction programs through the TIER fund, which will directly support almost 9,000 jobs and inject 1.9 billion CAD into Alberta’s economy. The TIER system is funded by large industry which pay into the fund when they do not meet emissions targets.

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