Sale of Ethanol Plant's Waste Heat Will Eliminate Smokestack
by Peter Epp (QMI Agency/Chatham Daily News) It might not happen this year, but plans are in place for GreenField Ethanol’s smokestack at its Bloomfield Road production facility to be removed once the energy company starts piping its waste heat across the road to the new Truly Green greenhouse complex.
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Truly Green started operations last summer on 22.5 acres, with plans to open the second of four phases in 2015. Truly Green president Greg Devries said Thursday that he hopes to begin using waste heat from the ethanol plant this year, but suggested that it might be next year. Truly Green’s long-term plans are to operate a total of 90 acres of greenhouse.
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GreenField’s smokestack and its emissions have been a bone of contention for some Chatham and area residents since the facility opened in 1997. Ligori said he’s worked with members of the community in that regard, and said the removal of the smokestack and the diversion of the plant’s emissions will likely satisfy those concerns.
The Chatham ethanol plant remains a significant producer of fuel ethanol for Canada, Ligori said, with annual sales worth approximately $170 million. The plant produces 100 million litres of fuel ethanol annually, plus 95 million litres of industrial ethanol. It also produces 150,000 tonnes of dry distillers grain feed, which is sold to the livestock industry.
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The plant is incredibly efficient, he noted. It was designed to produce 150 million litres of ethanol annually, but is producing almost 200 million litres annually. This pattern is the same for the four other ethanol plants that GreenField operates in Ontario and Quebec. And Ligori says that strong productivity will likely continue for many years, since investment in the industry for newcomers is very expensive.
As an example, he said it would cost $300 million today to replace the Chatham plant, and since government subsidies for such ventures at scheduled to end within a few years, future capital investment by new companies could become prohibitively expensive. READ MORE
