New Canadian Biodiesel Plant

29 May 2004

The Toronto Star reports that BIOX Corporation is planning to announce a new biodiesel plant that can produce 60 million liters per year.

The new biodiesel facility will use Biox’s unique cost-cutting conversion technology initially developed by David Boocock, a now-retired professor of chemical engineering from the University of Toronto.

BIOX chief executive Tim Haig told the Star he couldn’t discuss any possible announcement because of confidentiality agreements. “But we’ve got to get our skates on in Canada. The European Union is already producing 1.5 billion litres of biodiesel and intends to double that by 2010,” he said.

Created in 2000, BIOX is a joint venture of Toronto Innovations Foundation (UTIF) and Madison Ventures Inc. BIOX began operating a 1 million liter capacity pilot plant in Ontario in April 2001, showing a 40% reduction in capital cost and more than 50% reduction in operational cost compared to other biodiesel processes.

You can see a summary of the chemical process on the BIOX site.