Prince George, B.C.-  With $13 million dollars in grant money  from   the Sustainable  Development Technology Canada (SDTC)  fund, Canfor Pulp’s  bio-crude project  can  take a leap forward.

“It’s going to allow us to  advance the technology and really  give us the means to make a full evaluation  of  how to implement  the technology on a commercial scale” says  Martin Pudlas, Canfor Pulp’s  Vice President of Operations.

The project , in partnership with Licella Fibre Fuels of Australia,   is attempting to make  bi-crude from the waste stream of the pulp process.

Pudlas says the  funds announced  earlier this week, will “further de-risk the technology,  we have run three revisions   of pilot plants and what we need to  do now is make it run on a commercial scale  and to make it run  365 days a year, 24-7  versus a pilot plant that you would run for 8 hours and then shut it down.  So it’s really about making the process continuous , it’s about  industrialising it  so you’ve got the reliability  in the design that  you are going to need to run it around the clock.”

Pudlas says  access to fuel stock  either for the pulp industry or  bio-crude,  is not a  concern  “We still  see the highest value chain for a log today to make dimensional lumber from it,   to make pulp and paper,  to make green renewable power  and then, this would be the last revenue stream,  which would  really close the cycle and provide  us with  low carbon transportation fuels to   make the forest industry in B.C. carbon neutral.  So we will need a strong  sawmill,  solid wood industry, we still need  a strong pulp and paper industry, but   the one thing this technology  will give us the advantage on, is enhanced utilization of the forests.”

He says some of the species that may not  be harvested today, may be the  stock  used   as a potential feed stock to make the bio-crude.

Pudlas says  detailed engineering on the project will continue ” We’re going to continue to  work with our off-take partners,   we’re going to work on the logistics,  and   how we’re going to  transport the product when we make it  so there’s a number of  avenues we still need to do our engineering and due diligence on.   In short,  it’s really about ensuring that   we can run the process on a continuous basis, that we know we have a good off-take  partner who  wants to buy it,  and that we get the  crude  in a state where it’s easy to transport   Those are the big three challenges  we  have.”