Government of Canada Announces Investment to Promote Clean Technology Projects and Help Support Jobs Creation

(SDTC) Eighteen clean technology projects from across Canada that will help green Canada’s economy today received $40 million in funding to help move innovative technology solutions to the market. The announcement, confirming the decision of the Board of Directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), was made today by the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment, and Dr. Vicky Sharpe, SDTC’s President and CEO.

“Our government continues to invest in projects that reflect our balanced approach to reducing emissions,” said the Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment. “These projects will create high-quality jobs for Canadians now, and provide us with a healthier environment and sustainable prosperity in the future.”“SDTC and the Government of Canada are providing industry the tools they need to become more productive, competitive and efficient,” said SDTC Chairman Juergen Puetter. “When these companies bring their technologies to businesses and consumers, they create jobs, provide Canada a technological edge and contribute to improving the quality of Canada’s air, water and soil”.

These innovative clean technologies involve many of Canada’s main economic sectors. Some highlights of this round include:

These new investments bring SDTC’s total portfolio value to over $1.6B. SDTC’s
SD Tech Fund™ has completed sixteen funding rounds, committing $478 million to
195 clean technology projects. These figures include adjustments made to the portfolio.

SDTC’s investments to date are creating Canadian green jobs, have attracted additional private sector investment of over $2.5 billion and are expected to deliver an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of between 7 and 17 Megatonnes - the equivalent of taking up to 1.9 million homes off the grid.

“The convergence of clean technologies promises to revolutionize our existing industries, marrying environmental stewardship with economic prosperity,” said Vicky Sharpe, SDTC President and CEO. “These clean technologies allow our key industries, such as agriculture, transportation and oil and gas, to reduce waste, conserve power, minimize pollution and create new, value-added products all at once.”

The newly funded projects are representative of the investment priorities established in the SD Business Cases™, a series of six reports published by SDTC and which provide strategic insights into specific economic sectors (available in the Knowledge Centre section of the SDTC website at www.sdtc.ca ). The latest report on industrial freight transportation was released on December 2, 2009. Other sectors previously studied include clean conventional fuels, renewable electricity and commercial buildings.

Consortium Members: National Research Council – Institute of Aerospace Research National Research Council – Institute for Marine Biosciences (NRC-IMB)

Project Description: Aviation fuels represent 12% of the fuel consumption in transportation, and jet fuel use is doubling every ten years. In the search for sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, algae-based biofuel has shown great promise. Ocean Nutrition Canada (ONC) has discovered a heterotrophic algae — called ONC T 18B — with 60 times the productivity of other algae which can be grown on elemental carbon in closed reactors, without sunshine. ONC intends to build a demonstration fermentation production site to produce algal feedstock oil for biofuels in a meaningful scale and competitive cost. Trials will be conducted to demonstrate that ONC T 18B can be direct replacements for aerospace (biojet) and land transportation (biodiesel) liquid fuels.

Lead organization: Targeted Growth Canada Inc., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Project title: Biologic and Process Technologies for Renewable Jet Fuel Environmental Benefits: Clean Soil / Clean Water / Climate Change / Clean Air

Sustainable Oils, LLC Project Description: The aviation industry is coming under increased pressure to reduce its environmental footprint. Aviation fuels represent 12% of the fuel consumption in transportation and jet fuel use is doubling every ten years. Targeted Growth Canada (TGC) and partners will demonstrate a process utilizing camelina, an oilseed crop, as a feedstock for renewable jet fuel. The project will optimize production and establish performance standards for this first-of-its-kind product in Canada: a drop-in replacement for traditional jet fuel that fits with the current refining and distribution infrastructure and with existing engines. The vertically integrated process takes farmer-produced grain through crushing to a pre-refined vegetable oil. This crude camelina oil is then refined into hydro-treated renewable jet fuel (HRJ). Camelina HRJ provides benefits over traditional petroleum fuel because it reduces GHG emissions — up to 80%, reduces SO2 and is not competitive with food because it is a hardier crop and can be grown on marginal land. The strategic benefit to farmers is that it grows well on drier land, can make marginal land profitable and is a good rotation crop with wheat. READ MORE and List of SDTC Grantees