Biodiesel will likely have to be imported from the U.S. to meet the upcoming two percent biodiesel mandate announced by the federal government last week.

The Canadian Canola Growers Association welcomed the announcement, however General Manager Rick White says the government now needs to support the creation of biodiesel production facilities.

"The next step is to ensure that we have facilities up and running so that we don't just end up importing finished biodiesel from another jurisdiction," says White. "We would like the feedstock to be grown here, and the processing to be done here in Canada to establish a truly Canadian fuel market."

So how much biodiesel production capacity is there in Canada?

"Right now there really isn't very much. There's absolutely nothing in Western Canada that is built yet. There are plans for builds, but again they need financial support from the government to make them economically viable in the start-up phase," he says. "Not unlike in other countries, these are expensive facilities and they do need government support to get them going."

He notes the two percent mandate can be met by feedstocks other than canola, however supplies of those feedstocks will be depleted. The CCGA figures it will take around a million tonnes of canola to fulfill the vegetable oil component of the feedstocks required for the two percent mandate.

~ Monday, February 14, 2011 ~