Fish Oil Biodiesel Research Supported by the Provincial Government

The Centre for Aquaculture and Seafood Development will establish a demonstration bio-refinery that will convert fish oils into biodiesel with support from the Provincial Government. The Honourable Darin King, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, announced support of this initiative today with $89,100 in funding through the Fisheries Technology and New Opportunities Program.

“The Provincial Government recognizes the need to make the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery as environmentally friendly as possible,” said Minister King. “This new demonstration bio-refinery will provide for positive advancements in a more environmentally-sound industry, with the research undoubtedly benefiting Newfoundland and Labrador in the future.”

A demonstration bio-refinery is an extension of previous work undertaken by the Marine Institute where a biodiesel refining unit was acquired and processed salmon oil and cod oil into a useable biodiesel. The oil that was used was acquired out of province. Previously, it was difficult to extract local oil from the available by-products because effective extraction equipment was not available.

The next stage of this research is to develop processing methodologies to utilize marine waste oils from the salmonid aquaculture, pelagics and the sealing industry as biodiesel feed stocks. This will form the basis of the demonstration bio-refinery for the conversion of waste fish oils currently underutilized.

“For the past five years, we have been actively engaged in developing a marine waste oil biodiesel production system specifically engineered for the unique situation in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Heather Manuel, Director of Marine Institute’s Centre for Aquaculture and Seafood Development. “Having already identified potential sources and availability of marine biodiesel feedstock and studied marine-based biodiesel production and marketing issues in the province, this funding will take us to a level where we can work to successfully overcome the challenges of converting marine oils into biodiesel.”

During the first three years of the Fisheries Technology and New Opportunities Program, the Provincial Government invested approximately $6 million to support a total of 127 industry-driven projects. The program was continued for another three years with a total investment of $6.6 million through Budget 2011 Standing Strong: For Prosperity. For Our Future. For Newfoundland and Labrador.

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2012 02 23             10:50 a.m.