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Northern BC Companies
Northern BC is at the centre of Canada’s forest biomass-based bioenergy industry. The region is home to many businesses and institutions engaged in research, development, manufacturing and engineering in a sector that is fueled by growing demand for renewable energy in British Columbia and internationally.
The following is a brief summary of some of the companies involved in the bioenergy industry in Northern BC. As noted previously, the operations of the NBP are presently focused on the North-Central region of BC. As such the following list is not intended to be comprehensive. It is a starting point, and it is hoped that as more companies are identified, they will be added to an evolving directory of companies that support the NBP’s strategic objective of market promotion and development.
Allnorth Consultants Ltd.
Allnorth Consultants Ltd. has proven experience in the development, management and implementation of projects in bioenergy, thermal-energy and power sectors throughout British Columbia and are well known for their professional accreditation, technical expertise, skills, experience, on-time record, and commitment to quality, safety, and the environment.
All-Wood Fibre
All-Wood Fibre is one of the leading portable chipping companies in Western Canada, covering all aspects of fibre procurement, including forestry availability and economics, logging, residual retrieval, logistics and fibre processing.
Alterna Energy
Alterna Energy is a company focused on the manufacturing of biocarbon from products, such as wood, municipal and agricultural waste. Biocarbon, also called biochar or charcoal, is a renewable replacement for coal manufactured for industrial markets. The material is produced from any biomass through carbonization.
Avison Management Services Ltd.
Avison Management Services Ltd is an established consulting firm based in Vanderhoof offering a broad spectrum of services associated with forest management, environmental consulting, fisheries and wildlife.
BID Construction Ltd.
BID Construction is very familiar with the lumber manufacturing, OSB and green energy industries. BID has many long term employees that have worked at almost every mill site in BC. BID is backed by the rest of the BID Group, and can provide leadership in project detailing, planning, fabrication, installation, and maintenance.
Biostill Chemicals
Biostill is a chemical and pyrolysis combustion development company converting wood (or other organic) wastes into bio-oils. They extract wood chemicals from the bio-oils for concentrated sugars for ethanol, proteins, diesel substitues, adhesives and natural antifreeze.
Blackwater Construction
Blackwater Construction is a multi-disciplined heavy construction company with over 57 years of experience in earthworks, mining, oil & gas, road, bridge, general construction, and forestry operations.
Bluekey Energy Inc.
Bluekey Energy Inc. produce residual by-products from the waste in pulp mills. They are located within the pulp mill and are at the early stages of production
Brink Forest Proudcts
Brink Forest Products specializes in the secondary manufacturer of structural, industrial and value-added wood products for domestic and international markets. Brink Forest Products obtains low-grade lumber and converts that raw material into premium quality fingerjoint lumber.
Canfor Corporation
Canfor Corporation is the largest producer of softwood lumber in Canada while also producing oriented strand board (OSB), plywood, remanufactured lumber products and specialized wood products. Canfor also owns a 50.2% interest in Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership.
Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership
CPLP is the largest North American and third largest global producer of market NBSK Pulp and is the leading producer of fully bleached, high performance Kraft Paper. Canfor Pulp also operates a 60 MW congeneration facility at its Prince George Pulp Mill site.
Capital Power Income L.P.
Capital Power (formerly EPCOR Power) operates a 66 MW biomass power plant in Williams Lake, using wood fibre from local sawmills. The electricity produced by the plant is sold at fixed terms under a long-term contract to BC Hydro. The terms of the power purchase contract extend to 2018.
Carrier Lumber Ltd.
Carrier has pioneered the development and use of portable modular mills for fire and insect-killed salvage, all in remote operations. Carrier has interest in five mills in western Canada producing 435 million board feet of lumber annually.
Deltech Manufacturing
Deltech supplies thermal energy systems for lumber dry kilns, material dryers, board presses, log conditioning, power generation and plant heating systems. They specialize in biomass combustion systems complete from fuel handling to emission control equipment.
Dunkley Lumber Ltd.
