In northern Ontario, expectations are high for a groundbreaking project.

For the Township of Chapleau in Ontario, the announcement of a ten-megawatt biomass power plant, the first if its kind in Canada, means a positive turn in a community that has been hurt by mill closures and cutbacks. The project consortium for the plant includes M&L Waste Management Ltd., Sunbay Energy Corporation, Toromont-CAT, PRM Energy Systems Inc. and Europlasma. 

“Don’t be fooled by the fact that the announcement for this environmentally friendly plant was just made,” says Jordan Oxley, president and CEO of Sunbay Energy in Toronto, Ont. “It has taken a long time,” he says. “I think sometimes people see these announcements and they think, well that’s something that happened last week, but this is something that local developers have been working on for about three years.” 

One of these developers is Larry Lacroix, president of Chapleau-based M&L Management Ltd., who was behind the project when it started in 2006. He was interested in it partly to revitalize the area and also because of his entrepreneurial attitude. “The reason that I gave a big push is that I am in the school bus operation and I could see the decline in enrolment,” says Lacroix. “I decided to get involved in a new venture that could try and keep the residents that we have here as well as trying to increase the population.” 

The reason the project is so innovative is because of the combination of three technologies: a gasifier, synthetic gas and plasma torch, says Oxley.

 Using slash piles, left behind from nearby forestry projects, as well as railway ties for fuel, the first stage of the plant prepares the materials. The slash might be shredded and then dried depending on the moisture content. The next stage, says Oxley, is a thermal application in which heat is applied to the material producing a synthetic gas which is composed of mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen and is similar to natural gas. This gas is then treated with a plasma torch, an extremely high temperature tool which cracks the tars in the fuel.