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AGRICULTURE: Grant to help create bio-energy hub in Central Alberta
        (AlbertaIndex, January 7, Monday) --- The Alberta government has approved more than $500,000 in provincial grants to help develop three bio-energy projects in Central Alberta.
        The projects, located in Red Deer, Ponoka and Bentley, will explore the business potential for new facilities and expand the capacity of current ones.  Combined, the three projects by Kingdom Farm Inc, Permolex and Highmark Renewables Research LP represent up to $108 million of new investment in the province.

The largest of the grants will provided to Kingdom Farm Inc to review the potential for bio-gas technologies being applied to large scale Alberta hog operations. Intensive hog farms, such as Kingdom, could reap both environmental and economic benefits by capturing methane produced from manure, improving waste management and creating usable bio-gas for heating or electrical generation.

“Bio-energy provides new economic prospects for rural livestock and agricultural producers as well as adding to the province’s energy resources,” said Ty Lund, MLA for Rocky Mountain House.

Permolex, one of the province’s bio-energy pioneers, will also receive grant funding for the expansion of their ethanol storage capacity and distribution infrastructure.  A feasibility study will also be undertaken to examine the potential of increasing plant capacity by up to 300 per cent at their current site.

An expansion of this scale would have an investment potential upwards of $80 million and would create market demand for up to half a million tonnes of wheat.

“Expansion of Permolex’s facility is evidence of the growing demand in the province for alternative fuels,” said Mary-Anne Jablonski, MLA for Red Deer-North. “In addition to environmental benefits, biofuels offer important value-added opportunities for rural Alberta.”

Highmark Renewables Research LP, another of Alberta’s bio-energy leaders, will use the funding to carry out a bio-gas feasibility study on a large scale dairy operation near Ponoka. The study will examine the potential of integrating bio-gas digester technology utilizing dairy manure.

The proposed project would be the first commercial application of the IMUS’s technology to handle liquid manure, from a dairy in the province.

“Renewable energy, such as bio-energy, will continue to gain importance to our energy landscape.  These bio-energy grants will help establish a healthy, sustainable industry that will provide cleaner power for future generations of Albertans,” said Ray Prins, MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka.

The three grants were allocated through the province’s Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development Program and the Bio-energy Infrastructure Development Program. Both grant programs are part of the Alberta government’s $239-million Nine-Point Bio-energy Plan designed to encourage the growth of a clean, renewable fuel industry in Alberta.


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