It’s beginning to look a lot like BioYule in Canada

#9 New technologies heading from pilot to player

In June, we reported that American Process had announced the implementation of API’s GreenBox+ technology in this project has been selected as part of major investments by Cascades, in a biorefinery project at its Norampac-Cabano facility. This project – worth a total of $26M – represents a major advance in biorefinery development in Canada. Backed by a $10M investment from Natural Resources Canada’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program and an additional $4.4M from the Québec Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs, the Cabano plant will replace its current process – the production of sodium carbonate-based chemical pulp – with this new, more environmentally friendly and economical one that was developed in conjunction with a U.S. partner. This innovative new process – a Canadian first – will be implemented in retrofit to the existing Cabano mill.

With GreenBox+ hemicelluloses are extracted from wood chips to make a chemical free and high yield corrugated medium pulp. Via GreenBox+ technology, the Cabano mill will replace its existing sodium carbonate-based chemical process, reducing its environmental footprint and realizing cost savings in terms of reduced energy consumption. Key success factors of GreenBox+ include cost-effective treatment of the extract, being able to return consistent pulp quality to the paper machine with uninterrupted operation, and an effective energy integration of ethanol production with biopower.

Earlier in the technical readiness chain, there are technologies like TerraVerdae BioWorks, which has announced a new line of biodegradable, natural microspheres for use in personal care and cosmetic products, as a direct replacement for synthetic, non-degradable plastic microbeads that are currently the subject of restrictive legislation throughout the world. In June, we reported that TerraVerdae’s natural microspheres are a PHA-based biomaterial produced using a non- GMO, non-toxic, plant-associated process. A single container of a personal hygiene product can contain 300,000 or more microbeads.

In the truly “far out” department, in June we reported on a technology is under development that its developers say can reduce the cost of recovering CO2 directly from the atmosphere to $150-$200 per ton in the 2010s, and ultimately they believe to $100 per ton. That’s the story of Carbon Engineering, based in Calgary. It’s received press coverage for nearly seven years from major media outlets such as the New York Times, Fortune and NPR.

But promise in the lab is one thing, and technical readiness is another thing. The news this year is that the company is now installing a demo-scale air carbon capture system just north of Vancouver, British Columbia in the town of Squamish, on the road to the Whistler ski resort.