Bioindustrial centre to attract investment

A bioindustrial innovation centre being built in Sarnia is expected to attract nearly $1 billion in investment over the next seven years and directly support 1,000 jobs.

Last week, Minister of Culture and MPP for Sarnia-Lambton Caroline Di Cocco announced the province is spending $10 million toward renovations and expansion of the centre, which is to be located at a site formerly occupied by Dow Chemical, at the University of Western Ontario's Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. 

The provincial money will leverage $15 million from the private sector to renovate an existing 60,000 sq. ft. facility and the building of a 60,000 sq. ft. 'green' building. Construction will take two years.

A retrofit of the existing space will be used as a commercialization centre with incubator sites, laboratory equipment, pilot plant space and growth space for start-up companies. The addition will house Colt Engineering, a current tenant of the research park. Colt Engineering specializes in project management of ethanol, biodiesel and biochemical plants, as well as traditional petrochemical facilities. The new space Colt will use at the site will double its Sarnia engineering capacity to 600 employees.

The purpose of the centre is to develop environmentally-friendly alternatives to fossil fuels. The centre will connect researchers and the petrochemical industry to create and commercialize new sources of clean fuel. The centre is expected to attract $1 billion in private sector investment by 2014, immediately support 1,000 jobs in research and engineering and help attract new bioindustrial plants to Chemical Valley.

"A good part of Ontario's industrial base was built on energy and chemicals created from fossil fuels right here in Sarnia-Lambton," says Di Cocco. "This new innovation centre will leverage that expertise and infrastructure and make Ontario a leader in developing renewable alternatives."

The bioindustrial innovation centre reflects what Art Stirling of Pioneer Hi-Bred calls a "global phenomenon."

Stirling, who is Pioneer's biotechnology affairs manager, as well as a municipal councillor with Chatham-Kent, spoke about the boom in biofuels earlier this month to the Chatham Rotary Club.

At that meeting, he said, "This is going to be a major industrial sector for Canada and the world."

Stirling says Pioneer's U.S. headquarters is spending $1 million daily on biofuel development. Pioneer is looking at plant genetics, breeding and yields to get more fuel out of a crop of corn or soybeans.

It is expected that Canada will dramatically increase its output of biofuels in the next few years. Stirling says targets set by the federal and provincial governments will require 3 billion litres of biofuels annually, but right now, Canada is only producing 400 million litres each year.