A group of energy entrepreneurs were in Smithers recently pitching the idea of organic fuel production for the valley.
Jasvinder Kalsi, president and CEO of OPT Organic Power Technologies, along with Gregory Deron, spoke in the Old Church, explaining their technology which could one day mean some extra jobs in the region.
“We have technology that can turn organic waste into organic fuel services,” said Kalsi.
Basically, their operation allows their machines to take in organic waste — typically it will be wood waste but they said the technology allows them to take in everything from manure to animal parts — and convert it into three separate by-products.
Those products are a gas, a bio-liquid and char.
Each of those has their own market or use. The gas it produces can be recycled back into the plant or used to run turbines to generate electricity.
The char can be sold as-is or processed into activated carbon.
“There is a huge market for that [char],” he said, adding it goes into things such as water filters.
“Each of the by-products that come out of our system, there’s a market ready for that.”
The system itself is also environmentally friendly in that there are virtually no emissions, he said.
They do have a pilot plant operating in the Fraser Valley and the idea is to possibly put another pilot plant somewhere around here, but right now it’s too early to know where they would set up if they were to come here.
The focus is to secure a source of Mountain Pine Beetle killed wood but a future switch to other sources would not be challenging.
He said they want to partner with local companies that have access to the wood fibres they need.
The modular-designed plants would employ approximately 12 people directly.
“And probably another dozen or so, or up to 20-plus, indirectly-related jobs,” he said.
He said on average the plants can recover their start-up costs within five years.
As the plants are modular, it means that they can be easily expanded, but their automation means they won’t require any additional workers on site.