Posted April 19, 2010
 
 Ontario-based Woodland Biofuels Inc. expects to begin construction in the next two months on a demonstration plant using its patented gasification technology. Ontario minister Sophia Aggelonitis announced a $4 million investment through the province's Innovation Demonstration Fund on April 9 on the floor of Zeton's construction facility in Burlington, Ontario. Zeton Inc., the world's leading demonstration plant engineering and construction firm, is one of Woodland's partners.

 
 "Thanks to Ontario's support we can build a plant that we anticipate will confirm our ability to successfully produce ethanol from renewable waste with breakthrough efficiency. We expect to be, by a significant margin, the lowest cost producer of automotive fuel in North America," said Greg Nuttall, president and CEO of Woodland. "This will not only put Ontario in the front of the global race to find an alternative to fossil fuels but ultimately will also provide Ontario with significant economic and environmental benefits. We are grateful for the extraordinary level of support provided by the province and are delighted to have Zeton as part of our team."
 
 The plant is expected to be located at the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre, in the University of Western Ontario's Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. When completed, approximately 15 months after construction begins, the demonstration plant will have a capacity of 750,000 liters of ethanol annually.
 
 Woodland has developed a patented process trademarked as Catalyzed Pressure Reduction—a process that gasifies a wide range of waste feedstocks with the resulting biogas reformed via catalyzed chemical reactions and distillation to produce a range of outputs including ethanol. The process can also be configured to produce hydrogen, methanol or chemicals such as vinyl acetate, acetic acid and formaldehyde. The standard commercial plant design will produce a little over 20 MMgy of ethanol annually, according to Nuttall. "One of the main strengths of our process is we can produce a liquid that is 97 percent plus ethanol," he added. "So there are no energy-intensive separation steps necessary to extract the ethanol and our yield is extremely high." The company expects to produce 130 gallons of ethanol per dry ton of feedstock. The capital cost for a 20 MMgy plant is projected to be about US$65 million. 
 
 Given the use of waste feedstocks, Woodland is developing a skid-mounted, modular unit with another partner, ThermoDesign Engineering of Edmonton, Alberta, that plans to fabricate the skid-mounted units at its plant.
 
 Privately-held Woodland Biofuels received $9.8 million in 2007 from SDTC and a 2008 investment from Investeco Capital Corp. Once Woodland's technology is successfully scaled up to the demonstration level, Nuttall added, "The company has designated the site for our first 20 MMgy wood waste-to-ethanol commercial plant— in Newton Falls, N.Y., co-locating with an existing pulp and paper plant run by the Newton Falls Fine Paper Co.."

Woodland Biofuels receives $4 million for cellulosic ethanol demo plant in Ontario

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Woodland Biofuels receives $4 million for cellulosic ethanol demo plant in Ontario