A Promising Future

The growing bioproducts sector is poised to make its mark

By Kristine Archer

The future is bright for Ontario’s bioproducts sector — one that touches every corner of the province, from Guelph to Timmins to Ottawa — according to two leaders at the forefront of the industry’s development.

“We are on the cusp of a great opportunity,” says John Kelly, PhD, executive director of MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences) Landing, a Guelph, Ont.-based centre designed to link rural communities to bio-based businesses and opportunities, via the Toronto, Ont.-based MaRS Discovery District.

Gord Surgeoner, PhD, president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, agrees — but he cautions that public perception plays an important role.

“One of the key things that we have to understand is that biotechnology and genetic engineering seem to be synonymous in most people’s minds. In reality, biotechnology is a much larger endeavour, in which we look at biological resources for the benefit of humankind,” Surgeoner says.

“People talk about red (biotechnology) . . . which tends to be where most of the business is today — in the pharmaceutical and medical areas.”

But Surgeoner notes, “it also extends to things like new chemical processes to make biodiesel and ethanol. It extends to selecting micro-organisms that will break down cellulose to make ethanol.”

Biofuel is one of the most recognized innovations linked to the bioproducts industry. Environmental and economic concerns surrounding North America’s dependency on fossil fuels has thrust the search for clean, affordable alternative fuels into the public spotlight.

“The competition had always been the low cost of petro-based materials,” says Surgeoner, pointing out the climbing costs of petroleum as a major influence on the alternative fuel search.

The province’s bioproducts sector, however, is not limited to biofuel. Also included are materials and products derived from naturally occurring or recycled natural-base materials, such as roofing material, chemically engineered resins and biotech-based plant additives that increase a crop’s strength and immunity.

Above all, Surgeoner says that co-operation is key, noting that individual members of the bioproducts community “have to recognize that we have to work in harmony.”

Kelly also notes that there are expected obstacles, given the pace of innovation in the industry.

“We have not been in bio-based world very long,” he says.

“It’s going to contribute so much to our economy,” Kelly adds. “Twenty years from now, we’re going to look back and say, ‘How did we get by without all this stuff?’”

Mikro-Tek Inc.

Environmentally minded biotech company Mikro-Tek Inc. (Timmins, ON) is taking a novel approach to solving the carbon dioxide dilemma.

The recently adopted Kyoto Protocol mandates the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere, and has lead many companies to develop ways to reduce existing CO2 levels — which are raised, in large part, by emissions from fuel-powered vehicles and deforestation — by limiting the amount of CO2 released into the air.

Mikro-Tek, however, is using the opposite method: increasing carbon sequestration, the process by which plants remove CO2 from the air during photosynthesis.

The company has developed a technology that uses specific strains of naturally occurring soil fungi that ultimately form structures known as mycorrhizae. These structures produce mycorrhizal associations that result in increased moisture and nutrient uptake in the host plant. As a result, the host plant not only grows stronger, but also increases its capacity for carbon sequestration.

In addition to this innovative technology, and several other environment-related research and development projects, Mikro-Tek has also launched its C-Trade™ Carbon Pool. This program is designed to entice companies that have been qualified, under Kyoto, as large final emitters.

The program offers companies an opportunity to invest in a selection of carbon sequestration projects in an effort to offset their own carbon emissions and meet the requirements set out by the Protocol. As of this April, C-Trade held assets of more than 1.4 million tCO2e, from projects in Canada and Chile.

With novel approaches like these, Mikro-Tek has established itself as an important player in the fight to save the environment — in essence, helping the environment save itself.

TO learn more about Mikro-Tek, visit their Web site at http://www.mikro-tek.com”>www.micro-tek.com

Iogen Corp.

The times are changing, and Ottawa, Ont.-based Iogen Corp. is changing with them.

One of the province’s leading biotechnology firms, privately held Iogen has thrived on its ability to adapt to a shifting business landscape and market demands.