Dunkley Lumber Ltd. is a family-owned sawmill business operating roughly 80 kilometers south of Prince George. With a capacity of approximately 500 million board feet of lumber annually, Dunkley is one of the largest sawmills in North America.
Environmental Dynamics Inc.
EDI provides professional biological and environmental planning services for clients in the private sector, municipal governments, regional districts, federal, provincial, and territorial agencies and First Nations in British Columbia, Yukon and Alberta.
Firth Hollin Resource Science Corporation
Firth Hollin Resource Science Corporation is a multidisciplinary company working in areas such as landslide prevention and remediation, watershed rehabilitation and fish habitat enhancement, road, bridge and retaining structure design, forestry, oil and gas, and mining development planning, engineering, surveying and layout, project planning and management
Fransen Engineering
Fransen Engineering provides consulting engineering services to support industrial clients in maintaining and upgrading their facilities.
IDL Projects Inc.
IDL Projects Inc. provides Industrial Construction services in the petrochemical, pulp and paper, mining and power sectors.
Industrial Forestry Service Ltd. (IFS)
IFS is a natural resource based consulting firm. IFS’s clientele consists of industries involved in forestry, mining, oil and gas, as well as federal, provincial, and municipal governments, First Nations, and private landowners.
International Quest Engineering Ltd.
International Quest Engineering provides project management, construction, engineering and design services to the wood products, mining, process and material handling industries, including waste heat recovery systems, biomass pyrolysis & gasification design, bio-waste fuel processing facilities, and more.
Kim Forest Management
Kim Forest Management specializes in all areas of technical and professional forestry consulting and information management services, research and development.
Kode Contracting Ltd.
Kode Contracting Ltd. is a general contracting company serving the industrial and mining sector throughout Western Canada. Kode specializes in aggregate processing, concrete general civil construction, earthworks and road construction.
Linden Fabricating Ltd.
Linden Fabricating is a steel fabrication shop and equipment manufacturer working in the sawmill and related industries, including chipping plants, plywood mills, pulp mills, MDF plants, OSB plants and others.
Marsulex
Two industries where Marsulex has a significant presence are oil refining and power generation. Marsulex provides innovative tailored solutions that ensure environmental regualtions are met reliably and cost effectively. In addition to air quality compliance solutions, Marsulex also provides services for handling industrial by-products.
McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. (MCSL)
MCSL specializes in engineering and mapping in the fields of transportation, structures, land development, drainage, water supply and treatment, sewage treatment and disposal, resource development and land administration.
Northwind Ethanol
Northwind Ethanol is a technology-based company that is developing new processes for the production of fuel ethanol from low cost starches. Northwind proposes to build a 500,000 gallon (US) cellulosic feedstock, fuel ethanol demonstration facility to make ethanol and lignin from woody biomass.
Nexterra Energy Corp.
Nexterra Energy develops, manufactures and delivers advanced gasification systems that enable customers to self-generate clean, low cost heat and power at industrial and institutional facilities using waste fuels.
North Central Machine Works Ltd.
North Central is an integrated group of companies that have extensive experience in project management, machining, equipment repair, overhaul, installation, engineering design, construction, maintenance, quality control and field services. They specialize in servicing the pulp and paper, oil and gas, mining, chemical, sawmills, and forestry industries.
Pacific BioEnergy Corporation
Pacific BioEnergy is a leading manufacturer and internationally recognized supplier of wood pellet biomass fuel to industrial purchasers worldwide. The company has access to one of the largest fibre supply sources in the world.
Pinnacle Pellet Inc.
Pinnacle Pellet produces a variety of products, including Premium softwood pellet fuel and pine animal bedding pellets. Their plants produce and sell over 750,000 tonnes of product annually from their various locations in Quesnel, Williams Lake, Hixon, Houston, BC (a joint venture with Canfor Corp.) and Armstrong, BC.
Premium Pellet Ltd.
