Features Research & Innovation
Biorefining

UBC selects Nexterra/GE biomass power system for campus energy project

VANCOUVER -The University of British Columbia (UBC) will install at its Vancouver campus an on-site biomass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) solution developed by Nexterra Systems Corp. and GE Power & Water’s gas engine division. The CHP system will provide clean, renewable heat and electricity for the campus, while offering a platform for bioenergy research.

Lignol signs partners for development of biofuel from wood

VANCOUVER -Lignol Energy Corporation and Novozymes have established the framework of a multiyear collaboration agreement to optimize the latest generation of Novozymes’ enzymes for use in Lignol’s cellulosic biofuel process.

Lignol plans to construct large-scale biorefineries for the production of cellulosic biofuel from wood chips and forestry residues. Novozymes supplies enzymes that convert cellulosic biomass into sugars that can then be fermented into ethanol. The parties plan to use Lignol’s fully integrated industrial-scale pilot plant in Burnaby, B.C., to optimize enzyme performance across a range of cellulosic feedstocks in Lignol’s unique process.

In addition, Lignol and building materials supplier Kingspan Group PLC will cooperate on the development of commercial applications incorporating Lignol’s unique class of High-Purity Lignin and lignin derivatives (HP-L™ lignin) into various products. In converting non-food cellulosic biomass feedstocks, such as agricultural residues and forestry waste, into ethanol, the Lignol biorefining process fractionates the biomass and extracts lignin, to produce a range of unique HP-L lignin materials. These compounds have been shown to have application in a wide range of industrial products.