Forest biomass pilot plant funding in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

The Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE) has announced a $923,261 investment to expand Elementa Group’s Pre-Commercial Demonstration Plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

This funding will allow Elementa to make the necessary modifications to begin using forest biomass as an additional feedstock.

The current Elementa process uses municipal solid waste to produce a high quality synthetic gas (syngas).

The upgrade will allow Elementa to do the same thing with forest biomass, the waste material from forestry operations such as tree tops, branches and foliage.

Converting this plant to also use forest biomass as a feedstock will demonstrate the viability of forest residue as a renewable energy source.

It is clean, highly efficient and supports the global effort to reduce greenhouse gases and commercialize alternative energy production.

Elementa currently employs 20 people and the addition of forest biomass to the process is expected to create five to six direct jobs.

“Sault Ste. Marie is surrounded by an abundant supply of renewable forest biomass and residual waste. Instead of this waste counting as an overhead cost to the industry, now we can convert it into a renewable energy source,” said Frank Dottori, chair of the CRIBE board. “This is just the beginning, with an existing infrastructure and government policy, Ontario has the opportunity to present itself as a world leader in the biomass-to-energy market.”

The Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy is a provincial initiative to transform the forest products industry in Northern Ontario. CRIBE is an independent, not-for-profit research corporation, with $25 million in funding provided by the government of Ontario, that partners closely with other relevant organizations to provide support to direct and turn research results and innovative business opportunities into operational realities.

Elementa Group is a Canadian controlled private corporation located in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

The Sault Ste. Marie (SSM) site offers a research and development pilot plant where a team of engineers and scientists developed the Elementa Process.

The patented Elementa Process (EP) is an endothermic, noncombustion process that features a water-based chemistry for the clean conversion of carbon-based materials into energy.