Ontario Innovative Sugarbeet Processors Cooperative forms for advanced bioeconomy feedstocks

November 20, 2016 |

In Ontario,  the Bio-Industrial Process Research Centre at Lambton College and Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park – collaboration with the OSGA and its partners – completed a techno-economic modelling feasibility study. The study identified suitable high value-added products and determined business scenarios where a beet-based sugar value chain could be re-established economically within southern Ontario. In these scenarios, after a 50-year absence from the Ontario Agricultural sector, sugar beets would be grown, harvested and processed in Ontario with the products and co-products used for the food, feed and industrial biochemical markets.

Based on the positive results of the techno-economic modelling study, the Ontario Innovative Sugarbeet Processors Cooperative (OISPC), a farmer cooperative, has been formed. Members of the Ontario Sugarbeet Growers’ Association (OSGA) cultivate sugarbeets which are then exported for sugar production at the Michigan Sugar Company, but the current market to Michigan is capped. OSGA has noted that growers in Lambton and Kent counties consistently deliver yields and sugar contents among the highest in the North American industry, and show significant potential to increase local sugar beet cultivation.

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Category: Fuels

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