Canada’s Ocean Supercluster launches new biofuels project

Canada’s industry-led transformative cluster Ocean Supercluster has announced its largest project to date, the $65 million Clean Ocean Advanced Biofuels Project.

In the project, Ontario-based Valent will work with a pan-Canadian team to produce Canada’s first renewable diesel from abundantly available agricultural and forestry by-products.

A major ocean industry challenge is the need for a range of environmentally sustainable, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and low-sulphur marine fuels available to end-users at a competitive cost that are compliant with current and future fuel regulations. The new project will address these challenges by introducing a low carbon biofuel across the marine ecosystem.

For the development of the project, Valent Low Carbon Technologies will work with partners FORGE Hydrocarbons, Mara Renewables, Clearwater, Katal Energy, Horizon Maritime, and Sustainable Development Technology Canada to produce fuel and solvents to be used in industry and a hydrocarbon material with improved nutritional value for human health products.

With a total value of $65 million dollars, the Ocean Supercluster will provide nearly $5.7 million with the balance coming from the project’s industry and government partners.

The success of the Clean Ocean Advanced Biofuels Project is expected to drive Canadian renewable diesel production and supply, reduce imports, and foster international market exports.

The cumulative emission reductions from Valent’s suite of technologies will positively impact local marine life and air quality, supporting Canada’s transition to a more sustainable future.

“Innovation comes from bringing people together to solve real-world challenges. Through this project, the Ocean Supercluster and its partners will actively support Canada’s transition to a more sustainable future. This groundbreaking project will produce Canada’s first renewable diesel—positively impacting marine life while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions—and create more than 150 jobs,” François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, commented.

“With over 50,000 merchant vessels circling the globe, we have a huge challenge to reduce transport emissions in the ocean economy. The Ocean Supercluster’s financial support and its extensive network of collaborators fosters an accelerated and collaborative pathway to build the renewable fuels value chain for marine transport,” Karlis Vasarais, Co-Founder and EVP, Valent Low-Carbon Technologies, said.

“The key to wide-spread adoption of renewable fuel in the marine sector is abundant renewable feedstock and a way to convert that feedstock into a fungible, low-carbon liquid fuel. The funding from the Ocean Supercluster enables our consortium to shape the Canadian Maritimes into a global leader in low-carbon marine fuel production,” Tim Haig, Founder and CEO, FORGE Hydrocarbons, noted.