Founded in 1974 by Patrick Foody Sr., Iogen first focused on steam explosion, a process by which wood chips are converted into cattle feed. The process — an excellent method for increasing enzyme digestibility — eventually became the foundation for Iogen’s lead technology: the production of cellulose ethanol, which is poised to replace fossil fuels as a clean renewable energy source.

Iogen rode the early 1980s wave of oil depletion, establishing a pilot plant to further its ethanol development platform. The company was then faced with plummeting oil prices, forcing it to adapt its business model to serve specialty enzyme technology markets. But the way was paved for a reintroduction to the alternative fuel sector in the late 1990s, with the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and increased public support for cleaner, more affordable fuels.

Cellulose ethanol is derived from the non-food portion of agricultural or wood residue, making it environmentally friendly on two counts: it produces extremely low CO2 emissions and is made from waste products that would normally be burned or otherwise disposed of. It can also be easily blended with gasoline, as evidenced by the Ontario government’s recent mandate that all gasoline contain an average of five per cent ethanol by 2007.

In April 2004, using its EcoEthanol® process, Iogen launched the first cellulose ethanol in the world designed for commercial use. Through a partnership with Petro-Canada (Calgary, AB), Iogen built a demonstration-scale ethanol production facility.

While it is best known for its cellulose ethanol-related advances, Iogen has a robust portfolio with several other bioproducts. Its BioBrite® enzymes are widely used to bleach pulp in the pulp and paper industry, while its Denabraide® and Fibrilase® enzymes offer processing and softening solutions to the textile industry. Iogen also manufactures and supplies non-starch polysaccharide enzymes for the animal feed industry.

Hot on the heels of its recent successes — including a landmark shipment of EcoEthanol to Germany, which marked the first time cellulose ethanol has been used in Europe — Iogen has certainly made its mark.

To learn more about Iogen, visit their Web site at http://www.iogen.ca”>www.iogen.ca

Performance Plants Inc.
At Kingston, Ont.-based Performance Plants Inc., success is not made — it’s grown.

With a portfolio of agriculture-based plant technologies, Performance Plants — a spinoff from Queen’s University’s (Kingston, ON) Parteq Innovations — has carved out a niche by offering farmers tools to stabilize and optimize crop yields and enhance the productivity and performance of their farming operations.

Employing 33 people in two facilities — a head office and trait-discovery centre in Kingston, as well as a product development and field trial centre in the agricultural epicenter of Saskatoon, Sask. — Performance Plants has built upon its strategic university and government alliances to establish a strong presence in the agbiotech sector.

The company’s product pipeline, deemed Value Enhanced/Stress Tolerance Technology (VEST™), incorporates products that can be used individually or in concert, all produced in an effort to eliminate the most common and costly crop problems facing the agriculture industry.

Sureyield™ transgenic technology modifies a plant’s natural drought response mechanism to react more quickly to initial signs of water deprivation, making the crop more tolerant to brief or prolonged water deficiency. Its application is far-reaching, given the universality of the targeted plant drought response pathway.

In addition, Performance Plants’ pipeline includes Master Gene Regulator™ technology, which enhances seed composition, and Heat Stress Technology, which maximizes plant yield under extreme heat conditions. Add that to the company’s contract research capabilities, and technology and gene-development programs, and you have a company firmly rooted in success.

The March, the company secured $1.5 million in financing to further commercialization efforts for its VEST line. The company is seeking $17 million in additional funding to register and launch the VEST line, with hopes of shortening the products’ time-to-market

To learn more about Performance Plants, visit their Web sites at http://www.performanceplants.com”>www.performanceplants.com

Wellington Polymer Technology Inc.

You could say that Wellington Polymer Technology Inc. (WPT) started at the top.

The Chatham, Ont.-based company has been riding a wave of success since the introduction of its Enviroshake® roofing shingles, which are made predominantly from recycled and reclaimed materials.

“It’s really cool technology,” says John Kelly executive director of MaRS Landing in Guelph, Ont. “They have the patented process and the recipe for creating these Enviroshakes using natural fibres and recycled tires.”

