Northern communities to benefit from local-made fuel initiative

Nov 15, 2016

By Lisa McLean for AgInnovation Ontario Source: AginnovationOntario

Thunder Bay – For remote Northern Ontario communities, getting fuel isn’t easy. Large quantities of petrodiesel are routinely flown long distances, at significant financial and environmental expense.

Now, a new partnership between researchers and community representatives offers a unique solution: make energy-efficient biodiesel in the community where it will be used.

The project is called the Sustainable Energy Community Initiative for Northern Ontario (SECINO) and is being led by Dr. Lew Christopher, who heads up the Biorefining Research Institute (BRI) at Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University.

Christopher has worked with the world’s largest biofuel producer to develop processes for making biofuels from non-edible agricultural products such as corn stover and switchgrass.

Now, he’s turning his attention to developing similar processes using alternative feedstocks that can be sourced in Northern Ontario.

“Corn cobs and prairie grasses are easy to process because of their chemical composition, but they’re harder to get in Northern Ontario,” says Christopher. “Our students and researchers are evaluating what feedstocks are available in these remote communities, and how we can convert them to energy.”

The team plans to focus on waste oil such as used restaurant grease and rendered animal fats to start. They’ll also explore municipal and industrial waste products such as cast-off material from the region’s sizeable forestry sector.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.