Biorefining research facility opens

Submitted by Editor on Sat, 12/05/2009 - 09:50.
Date: -->
Saturday Dec 05, 2009
By
The Working Forest staff
A new research facility in Thunder Bay will strengthen the North's emerging green energy and chemicals sector and create at least eight jobs within its first year of operation.
Developed with the support of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), Lakehead University's Biorefining Research Initiative (BRI) officially opened today. BRI will focus on developing new technologies for converting forest biomass into chemicals and biofuels that could be commercialized as green energy and chemicals alternatives.
For example, BRI could develop new processes for making bioethanol from forest residue such as tree tops, wood bark and irregular limbs. Ethanol is added to gasoline to make car engines work more efficiently.
. The NOHFC has invested $1 million for equipment and renovations for Lakehead University's new biorefining research facility.
. Over the next few decades, as fossil fuel supplies decrease and prices rise, biorefining technology will play a leading role in replacing petro-chemicals.
. A biorefinery is much like a petroleum refining system, except that forest biomass replaces crude oil as a resource to produce chemicals.
. Biomass is renewable plant material from agricultural (corn cobs, wheat
stalks) and forestry (trees, branches, sawdust, wood chips) residues that can be used to produce bioenergy.
. Northwestern Ontario has 18 million hectares of productive forest - about 45 per cent of the provincial total.
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