Developed over the course of six years, Enviroshakes are designed to resemble high-grade cedar roof shingles, without the inherent maintenance problems. The shingles are resistant to hail, mould, mildew and insects, do not require any extraneous treatment or preservative coatings, and retain their physical properties for decades.

Among the materials used to manufacture Enviroshakes — 95 per cent of which are recycled — are post-industrial plastics, crumb rubber from tires, cellulose fibre materials such as wood, hemp and flax. The shingles themselves are also recyclable and WPT recycles any scrap materials produced during manufacturing.

WPT has garnered global attention with the Enviroshake line. U.S. home improvement guru Bob Vila was impressed enough with the company’s product to feature it in two episodes of his television show, Home Again, in 2004. The product was also listed by Popular Mechanics as one of the 15 best picks of the 2004 International Builders Show in Las Vegas, Nev.

The company is currently in the process of expanding its Chatham production facility to accomodate demand for Enviroshake products, which has grown rapidly since they were introduced to the market three years ago. A second product line is slated for release in the near future.

With such an impressive list of accomplishments and more growth on the horizon, perhaps Kelly sums it up best: “(WPT) is an example of a real success story.”

To learn more about Wellington Polymer Technology, visit their Web site at http://www.enviroshake.com”>www.enviroshake.com

BIOX Corp.
To the layperson, it may seem like science fiction: using agricultural seeds and recycled cooking oils to power your car. But Oakville, Ont.-based Biox Corp. is well on its way to turning fiction into fact.

Specializing in biodiesel — a renewable, non-toxic and biodegradable fuel source — Biox has developed a patented commercial-scale production process that improves upon traditional techniques, which by comparison are slow, expensive and ineffective.

The Biox Process sequentially converts fatty acids and triglycerides to methyl esters, using acid-catalyzed esterification and base-catalyzed transesterification. Chemical engineer and University of Toronto (Toronto, ON) professor David Boocock, PhD improved on the method by selecting inert co-solvents that create an oil-rich, one-phase system and greatly reduce reaction time — what once took several hours can now be completed in seconds.

Biox’s one-million-litre capacity pilot plant, which opened in 2001, has since shown cost reductions of 40 and 50 per cent in capital and operational costs, respectively, in comparison to existing methods.

Biodiesel, which can be blended with petroleum-based diesel, could serve as one of the more cost-effective and competitively priced alternatives to fossil fuels. Biox finds itself in an ideal situation: armed with a time- and cost-efficient technology and, given the fact that any feedstock can be used as a base, an abundance of raw materials.

In order to capitalize on this opportunity, Biox is building a $24-million, full-scale commercial production plant in Hamilton, Ont., pending environmental approvals. The facility is set to increase North American biodiesel production by 50 per cent.

Biox plans to build, own, manage and operate any current or future production plants, providing for partnerships when necessary and advantageous.

With its gaze firmly set on a bright future, the scope of Biox’s operations belies a company that is only in its fifth year. The company’s potential and forward-thinking mandate certainly make it one to watch.

To learn more about Biox, visit their Web site at http://www.bioxcorp.com”>www.bioxcorp.com

For more information on Ontario’s bioproducts sector, please visit the following Web sites:

Agricultural Adaptation Council

http://www.adaptcouncil.org”>www.adaptcouncil.org

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

www.agr.gc.ca

BioProducts Canada

http://www.bio-productscanada.org”>www.bio-productscanada.org

Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

http://www.greenfuels.org”>www.greenfuels.org

MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences) Landing

http://www.marslanding.ca”>www.marslanding.ca

Ontario Agri-Food Technologies

http://www.oaft.org”>www.oaft.org

Ontario Federation of Agriculture

http://www.ofa.on.ca”>www.ofa.on.ca

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food

http://www.omaf.gov.on.ca”>www.omaf.gov.on.ca

Soy 20/20 Project

http://www.soy2020.ca”>www.soy2020.ca