Des Plaines, Illinois, United States: Envergent Technologies, a joint venture of Honeywell UOP and Ensyn, has announced that it has begun construction on a renewable fuels facility in Port Cartier in Quebec, Canada. The project, the announcement said, will incorporate Envergent’s proprietary RTP technology and convert forest residues from local sources into liquid green fuel for institutional and industrial heating, and also as a renewable refinery feedstock for the production of low-carbon transportation fuels.

The announcement said that when the facility in Port Cartier is completed late next year, it will convert 65,000 dry metric tonnes per year of forest residues to approximately 10 million gallons — or approximately 40 million litres — per year of RTP green fuel.

The Cote Nord project, which is being developed by Ensyn, Arbec Forest Products and Groupe Remabec, is the first of several production plants under development by Ensyn and its partners to expand the production of RTP green fuel for energy applications, said the announcement.

Furthermore, the company highlighted that the project is the first purpose-built facility for the production of RTP green fuel for heating, cooling and refinery applications. RTP green fuel, it claimed, is made from non-edible woody biomass, and has compelling environmental benefits, including displacement of conventional fossil fuels and a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“The value of the RTP technology is that it’s a proven and efficient method to convert lower-value forest residuals into a higher-value liquid fuel,” said Robert Rose, Managing Director for Envergent. “The RTP process converts biomass such as agricultural and forest residuals into a transportable and nearly carbon-neutral liquid fuel.”