Resource World Magazine

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 7 www.resourceworld.com 67 GREEN TECHNOLOGIES the condominium complex the first dual 'green' certification in Canada – LEED Platinum and Built Green Gold. The sys- tem is now optimized for 50-200 unit residential buildings as well as stand-alone commercial applications. It can provide energy for installations such as hotels and energy districts and for supplemental use in large geothermal installations. In North America, sewage may not be as attractive an energy source as solar or wind power because of a 3-5 year payback period, but IWS says the SHARC system is likely the most cost-effective renewable energy system available. IWS has opened marketing and distribution channels across Canada and in 40 US states. INCREASING BIODIESEL FUEL PRODUCTION Biodiesel is a clean-burning, non-toxic and biodegradable renewable fuel used as a replacement for, or additive to, petroleum diesel. Its primary use is in blends with petroleum diesel as a fuel for trucks and automobiles. It can also be used as heating oil and in a variety of other applications, including marine transportation, electri- cal generation, farming equipment and mining operations. Biodiesel is completely interchangeable with petroleum diesel, and any concentration of biodiesel blend can be used in today's diesel engines with- out any modifications. Biodiesel contains no petroleum and is a renewable fuel because it can be made from a variety of renewable raw materials, or "feedstocks," including pure seed oils, animal fats, and recycled cooking oils. It performs comparably to petroleum diesel in terms of fuel economy, horsepower, and torque, it but offers many benefits over petroleum diesel, including a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. It is more biodegradable than petroleum die- sel and is also safer to transport. To meet the growing market for bio- diesel fuel, BIOX Corp. (BIOX) [BX-TSX], a renewable energy company located in Hamilton, Ontario, completed a 1 million litre per annum pilot plant in Oakville, Ontario in April 2001. This plant conclu- sively demonstrated that the BIOX process can achieve complete conversion of the free fatty acid molecule as well as the triglycer- ide molecule into methyl esters achieving yields of 1 to 1 without any pre-treatment. In 2017, the company significantly expanded its biodiesel production capacity with the completion of its Houston, Texas facility. According to Alan Rickard, Chief Executive Officer, "The Houston facility is operating well and production levels have met our expectations. Given its scale, we expect Houston's production will drive significant improvements in our bottom- line results. In Ontario, our Hamilton and Sombra facilities are ideally positioned to capture market share with the mandated increases to the blend rate and the green- house gas reduction thresholds from the Ontario Greener Diesel Program for 2017. The upgrades to our Sombra facility remain on schedule and we expect commissioning in mid-2017 – in time to capture a portion of the blending season in Ontario." By using its production technology and modular plant design, BIOX intends to build, own, and operate biodiesel plants taking into account such factors as leg- islation or policies promoting the use of biodiesel, existing petroleum storage and distribution infrastructure, and the avail- ability of feedstock. OBTAINING RARE EARTHS AND RARE METALS Rare earths and rare metals are difficult to obtain, the supply is uncertain, and they can't be substituted. Unfortunately, compa- nies providing energy, lighting, electronics displays and other products, require such high-end rare materials for their products. To meet this need, Orbite Technologies Inc. [ORT-TSX], a Canadian cleantech com- pany, has developed a process that extracts all valuable material, including industrial waste, from feedstocks. The Orbite pro- prietary technology addresses previous inefficiencies and supply issues, as well as converts waste liabilities into assets. The company also operates a state-of-the- art technology centre in Laval, Québec, where its technologies are developed and validated. The process begins by grinding feed- stock into small particles to maximize the surface area for acid leaching. In the next step, particles are acid-leached at high temperature using hydrochloric acid. All the metals (except titanium, but including rare earth elements) dissolve as chlorides. Specifically, alumina and iron dissolve to form aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 ) and ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ). Silica and titanium remain insoluble and are removed by filtering. The leachate is further processed, and pure ferric oxide (hematite) is produced and can be sold commercially as a specialty by-product. Additional steps allow selective recov- ery of the remaining metals in the leachate, such as magnesium, gallium, scandium, and rare earths, recovering all the value from the feedstock. Orbite's process has achieved high recovery rates for alumina, rare earth elements and rare metals and is approaching 1 tonne per day of high purity alumina (HPA) production. "We are very pleased with the progress of production, and we are on the doorstep of our intermediate goal of continuous 1 tonne per day production," stated Glenn Kelly, CEO of Orbite. "In the coming weeks we will continue to produce HPA, while completing test runs to calibrate how equipment and operations respond to certain changes in feed, temperature and throughput." n

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