$27.5M Total Investment for a Woody-Biomass-to-Renewable-Energy Facility

Vance Badawey, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services and Member of Parliament for Niagara Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, minister of Natural Resources, announced a federal investment of $4.9 million for CHAR Technologies Thorold Inc. CHAR is a woody-biomass-to-renewable-energy facility located in Thorold, Ontario. This amount is in addition to $1.5 million provided by FederalDev Ontario, bringing the total current federal investment for this project to $6.4 million.

Support for this project is delivered through Natural Resources Canada’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program, alongside FedDev Ontario’s Jobs and Growth Fund, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. In addition to the investment from CHAR, the total investment in this project is $27.5 million.

“The Government of Canada is committed to supporting companies that are leading the charge on the development of innovative, clean solutions to help Canadians build a greener future for their families,” said the Honourable Filomena Tassi, minister of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. “Through investments like the one today for CHAR Technologies Thorold Inc., we are creating skilled jobs and helping to grow the economy toward a cleaner, greener Canadian economy.”

CHAR’s Thorold facility will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind solution for converting underutilized woody biomass into valuable bioproducts including biocarbon and renewable natural gas (RNG), which may be used to produce hydrogen in the near future. This will help to displace fossil fuel use for heavy emitters such as steel manufacturers, mining operations and pulp mills to support the decarbonization of the Canadian industry.

When commercially operational, the facility will divert 75,000 tonnes of woody biomass from being landfilled or burned to simultaneously produce 500,000 gigajoules of RNG and 10,000 tonnes of biocarbon per year.

As industrial facilities move away from fossil fuel sources, Canada’s forest resources have the potential to drive low-carbon economic growth while creating sustainable jobs. The production of renewable bioproducts from low-value woody biomass provides the opportunity to minimize waste in the forest sector while reducing emissions.