Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), in partnership with Expander Energy Inc., Fuel Cell Energy, St Marys Cement, and Nuclear Promise X, have identified three locations as potential sites for the location of renewable diesel production facilities.

The facilities would be capable of converting wood waste feedstock into 90 million litres of drop-in ready renewable diesel fuel per year, transforming a waste product into a valuable, low-carbon fuel for the transportation sector.

The announcement follows the completion of a feasibility study, funded through Natural Resources Canada’s Clean Fuels Fund, that demonstrated the economic viability of synthetic diesel production using biomass through water electrolysis.

As part of the feasibility study, a number of potential sites in Canada were evaluated with the intent of selecting one site for a front-end engineering design phase of the project. The project team identified sites in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, all of which fulfill the necessary requirements in terms of proximity to utilities, and accessibility to major roads and key resources like biomass, among other factors.

“CNL is thrilled at the results that were generated through the feasibility study and is ready to move into the next phase of the project, which has the potential to eventually produce economical, ready-to-deploy, renewable diesel fuel,” said Stephen Bushby, CNL’s Vice-President of Science and Technology.

The engineering design work will be based on the utilization of 240 dry tonnes of forestry wood waste per day as feedstock to annually produce approximately 30 million liters of renewable diesel per processing facility using Expander’s Biomass Electrolysis to Liquids technology.

The design of these facilities could also serve as a template for future sites, both nationally and internationally, using a build, own and operate model.

Site specific details will be announced soon.