Grande Prairie is on tap to get the first in a line of new waste to biodiesel refineries. Cielo Waste Solutions based in Red Deer plans to open up its next facility in the city in 2020.
Grande Prairie MLA Tracy Allard recently toured the company’s first refinery in Aldersyde, Alberta and got a behind the scenes look at what will go on at the Grande Prairie facility.
“I saw a number of different materials that would largely go into waste or landfill or potentially to a recycler being broken down into almost like sand and processed through this series of machines and producing biodiesel. It’s an amazing way to take what we’re throwing away and create something reusable out of it.”
The new plant will grind down household, commercial and construction garbage to create renewable diesel, kerosene and other fuels. Allard said this facility will go a long way to showing people that Grande Prairie is more than just an oil and gas city.
“We have a significant oil and gas industry that we want to support and maintain but we do have other industries and we have tremendous technological advances in innovation and I think this is one example of technology at work for the betterment of our province and the betterment of our economy.”
As part of Cielo’s expansion, it also plans to open plants in Brooks, Calgary and Medicine Hat which it says will each be able to produce about 2,000 litres of renewable fuel per hour.