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Thunder Bay hosts BioCan conference

The green-tech industry will be descending on Thunder Bay in early September for the Canadian Bioenergy Association’s (CanBio) annual conference. Sept.
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Bioeconomy Week in Thunder Bay will include a tour of a lignin pilot plant at Resolute Forest Products where next-generation biochemical are being formulated.

The green-tech industry will be descending on Thunder Bay in early September for the Canadian Bioenergy Association’s (CanBio) annual conference.

Sept. 8-12 is Bioeconomy Week in Thunder Bay and the CanBio conference is the place to be seen for anyone connected with this growing industry.

The four-day event includes scheduled field trips and headlines a who’s who of North American and international experts speaking on government policy, new technologies and innovations, and forecasting where the bioeconomy is headed.

Chris Rees, one of the conference organizers, said the association is hoping to replicate the successful turnout from the last time the event was held in Thunder Bay in 2011, “our most successful conference to date.”

The conference venue is the Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel & Suites located near the waterfront.

On the Monday, the Biomass Innovation Centre of Nipissing University kicks off the week with a community seminar and will be providing training sessions for engineers, architects and other professionals later in the week.

The beginning of the week includes field tours to sites within Thunder Bay and the area that are connected to the bio-economy including Resolute Forest Products’ co-generation plant, FP Innovations’ lignin pilot plant and to Confederation College.

An all-day trip is planned to Atikokan to tour Rentech’s wood pellet plant and to view Ontario Power Generation’s biomass power plant, a former coal-burner that’s been converted to burn wood pellets.

Rees said it will be the first official tour of the station.

The conference agenda officially starts on the Wednesday.

“The theme of this year’s conference is Global Markets, Local Opportunities, but it’s all about developing the bio-economy: bio-energy, bio-materials, and bio-chemicals,” said Rees, and will touch on aspects of wood pellet production and exports.

“That’s definitely of interest because we’re seeing more activity on pellets in Northern Ontario,” said Rees. “The whole emphasis is what we can to drive new business around in the North.

“Those are the kinds of topics we want to explore in creating as many opportunities locally as possible.”

Among the featured national and international speakers are Scott Thurlow, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association; Bob Cleaves, president and CEO of the Biomass Power Association from the U.S.; and Josef Binder, managing director of Binder Austria.

Also in the program are regional speakers including Lorne Morrow, CEO of the Thunder Bay-based Centre of Research and Innovation in the Bioeconomy (CRIBE), a provincially funded program set up to foster industry partnerships in developing new bio-products.

Sean McKay, CEO of Winnipeg’s Composites Innovation Centre, will be on an advanced biomaterial and biochemicals panels joined by Murray McLaughlin, CEO of Bioindustrial Innovation Canada.

Other speakers, such as policy director Rory Gilsenan of Natural Resources Canada and Pat Guidera, director of forest technologies for Alberta Innovates, will present their forecasts on bioeconomy’s future.

Rees said the program will cover the latest developments in bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemical, particularly from the point of view of project development and opportunities for local areas. The concept of "distributed biorefineries" will be a focussing theme.

www.canbio.ca