Strong Canadian presence at World Bioenergy

May 29, 2012, Jonkoping, Sweden – If you are not fortunate to have a presence here at World Bioenergy 2012, don’t worry, as the Canadian contingent has you covered.

Boasting the largest international group at World Bioenergy 2012, the Canadian presence has been evident since the very beginning of the conference. This is especially true inside the show itself, where a booth set up by the Canadian Trade Commission has attracted worldwide attention thanks to an innovative speakers’ series.

The series features a wide variety of presentations from every angle of the Canadian biomass industry. These presentations are being done in two 90-minute sections, with one in the morning and afternoon for all three days of the conference. The morning sessions focus on Canadian innovation, while the afternoon session spotlight Canadian investment.

The presentations are interesting for international customers because it highlights all the facets of an emerging and developing biomass market. Canada is seen as one of the largest areas for growth in the worldwide bioenergy industry, especially because of strong wood products resources and the need to transition from non-renewable to renewable sources of energy.

Most of the presentations focus on areas with real potential growth, as well as innovative Canadian industries that are helping to spur that growth. Two companies in Quebec, on opposite ends of the province, came to World Bioenergy to talk about their newest developments.

Atlantic Fiber Resources of Chandler, Quebec spoke about phase one and two of the expansion of their pellet production business. Phase one, which is almost complete, will result in the company’s production being 190,000 tonnes of wood pellets per year. The second phase will increase their production even further, reaching an annual production of 250,000 tonnes. All of this will be done in the small town of Chandler, a town of approximately 8,000 on Gaspe Bay. The natural shipping lanes to Europe, which are closer to the Chandler business than AFR’s business interests in Alberta, made World Bioenergy the ultimate destination to find a buyer for their increased pellet production.

Airex Energy, whose head office is located in Laval, Quebec, came to World Bioenergy to announce the upcoming construction of a torrefied demonstration plant, also in Laval. With groundbreaking estimated in the latter part of this year, the plant will have the capacity to make 2 tonnes of the pellets per hour. On the strength of the growth of their current holdings, Airex also plans to open a large-scale demonstration plant in Lac-St-Jean. That plant would have an even greater hourly production, with construction to begin in late 2013. But those two projects will take some additional investment, which is the primary reason why officials from Airex have arrived here in Jonkoping.

Canadian companies are involved in every facet of the biomass industry, and World Bioenergy 2012 has become the best location to make the contacts needed to drive their businesses forward. Thanks to the support of the Canadian Trade Commission, those contacts are listening.

Andrew Macklin is reporting from World Bioenergy 2012 in Jonkoping, Sweden on behalf of Canadian Biomass magazine.
For more coverage of World Bioenergy 2012, see Part 1 – Getting Started in Sweden.