Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
There is always a great sense of accomplishment when a project like this gets off the ground.
The old Weyburn distillery had been sitting empty. A small group of NorAmera BioEnergy shareholders stepped in, intending to turn the facility into a state-of-the-art fuel ethanol production plant, that will employ up to 20 people and convert 2.5 million bushels of wheat into 25 million litres of climate-friendly fuel ethanol and 24,000 tonnes of high protein animal feed annually.
Brad Hill is President and Chief Operating Officer of the NorAmera BioEnergy Corporation. “We are ready to start production after three and a half years of planning and anticipation. It has been quite a ride. The end research I did points to a bright future for ethanol production. One of the big challenges for us was using the existing infrastructure built in the 1970s to produce spirits—with its old equipment—and adding new equipment to realign production to ethanol needs,” says Hill.
“All of our production staff are hired—mostly local folks and others from across the province who are eager to get going. Our product is intended for the Saskatchewan market, to meet the demand resulting from the impending mandated use of ethanol blends throughout the province. We have a contract in place with Pioneer Grain to supply us with wheat.”
One of the challenges ahead with a project like this one, according to Hill, is to produce the ethanol economically. “Running the facility efficiently will become our focus as soon as the plant becomes fully commissioned. We use wheat, but you can use any complex sugar material to make ethanol. They use corn in the United States and in Ontario. Brazil, the largest producer of ethanol in the world, uses sugar cane to make it. Here in Saskatchewan, using wheat makes sense because of its proximity.”
Hill is confident the abundant supply of our quintessential cereal crop in the region will enable NorAmera BioEnergy to compete effectively with the best in the field.
For more information, contact:
Brad Hill
President and Chief Operating Officer
NorAmera BioEnergy
(306) 842-3922
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