The Rural Voice, 2002-06, Page 32Is there fuel growing
in your field?
Biodiesel holds out the dream of a nen market for
oilseed crops and improved environmental
benefits as well
Forget about the tiger — Tim
Haig, president and CEO of
Biox Corporation of Toronto,
wants to put soybeans in your tank.
While he's at it he wants to reduce
the black smoke pouring from diesel
engines, help meet our Kyoto Accord
targets and put money in farmer's
pockets.
That may seem to be a tall order
but Haig claims using even a small
percentage of diesel fuel produced
from biomass can achieve all those
things. What's more a lot of people
agree with him.
The idea of using vegetable oil or
animal fats as engine fuel has been
around as long as the diesel engine.
When Rudolph Diesel first
demonstrated his new engine in Paris
28 THE RURAL VOICE
in 1902 it was fueled by peanut oil.
The problem then as now was to
reduce tiic viscosity. Until recently
this was a multi -phase process taking
in excess of 30 minutes and often
requiring the product to undergo
more than one pass through the
system.
Haig claims his company's
process, developed at the University
of Toronto, reduces the number of
steps and simplifies the system
requirements. He says this
significantly reduces the time and
cost of producing the fuel.
Proponents of biodiesel use three
main propositions to justify their
support. They argue .that it is easy to
use and handle, has significant
environmental benefits and will
Composite photo created by Dianne Josling
provide direct financial advantages to
farmers.
There is plenty of hard scientific
evidence for the first two
contentions. The third descends into
the realm of economics and is
consequently a little harder to prove.
What can be illustrated is that the
current state of biodiesel economics
requires the product get government
help to be successful. To allow
biodiesel to compete against
traditional fossil fuel and other forms
of renewable fuel, federal and
provincial governments must agree to
forego tax revenues.
In Ontario regular diesel suffers
an 18.3 -cent -per -litre tax bite from
the two senior levels of government.
Haig claims the removal of these
taxes on biodiesel would make its
production and sale a viable
proposition.
He goes on to point out that this
has already been done for ethanol,
natural gas and propane.
Several recent reports have
advocated the exemption and
Matthew McLean, secretary of the
Ontario Soybean Growers
Association says, "I think it's coming
along relatively well. We are getting
positive vibes from the federal and
provincial governments."
Tne Liberal caucus group on
environmental technologies, chaired
by Julian Reed the MP for Halton,
released a report in March, which
made several specific
recommendations. Among those
recommendations was a call to
remove the federal excise tax on
biodiesel.
The federal agricultural task force
chaired by MP Bob Speller and an
Ontario inter -ministerial task force
has done the same according to
McLean.
Haig is quick to point out, "In
Europe they provide subsidies in the
range of $1.00 - $1.50 depending on
the country. All we're asking for is a
measly 18 cents a litre."
Never shy about promoting
biodiesel Haig says he pointed out to
federal Minister of Finance, Paul
Martin that if they were to forego the
tax on the bipdiesel produced in
Haig's proposed 60 million litre plant
it would only cost them about
$250,000. For that they would get a
$15 million capital investment and,