The company looking to put a bio-coal plant in Terrace has an anticipated construction start date set for this May.
Vancouver-based company Global Bio-Coal Energy Inc. partnered up with Coast Tsimshian Resources to open a $30 million bio-coal plant on the old Porier sort yard on Kenney St., and has now contracted an engineering firm to do the work.
Noram Engineering and Constructors will be completing the basic engineering and finalizing the design specification of the Terrace Bio-Coal Ltd. facility, said Global Bio-Coal's CEO David Austin. It will also oversee construction of the bio-coal production facility in Terrace.
“We are pleased to have an engineering firm of this calibre participating in the Terrace project,” Austin said in a press release March 28. “A tentative start date for construction of the plant is May 2011. This, however, is subject to change depending upon engineering and related issues.”
The company will need to be approved for a development permit and a building permit by the city before any work is done on the site. The permit matter has not yet come up in council.
Global Bio-Coal officials have been in the area for about a year, encouraging industry stakeholders to use its Rotawave Targeted Intelligent Energy System that heats waste wood to produce bio-coal, which would replace coal in coal-fired power plants in Europe.
Global Bio-Coal has secured a long-term off-take agreement with Vitol Broking, a major European independent energy trading company.
“This means we can take as much biocoal as can be produced in B.C. at international prices,” Austin said, adding that the company is considering constructing additional bio-coal facilities in the northwest and throughout the province.
Most of the money for the plant will be financed by private investors, and Coast Tsimshian will deal with the wood supply, provide the land for the plant, and help with the day to day plant management.
The plant is estimated to require approximately 300,000 to 350,000 cubic metres of fibre a year to produce 120,000 tonnes of bio-coal. Each plant would employ 20 people, and there's an estimated 120 more indirect jobs for trucking and transportation.
The company had originally looked at starting plant construction the fall of 2010, but pushed the timeline back to finalize engineering plans.