Enerkem

Current facilities

• Edmonton, Canada: This commercial facility being erected in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is partially funded by the government of Alberta and the Government of Canada. Commissioning of front-end systems commenced December 2013, and Enerkem then expected initial methanol production during 2014.^[5] It was officially inaugurated in June 2014.^[6] As of 2015 according to Enerkem commercial operation were yet to begin, and methanol production delayed with expected initial production late 2016.^[7] As of spring 2016 Enerkem did not expect full operation of this plant before 2018 at the earliest.^[8] In November 2017 an additional grant of $3.5 million was rewarded by the Government of Canada as part of the Western Economic Diversification Program in order to finance the final phase of the facility.^[9] The facility's planned throughput capacity is 350 metric tons of RDF a day with a production capacity of 38 million litres (10 million gallons) of ethanol per year. There is no public information available on any operational experience from the plant, and the first actual processing of RDF at the plant has not been officially reported yet.

Planned facilities

• Varennes, Canada: Enerkem is developing a commercial facility in Varennes, Quebec. The facility will use urban waste from the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors as well as construction and demolition debris as feedstocks. As of late 2016 construction was expected to begin during 2017.^[10] In December 2017, the Government of Quebec has announced that it will be providing $38 million in financial assistance to Enerkem to build the facility.^[11] The Varennes project including financial assistance from the Government of Quebec was initially announced in 2012.^[12]

• Rotterdam, The Netherlands: a consortium of companies comprising Air Liquide, AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals, Enerkem and the Port of Rotterdam has signed a project development agreement covering initial investments in the development of an Enerkem facility in Rotterdam. Final decision is expected later in 2018^[13]

• China: Enerkem signed an agreement with Sinobioway Group potentially worth over C$125M in the form of equity investment in Enerkem Inc., future licenses, equipment manufacturing and sales, as well as for the creation of a joint venture to support a global expansion of Enerkem’s technology and create a joint venture that could potentially lead to many Enerkem facilities in China by 2035.^[14]

Innovation Centres

• Westbury, Canada: In operation since 2009, the Westbury facility was originally the demonstration centre for Enerkem. According to the company's website, the facility is now considered an innovation centre, as it tests unconventional feedstocks and raw materials proposed by its clients, focuses on the development of new products and trains plant technicians and operators.^[15]

Decommissioned facilities

• Sherbrooke, Canada: Built in 2003, Enerkem’s Sherbrooke facility was the company’s pilot plant. The plant has produced syngas, methanol and cellulosic ethanol, in addition to more than 25 feedstock materials that have been tested there. The pilot plant was decommissioned in 2016.

Modular design

Enerkem's facilities are built around the company's proprietary thermochemical technology and are designed to convert carefully sorted and pretreated waste fractions into clean transportation fuels and renewable chemicals. Enerkem’s facilities have a compact footprint and can be located on landfill sites or near the waste sorting locations. The technology used is based on a modular approach each with an annual ethanol production capacity of 10 million gallons (38 million litres). Each location can have more than one module.