Sault Ste. Marie Bio-Oil Cogeneration Project

This project could lead to the City of Sault Ste. Marie becoming a centre for research and development for the production and application of bio oil. Its objectives are threefold: to confirm the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of using bio oil to fuel a 2.4 to 3.4 megawatt (MW) Eco-logo certified cogeneration plant to service the Ontario Forest Research Institute (OFRI) and the Great Lakes Forest Centre (GLFC); to develop commercial logistics, such as, power purchase and fuel supply agreements to support the application of bio oil fuelled cogeneration facilities, and; to develop a model and framework of agreements that will assist other communities/developers in the analysis and development of similar bio oil fuelled cogeneration plants serving commercial/institutional facilities. Combined with the elimination of transmission and distribution losses, the plant capacity will result in the displacement of between 2.7 and 3.8 MW of provincial grid supplied generation. A pyrolysis plant, processing up to 100 tonnes of forestry waste per day, would produce the bio oil for the cogeneration facility. The project would reduce between 18,000 to 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. Displacement of the GLFC and the OFRI natural gas consumption would eliminate annually another 2,000 tonnes of CO2.