The unprecedented American trade war on Canada and the rest of the world is hastening efforts by researchers at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology to consider ways they could help boost Canada’s clean fuels industry.
“I don’t like that Canada is importing 60 per cent of its ethanol from the U.S.,” said Roy Maki, who is the Research Project Manager at the Olds College Smart Farm. “I think people are realizing that tariffs are a vulnerability now and that the focus should be on what more we can do in Canada so we’re not importing so much. We need to bring these businesses here.”
College researchers are considering potential projects ranging from clean hydrogen to biofuels such as ethanol and dimethyl ether, said Maki. Their efforts could open up new domestic markets for Canadian farmers to grow feedstock crops, such as canola or camelina, he said.
They could also help the Canadian clean fuels industry create jobs by providing vital data for industry partners that could help develop new businesses and production facilities, he added.
Clean fuels are derived from sustainable and renewable sources such as crops and agricultural waste, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional fuels on a life cycle basis. They are a cornerstone of current federal plans to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, along with achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Most of the ethanol in gasoline currently used in Canadian vehicles comes from U.S. corn, which means Canadians are financially supporting American rather than Canadian farmers and businesses when they fill up their tanks, said Maki. “Why can’t we do this in Canada?”
Maki was one of the speakers at the recent Clean Fuels Canada Summit in Calgary. The two-day conference brought together everyone from industry leaders to policy makers to promote the production and use of low carbon fuels in Canada.
“The reason they asked for a speaker from the College was about 20 years ago, we did a lot of work on biodiesel,” said Maki. “You might say our legacy is in clean fuels.”
College researchers have spent the past few years helping everyone from farmers to equipment manufacturers deal with emerging concerns such as digital technology. The cutting-edge Smart Farm acts as a living laboratory covering about 3,000 acres, allowing researchers to test innovations ranging from precision agriculture to autonomous farm equipment.
Olds College led the development and launch of the national Pan-Canadian Smart Farm Network in 2021. The initiative was followed by the $14-million Werklund Agriculture and Technology Centre in 2022 to house the College’s new Bachelor of Digital Agriculture degree program.
“But at the College, there is also interest in clean fuels, so I think we’re going to go in that direction and we’ll see how much traction we’ll get,” said Maki. “Alberta is the right place to do it because of the oil industry. We have the technology and the people who know how to build and do things, and we have good roads and infrastructure.”
The province is also blessed by having one of Canada’s strongest agriculture industries. Statistics Canada says Alberta had a total of $22.2 billion in farm operating revenues in 2020, which, at 25.5 per cent of Canadian farm revenues, was the largest of any province.
“Clean fuels and agriculture will always be very related, and the two industries will need to rely on each other heavily,” said Maki.
Finding ways to boost Canada’s clean fuels industry could improve the profitability of farmers by boosting their efficiency, either by making use of agricultural waste as feedstock or through the creation of byproducts other than fuels that could help producers, he said.
“What really bothers me is when you see empty trucks on the road. If there was a way to backhaul some product – maybe some unused starch material; maybe it’s cattle feed – well, in agriculture, there is really no waste.”
Olds College is considering potential research with an industry partner involving camelina. Its seeds are high in oil, making it suitable for use as a feedstock for clean fuels such as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) that may be of interest to an industry partner for potential production at proposed facilities in Alberta, said Maki.
Researchers are also looking at a potential project examining the suitability of dimethyl ether derived from renewable methane for use as a primary diesel fuel to replace fuel derived from crude oil.
A similar product, diethyl ether, is likely familiar to many farmers as a temporary fuel to quickly cold start diesel engines, said Maki. “Dimethyl ether has the appealing attribute of producing a high cetane value, which is what a diesel engine requires for good performance.”
If dimethyl ether was produced as a clean fuel, farmers could also possibly use it as an alternative to propane to lower their carbon emissions when drying grain, he said. It is similar to propane, which means it could use the existing propane supply chain, he added.
“You just get a tank of dimethyl ether and plug it in so you don’t have to change the container. You don’t have to change your distribution. It would be an easy fit to bring in.”