A federal biofuels incentive fund has followed through on its contribution agreement to support a Montreal-area corn ethanol plant with nearly $80 million.
Levis-Bellechasse MP Steven Blaney on Tuesday confirmed Toronto-based GreenField Ethanol will get up to $79.75 million over seven years for its Varennes, Que. plant through the ecoEnergy for Biofuels program, which signed a contribution agreement with the company for the project in November 2008.
The plant at Varennes, on the south banks of the St. Lawrence across from Montreal, was a first for the province when it started operating in February 2007.
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The facility now employs 49 full-time staff and buys up about 12 million bushels of corn per year, producing 70,000 tonnes of dried distillers grains (DDGs) and 50,000 tonnes of wet distillers grains for the feed market.
The plant, which got $18 million in construction funding through a separate federal program, has a nameplate capacity of 145 million litres of undenatured ethanol per year.
“Ethanol production creates jobs for the local community and income for Quebec growers,” GreenField CEO Bob Gallant said in the government’s release. “GreenField is proud to be a part of Quebec’s bioeconomy and Quebec’s only ethanol producer.”
The ecoEnergy program, which is budgeted for up to $1.5 billion over nine years, is taking applications from new and existing biofuel producers until the end of this month.
The federal natural resources department as of Jan. 21 has signed contribution agreements for 21 ethanol and biodiesel facilities through the ecoEnergy program.
The government in December 2009 announced changes to the program’s parameters, in which it planned to look first to commit the remaining funds to existing producers who will be in production by March 31 and who meet all program requirements.
Funds not allocated to existing producers by March 31 will be used to support the highest ranked project from new producers that were able to successfully show an “advanced state of readiness” by the application deadline.
The program has seen a total of 85 “expressions of interest” from biofuel makers since program changes were announced. Of those, the government said in January, 16 were submitted by “existing producers” and the balance by new entrants.
