Innovation Anthology #509:

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Forestry, agriculture and food production contribute about 25 billion dollars a year to the Alberta economy.

As CEO of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Dr. Stan Blade is guiding the province to a new paradigm for industry and innovation. And that’s a bio economy based on utilizing biomass in completely different ways.

DR. STAN BLADE: And I would just take a couple of recent examples. To see Alberta-Pacific putting in a bio methanol plant, producing a chemical from wood chips. To see Millar Western in Whitecourt making an investment where they would treat their effluent in a different way using biological systems to get greater value from one of the co-product streams within their mill. In agriculture I think it’s a little bit more specific. People are thinking about what you can do with say wheat. If I think about the Permalex facility in Red Deer, they take wheat in on one end, they produce gluten, they produce flour, they produce ethanol. So a multiple number of streams coming from a resource. And I think there are a number of agricultural companies thinking about how they can play in this area as well.

Thanks today to Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

You can listen to the full interview with Dr. Stan Blade at www. InnovationAnthology.com

I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

Guest

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Sponsor

Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions

The Alberta Innovates consolidation launched on November 1, 2016.

As part of the Alberta Innovates system, AI Bio Solutions invests in research and innovation to grow prosperity in Alberta’s agriculture, food and forestry sectors. The publicly funded board-governed corporation works with partners to identify, coordinate and fund research projects. AI Bio Solutions helps solve industry challenges with solutions that deliver economic, environmental and social benefits.

Program Date: 2012-11-01