GoodFuels

Next-generation ethanol and RFS arrive in Canada

As oil hit yet another all-time high yesterday at $140 per barrel, some outstanding news came in a major announcement out west in Edmonton, Alberta, where GreenField Ethanol and Enerkem announced they are going to be building the world’s first industrial scale municipal waste-to-ethanol facility in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. The $70-million next-generation renewable fuels plant will initially produce 36 million litres of ethanol from inedible non-recyclable waste products every year.

Later in the afternoon in Canada’s capital of Ottawa, the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) became law, which will require 5% renewable content in gasoline by 2010, and 2% renewable content in diesel by no later than 2012. The federal RFS and commercial cellulosic ethanol plant bring great news for the environment, farmers, drivers, and all Canadians.