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To promote more clean energy production the Alberta government is expanding and extending an incentive program for producers of bioenergy products. The Bioenergy Producer Credit Program is being extended for five years until 2016. The program will help Alberta meet its climate change targets by reducing emissions while also providing value-added opportunities and long-term stability to Alberta’s agriculture and forestry industries. The program provides incentives to develop a wide variety of bioenergy products including fuels, power and heat, which will support the Renewable Fuels Standard to be implemented in April 2011.
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Camelina (False Flax), known for its hardy growing nature and high oil content is the subject of a unique research project linking researchers across Canada, and as far away as Germany. The plant is showing promise as an alternative source of oil for fish and animal feeds, and even jet fuel. The biofuels world is also very interested in camelina oil as a 'green' source of fuel, particularly for jets, one of the biggest carbon producers. Testing in the last 18 months has shown camelina to be an outstanding jet fuel replacement, with above average reductions in carbon emissions in production and processing. From an agricultural perspective, camelina can grow in harsher conditions than many other plants, meaning it can be grown on lands not reserved for food crops.
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Researchers at the University of British Columbia will spearhead a US$10.5 million project in three countries to create a reference genome for the sunflower plant family, potentially leading to a new dual-use hybrid. The sunflower family includes 24,000 species – making it the largest plant family in the world. It is one of only a handful of economically important plant families where a reference genome is not available. A UBC team will use new and conventional technologies to sequence, assemble and annotate the genome of the cultivated sunflower. This new information will drive advances in crop improvement, weed control and the development of woody sunflower species as a new biofuel.
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Genome BC is partnering with the Chilean Economic Development Agency, InnovaChile, Norwegian Research Council, Norwegian Fishery and Aquaculture Industry Research Fund to form the International Cooperation to Sequence the Atlantic Salmon Genome. The Cooperation will invest approximately $6.3 million in phase one of a multi-phased project to produce a genome sequence that identifies and maps all of the genes in the Atlantic salmon genome and can act as a reference/guide sequence for the genomes of other salmonids. With salmonid product exports from Norway, Chile and Canada valued at $3.6 billion, $2.4 billion and $633 million, respectively in 2007, the sequenced genome will be an important public resource that may lead to better management of wild fish stocks, breeding selection for commercially important traits, and elements of food quality, security and traceability.
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Ottawa's Agrisoma Biosciences has teamed up with an Indianapolis-based subsidiary of the Dow Chemical in a deal that will allow the firm to branch into the food crops space. Agrisoma has signed an agreement giving Dow AgroSciences access to its proprietary Engineered Trait Loci, or ETL, technology on an exclusive basis in major food crops, and on a non-exclusive basis in other crop species. The technology facilitates the placement of new traits in the native genome of a crop, and has been used to create new crop varieties for biofuel production and renewable animal feedstock that do not compete with food crops for land or other resources.
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A bio-refinery that will extract oils from specialty seeds will be built in Kensington, Prince Edward Island. The plant will be operated by U.S.-based Nature's Crops International, which sells high-value oil from flowering crops to major cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food manufacturers. The project is expected to create 19 full-time jobs and generate about $5.4 million in annual farm receipts.
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As part of its growing business in Canada, IdentiGEN, a provider of DNA-based meat traceability solutions, has established a subsidiary in Canada. IdentiGEN works with a number of Albertan organizations to scientifically track meat from the farm to the retail store. The company also has entered into an agreement with the University of Alberta in Edmonton to collaborate on genomics research in livestock to improve value chains. In the collaboration, IdentiGEN will work with the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Livestock Genomics Technology, a new venture that plans to research livestock genomic technologies. The company was founded as a spinoff from the Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin.
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The Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR), located at The University of Western Ontario has officially opened. The institute has already created eight new jobs while allowing 20 graduate students to pursue research leading to Masters and PhD degrees. The new research facility will help place Ontario at the forefront of global biofuel research.
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The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Saskatoon is collaborating with the Centre for BioSystems Genomics (CBSG) in the Netherlands to launch three agricultural research and development projects on canola. Canola contributes more than $14 billion annually to the Canadian economy and generates over 214,000 jobs in the country. The NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute and the CBSG will focus on three projects. The first will study the genetics of lipid metabolism in canola to improve the plant’s nutritional value. The second project will look at seed quality and vigour to improve crop yield and the crop’s quality to make canola more competitive with other crops. The last research project will try to better understand the signalling pathways that are involved in the formation of haploid embryos.
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Monsanto Canada, part of the Monsanto Company headquartered in St. Louis, will invest $15 million over the next two years to support its long-term canola strategy and deliver its pipeline of crop technologies to Canadian farmers. The investments includes the construction of the new Monsanto Canada Plant Breeding Centre to be located next Monsanto's corporate Canadian head office located in Winnipeg and the upgrade and expansion of Monsanto's Crop Technology Research Centre in Saskatoon.
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Dow AgroSciences Canada, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company in Michigan, has renewed a strategic alliance with the National Research Council Plant Biotechnology Institute (NRC-PBI) of Saskatoon for an additional five-year term valued at $10 million. The research goals of the strategic alliance include the development of enabling technologies and the development and production of new oil profiles for industry and health. The agreement also includes research into improvements in agronomic productivity and increased yield.
