Systems

BCIT burning to learn with biomass-fuelled boiler system

Alexandre Hebert and his team designed the boiler system at BCIT with painstaking detail to ensure it is both functional and an educational tool.

Aug. 1, 2017 - The boiler system residing at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is a little ways yet from operational, but as Alexandre Hebert explains, the system is much more than just a biomass boiler; it’s a learning tool.

Reduce risk with supply chain simulation: white paper

May 31, 2017 - Computer simulation of biomass supply chains can help reduce costs and risks, according to a new white paper from Ecostrat.

CO2 Solutions completes engineering phase at Saint-Félicien

The Serres Toundra greenhouse facility adjacent to the Resolute pulp mill will receive the carbon captured from the CO2 Solutions unit.

May 24, 2017 - CO2 Solutions Inc. has completed the preliminary engineering phase of the project to capture carbon at the Saint-Félicien Pulp Mill, the company announced yesterday.

Sawmills in Quebec and Ontario generating oversupply of wood chips

May 1, 2017 - Sawmills in Eastern Canada have been running at record high levels in 2016, with production reaching levels almost 10 per cent higher than in 2015 and almost 40 per cent higher than five years ago. This has been very good news to the forest industry, with sawmills running at 97 per cent operating rates in late 2016, according to the WWPA. However, there are also worrisome developments regarding the large volumes of residual chips that are being generated and where the chips can be sold.

Biomaterials are ripe for innovation: Domtar

April 17, 2017 - Companies in the wood-fiber industry are modern-day prospectors of the forest, Domtar President and CEO John D. Williams said at Georgia Institute of Technology. He presented a broader vision of the industry’s future in biomaterials while giving the keynote address at the Renewable Bioproducts Institute’s Executive Conference in March.

Computer modelling can reduce risk in ag biomass supply chains: Ecostrat

April 13, 2017 - A new technical paper from Ecostrat explains how a computer modelling method can address risk in agricultural biomass supply chains.

Greenhouse ushers in the new ecological industrial era

Yearly production planned: 27 million Lebanese cucumbers and 17 million English cucumbers Forecasted productivity: 275 cucumber/m2 Actual productivity after 1.5 months of operations: 360 cucumbers/m2

March 22, 2017 - 48.65° North. It’s -10 C outside and a foot of snow already covers the ground. An intense orange light appears in the Northern Lac Saint-Jean, Que., skies – a sign of industrial development. But forget about forestry or aluminum development like the region is used to. This time around, it’s all about cucumbers.

ERA announces top four entrants in carbon use challenge

March 2, 2017 - Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) announced four winning projects for the second round of the ERA Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses at the Propel Energy Tech Forum in Calgary.

Locating hotspot biomass could accelerate sector growth

Feb. 9, 2017 - A recent study aimed at identifying untapped biomass hotspots in Canadian forests has produced findings that could help Canada to mobilize its wood-based bioenergy supply chain.

White paper outlines supply chain analytics

Jan. 13, 2017 - Ecostrat has released a new white paper detailing the analytics behind biomass supply chains, numbers which can determine the final cost of feedstock.

Enviva tracks wood supply with new program

Jan. 11, 2017 - Enviva Holdings, LP, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, today publicly released the first data from its groundbreaking Track & Trace (T&T) program. T&T is a proprietary system that enables Enviva to track every truckload of wood the company procures from the forest back to its source, providing a detailed understanding of the characteristics of the wood the company uses.

Improving the bioproduct supply chain

Dec. 22, 2016 - Murphy’s law states that if anything can possibly go wrong, it will. This may be why the biofuel supply chain – a complex sequence with numerous hurdles – has been identified as a key barrier to the development of a bioproduct industry in Canada. It’s a barrier that BioFuelNet’s low-cost sustainable feedstock (LCSF) Task Force is determined to break.

Researcher aims to improve pine biomass yield

Dec. 20, 2016 - Global demand for forest products such as pulp for paper, saw timber and wood pellets for fuel is expected to increase in coming years. To meet this need, University of Massachusetts Amherst plant geneticist Sam Hazen, whose research has led to higher biomass yield in grasses, recently received a grant to demonstrate that his new technology can be translated to grow trees that produce more wood than conventional trees.