Rosthern debranning plant/biorefinery estimated at $200 million
By Rod Andrews of The Saskatchewan Valley News
Richard Pender (centre), president of Farm Corp United Grain Pool; Dianne Kreiter, administrative coordinator for the company and Rick Guenther, director, show some of the grain fractionation products that will be made at the debranning operation that is planned for Rosthern.
Preliminary details of a long-awaited debranning plant/biorefinery for Rosthern have been given to the Saskatchewan Valley News in advance of an announcement for the project that is expected to be made tomorrow.
Rick Pender, president of Farm Corp United Grain Pool Ltd. of Saskatoon, told the Valley News last week that a $200 million grain fractionation facility, nutritional food bar production facility, non-fermentation ethanol production plant and biodiesel plant that will include canola crushing capability will be built south of Rosthern this year.
The project is going to be constructed on a 300-acre site located south of Rosthern, west of the Carlton Trail rail line, on land that had been owned by the Flath family.
Partners in the venture will include Farm Corp United Grain Pool Ltd., a Saskatchewan based agricultural corporation, and International Debranning Incorporated, a privately-held Ontario-based company.
Announcement of the preliminary details of the project will take place tomorrow, Thursday, 7:00 p.m., at CNH Place in Saskatoon.
Pender told the Valley News that the formal announcement about the project will take place at a sod-turning ceremony at the site on June 1.
At that time, the full details of the venture will be released and the company officials will be introduced to the community.
He said construction of the facility will get underway in six months, with the facility to be operational in the spring of 2007.
High protein wheat and barley will be the feedstock for the facility, which is expected to use 30 million bushels of grain a year.
The facility will have a barley and wheat fractionation plant to separate the various organic compounds from grain. These products will be used to produce aleurone flour, nutritional bars and other nutraceutical food ingredients and products. IDI will be using special "proprietary technology" that will be installed at the facility to separate the different fractions that make up a kernel of cereal grain.
A "by-product" of the separation process, or rather the largest "fraction", depending on what is trying to be recovered, is that of the starch layer.
Pender said the starch will be turned into ethanol by a "fermentationless" process that does not utilize water and yeast, with the entire facility depending on very little water usage as compared to traditional ethanol production.
He said that the starch will be converted to a gas and the gas will be further processed by chemical reactions into ethanol, producing upwards of 30 to 40 million US gallons of ethanol.
At the present time IDI is involved in one other ethanol production facility in the United States and expects to have a second "sister" plant in operation, with the two US plants and Rosthern producing 100 million US gallons annually.
Pender said that the Rosthern facility will be an ecologically "green" one.
"All of these processes utilize unique methods that will significantly increase the value of Saskatchewan grain and not harm the environment," said Pender, who pointed out that the only waste product that will be generated is an "ash" that is produced from gasification of the starch.
This will mean that there will not be any wet distillers grain available that farmers could feed their cattle. Distillers grain is only a by-product of fermentation-type ethyl alcohol production.
Farm Corp, which is a minority stakeholder in the venture, was created six years ago "to solve an on going, ever-deepening farm income crisis using a business model to achieve higher grain prices without reliance on government or subsidies."
Pender pointed out that their goal is to "create the ability to pre-contract profitable grain prices by marketing together as a group through volume sales and individual sales."
While they have had some success to date, the Rosthern venture promises to offer even higher returns to the producer, in the form of value-added products produced from farmers grain.
Details of the project are being released at this time in order to give farmers a chance to join Farm Corp and sign contracts to deliver grain.
Only farmers who are shareholders in Farm Corp will be able to deliver to the facility and receive a premium price for their grain.
Farm Corp wants producers to grow McGwire hulless barley, as the barley has the attributes needed for the production of specialized products, including a high beta glucan content.
He said it also has "good yield, good agronomics and it is a SECAN variety not protected by a major seed company." Last year farmers in the area around Rosthern grew 3,500 acres of McGwire as multiplier seed for Farm Corp in anticipation of the project going ahead this year.
The meeting tomorrow in Saskatoon, and one at the Leask Community Hall, Friday, April 28, 1:30 p.m., will outline what Farm Corp wants from farmers and how they can get involved in the venture. The company is looking for high-protein hulless barley and HRS wheat and will be paying a premium price for the grains.
Pender said they have not yet determined what the price will be, but since the Canadian Wheat Board will consider the barley they will be using to be of malting quality, the price paid will be at least that paid for malting barley.
"It is good news for the farmers," said Pender. He pointed out that the McGwire barley "has never been considered as a Cinderella crop until now!"
There has been considerable talk about the facility in the Rosthern area over the past year and the potential economic spinoff the area will see.
Pender said the complex, which "will be the first totally integrated operation of its kind in the world" will open potential economic development.
He said there will be 52 to 60 "super Bs" hauling grain to the biorefinery every day and Farm Corp alone is looking at putting a fleet of 25 units on the road to haul to the facility.