Key Topics
Biofuels Could Kickstart Canada's Economy
Food or fuel? Common crops are developing different values as society slowly replaces petrochemicals with plant-based oils.
Canola has been called the Cinderella crop, a great Canadian success story for its heart-healthy edible oil and about 65 percent of its acres grown from genetically modified seed. But 30-year-old Brad Hanmer sees a silver lining to the golden crop. He believes that the future of the family Govan, Saskatchewan, farm will be based more on canola as fuel than food.
Why? The operation is already using a canola oil based lubricity agent in his diesel engines. The pilot project proves significant benefits in increased lubricity for engines, better fuel pump response and fuel usage. Government environmental regulations require removal of sulphur from petroleum-based diesel fuel. Sulphur improves lubricity (reduces internal engine wear). A canola-based lubricity agent can be added to reduced-sulphur diesel fuel. Tests show this bio-based additive gives excellent diesel engine wear protection.
Hanmer, an early adopter of biodiesel, is also chair of the newly minted BioDiesel Association of Canada, consisting of canola and soybean growers, processors and renderers. They are committed to working with the federal government on a national target of 500 million litres of biofuels in Canada. Only 0.1 percent of Canada's fuel needs are from biodiesel.
"The businessmen in our organization believe that a biodiesel movement can increase demand for oil using whatever feedstock is most economical," explains Hanmer. "We are feedstock neutral. We simply want to increase demand for oil."
Biodiesel is just one more development in a trend toward bioproducts of all kinds — products made from plants that are environmentally friendly and worthy of credits for the Kyoto Protocol. Examples include agri-fibre panels, textiles made from hemp and flax and bioplastics made from corn starch. The bioproducts revolution is based on weaning society from petrochemicals and replacing them with renewable carbohydrates. Biotechnology plays a role because a majority of feedstocks such as canola, corn and soybeans are already grown from biotech seeds which require minimum tillage and again, save on fuel use. The benefits are accumulative when for example, DuPont's Sorona®1 polymer — a textile fibre — uses a corn-derived chemical replacing petrochemicals.
Canada aspires to be a leader in the bio-based economy. In 2004, Ontario-based BIOX Corporation, commissioned the biggest North American biodiesel production plant with a capacity of 67 million litres, or 20 million gallons.2 Biodiesel is a clean burning diesel replacement fuel that is made from a variety of renewable feedstock sources such as any agricultural seed oil, recycled cooking grease or waste animal fats.
"The patented BIOX Process technology allows for the conversion of any feedstock with a free fatty acid content between 0 and 30% into ASTM grade biodiesel. Using BIOX's process, biodiesel can be produced at a cost competitive with the commercial diesel fuel market and used as fuel for any diesel engine such as commercial transporters, buses and cars," describes Scott Lewis, business development, BIOX. Although this fuel contains no petroleum, it can be blended on any level with the fossil fuel and can be used in any unmodified diesel engine.
BIOX's chemistry, originally developed by scientists at the University of Toronto, is a very efficient process that converts oils and waste to fuels on a 1:1 ratio. Their test plant has been operating successfully for two and a half years.
The U.S. federal government and the European Union currently hope to meet an objective of a B10 blend by 2010 and a B20 blend by 2020. The blend signifies the percentage of biodiesel component as mixed with regular diesel. Because these fuels are cleaner burning, reducing air pollution and ozone layer depletion, they are eligible for government subsidies.
Several Canadian municipalities have tested biodiesel to fuel buses and road work vehicles to reduce emissions, not to mention costs. The city of Brampton was a leader according to Kenneth Dack, manager of fleet services, when he took up the challenge in March 2002. Within three months of starting the pilot project, the city recorded an astounding 24.4 percent reduction in emissions on 16 vehicles. He quickly announced: "The test is over; put everything on biodiesel!" Other cities such as Oshawa and Toronto have picked up the technology.
As computer technology, biochemistry and engineering converge to create bioproducts, consumers are coming full circle to accept that plants can be both food and fuel.
1 Sorona®, DuPont Co. <http://www2.dupont.com/Sorona/en_US/index.html.>
2 BIOX Corporation, <www.bioxcorp.com>. Canada's Bio-Product Industry, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, <http://www.agr.gc.ca/misb/spcrops/sc-cs_e.php?page=bioproducts-bioproduits>.