{"id":48297,"date":"2017-12-08T07:32:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T06:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=48297"},"modified":"2017-12-06T13:04:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T12:04:37","slug":"canada-unity-in-the-pursuit-of-a-global-bioeconomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/canada-unity-in-the-pursuit-of-a-global-bioeconomy\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada: Unity in the pursuit of a global bioeconomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cKeep up the pressure for a bioeconomy.\u201d That is Green Party leader Elizabeth May\u2019s message to the industry today at Day 2 of Scaling Up 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The conference\u2019s first day included discussions about the global bioeconomy future, examples of bio-technology being implemented today, the government\u2019s role, and forestry\u2019s role. Read the full coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meeting climate targets<\/p>\n

Canada is chairing the G7 Summit in 2018 and May noted that climate being one of the three topics is an important opportunity for Canada and other countries to make moves toward creating a more sustainable planet.<\/p>\n

May also said reaching the Paris Agreement target is a priority for many leaders. That was echoed by Backcasting SAS president Pierre-Alain Schieb. He said coalitions and alliances are also taking part, adding there is a notion that the industry can take over, to a certain extent, where the public authorities cannot lead.<\/p>\n

Schieb said the industry has pooled its resources to start leading the way to a bioeconomy. \u201cWe\u2019ll see those initiatives multiply,\u201d he said. \u201cThe more we wait to invest in the bioeconomy, the more the chemical industry is investing and getting further ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ted Michaels, partner at AJW Inc., said multiple opportunities exist for multiple sectors including the bioeconomy. This is called the circular economy.<\/p>\n

The circular economy promotes economic growth while increasing economic competitiveness and creating jobs. It\u2019s lead by the private sector and produces environmental benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find new ways to keep materials at their highest utility and value at all times,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cIn the end if we\u2019re successful, we\u2019re going to extract less non-renewable resources from the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting to a commercial scale<\/p>\n

Getting technology and innovations to a commercial scale may present unique challenges, but it is possible, as this technology panel highlighted.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Corbeil is president and chief executive officer of Quebec company CelluForce. It deconstructs wood fibres and breaks them all the way down into nanofibrils and cellulose chains.<\/p>\n

The resulting material can be applied in a variety of markets from gas to polymers.<\/p>\n

Starting from wood pulp, Corbeil said supply of feedstock is not issue. He said selecting applications is the biggest challenge.<\/p>\n

Celluforce\u2019s story dates back to 2005 when FPInnovations began looking at commercially producing nanomaterials.<\/p>\n

When the technology was ready, Celluforce was launched in 2011 by Domtar and FPInnovations \u2013 its first shareholders.<\/p>\n

A $35-million demo plant was built in Windsor, Que. It was the world\u2019s first Cellulose NanoCrystals (CNC) production plant, but it wasn\u2019t successful. The investment was steep, and money ran out.<\/p>\n

Domtar didn\u2019t reinvest, convinced there was no market for the product. The Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), and oil-field services company Schlumberger brought in some more capital and invested. The latter became the first customer.<\/p>\n

Brazilian pulp and paper company Fibria also joined in on investment, and Celluforce had a dedicated team in it for the long-run.<\/p>\n

Corbeil said though it failed, the operating plant provided a good learning opportunity on how to improve footprint and cost of operations. \u201cIn retrospect, it was a good thing. It allowed us to learn a lot about how to improve the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also gave us credibility. Companies need to have faith in you and some confidence to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added it is key to keep refining and to work twice as hard on developing applications.<\/p>\n

Corbeil said Celluforce explains to potential shareholders how long it takes to develop a new product. \u201cIt actually takes longer than drug and aircraft introduction.\u201d He said investors need to have patience with product development.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducating customers on how to use the product and how to disperse it is very important on how to speed up the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted that Celluforce\u2019s partners being in the manufacturing sector has helped them.<\/p>\n

Focusing on investment was also Martin Tangney\u2019s advice. His company Edinburgh, Scotland-based Celtic Renewables Ltd., won the Most Innovative Biotech SME in Europe 2015 for his whiskey-fuelled car innovation.<\/p>\n

The company was formed in 2012 and Tangney said this is a landmark because 80 per cent of U.K. start-ups are dead within five years. \u201cWe have spent so much time raising money\u2026 It is the most difficult thing for start-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tangney enlightened the room with his explanation of how whiskey residues can be used for this environmentally friendly vehicle solution.<\/p>\n

It has been made clear partnerships with investors and government are the next steps to create a global bioeconomy from existing innovations.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s a slow process, perhaps the industry will have scaled up just a bit further by the conference\u2019s third edition in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cKeep up the pressure for a bioeconomy.\u201d That is Green Party leader Elizabeth May\u2019s message to the industry today at Day 2 of Scaling Up 2017. The conference\u2019s first day included discussions about the global bioeconomy future, examples of bio-technology being implemented today, the government\u2019s role, and forestry\u2019s role. Read the full coverage. Meeting climate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,6162],"supplier":[14029,12185,4198,3182,4011,1848],"class_list":["post-48297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-cellulose","supplier-ajw-inc","supplier-ayming-consulting-group-sas","supplier-cellucomp","supplier-celtic-renewables","supplier-fibria-celulose-sa","supplier-sustainable-development-technology-canada-sdtc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48297"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=48297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}