CRB Innovations receives $8.575M to convert wood waste into biofuels

The federal government is investing $4.5 million in Sherbrooke, Que.-based CRB Innovations, which is developing a commercial pilot project to convert forestry residuals and other biomass sources into products that will be converted into biofuels and co-bioproducts.

The funding comes from Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Growth Program. According to a government press release, this project is the first of its kinds for a Canadian biorefinery.

The Quebec government is also investing $2.5 million in the project from the Wood Innovation Program. The project will result in the development of new products in the bioenergy sector and bioproducts with a reduced carbon footprint. As a result, the Quebec government also granted $1.575M from the Technoclimat Program.

“The support of the Clean Growth Program is decisive for implementing the innovative and disruptive biomass fractionation catalytic technology being developed by CRB. It is such technology that produces the intermediates that are subsequently converted into defined and marketable bio-based products by the partners, thus enhancing societal sustainability, wealth and opportunities for present and future generations. The support of the Clean Growth Program, including its STAC component, has triggered the interest of two Quebec government programs, now committed to the project led by CRB,” said Esteban Chornet, Ph.D., scientific director of CRB Innovations, in a statement.