Premium Pellet manufactures high quality wood pellets from sawmill sawdust, planer shavings, and chips fines (white wood waste). Premium Pellet Ltd. has a current production capability of 200,000 tonnes of high quality, premium grade wood pellets annually.
Ruskin Construction Ltd.
Ruskin is a specialized foundation, marine and industrial bridge construction team with head office located in Prince George. Ruskin provides construction services throughout North and Central America with a dedicated team in excess of 100 trained professionals and tradesmen.
Scouten & Associates Engineering Ltd.
Scouten & Associates provides civil and structural engineering services on projects in the industrial, resource extraction, bioenergy, transportation and commercial sectors. They provide project management, contract administration and construction period services, assisting their clients with the successful delivery of their projects from start to finish.
Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd.
Sinclar Group Forest Products Ltd, founded in 1962, has a reputation for manufacturing and distributing premium, high quality wood products. This vertically integrated, innovative company is involved in eight different operations in the Central Interior, from lumber manufacturing to panelized home and truss manufacturing. Today, the company is Canada’s largest producer of stud lumber.
SLR Consulting Ltd.
The SLR consultancy provides environmental sciences and engineering expertise and advisory services in a wide range of environmental consulting disciplines, including: energy, waste management, planning and development, industry, mining and minerals, financial and professional.
Spatial Mapping Ltd.
Spatial Mapping Ltd. offers a wide variety of products and services pertaining to GIS, database development, mapping, remote sensing and 3D visualization. They also specialize in high-end GIS programming and analysis, database creation and maintenance, satellite imagery classification/enhancement/analysis and visual quality assessment projects.
Spectrum Resource Group Inc.
Spectrum Resource Group provides natural resource services to a wide range of clients in both the private and public sectors. Services include forestry vegetation management, industrial vegetation management, forest management, forest health and entomology, reforestation, stand tending and fire mitigation.
TDB Consultants Inc.
TDB Consultants Inc. provides services in forestry, geomatics, vegetation management and construction. In addition they offer a wide range of services for the exploration of oil, gas and mining activities.
Timberline Natural Resource Group Ltd.
Timberline employs over 200 natural resource specialists: foresters and forest technicians, biologists, engineers, geographers, computer scientists and technicians, and admin staff. Their customers drive their business including expanding their business in to fields such as bioenergy and independent power production.
Triton Environmental Consultants Ltd.
Triton is an environmental consulting firm providing a wide range of environmental expertise for municipal, provincial and federal agencies and for industrial clients in the hydro-power, oil and gas, forestry, mining and transportation sectors.
Western Biomass Power Corp.
Western Biomass intends to build a series of wood fired plants utilizing pine beetle killed trees as well as logging and mill wastes. The first of these projects is expected to be a 50-100MW plant located in the traditional territories of the First nations which make up the Tsilhqot’in National Government (“TNG”), located west of Williams Lake B.C.
Western Industrial Contractors (WIC)
WIC offers a complete range of pre-construction and construction services, including: design and project evaluation; cost estimates and schedules; construction methods, materials and systems; program cost-effectiveness; development of cash flow projections, planning of manpower and equipment requirements; and administration of purchasing and expediting.
Wolftek Industries Inc.
Wolftek Industries Inc. acts as a full-service centre for the needs of Northern BC's forestry, milling, mining and petroleum operations. The primary services provided by Wolftek are professional engineering services, design and drafting, machining, chroming, fabrication, hydraulics, installations and maintenance, line boring, and the sales and distribution of parts and equipment.
Woodpro Engineering Ltd.
Woodpro offers complete engineering services tailored to meeting the needs of the wood products industry, offering innovative and cost effective engineering solutions.
Northern BC Research and Education
University of Northern BC
The University of Northern BC has emerged as a strong research centre and has developed a national reputation as a research-intensive small university.
UNBC is building its identity as “Canada’s Green University.” A key component of this strategy will be the Sustainable Northern Bioenergy Centre. The centre will be an information and resource centre to support communication about the bioenergy research and initiatives being conducted at UNBC.
Also on the horizon for development at UNBC is the Wood Innovation Design Centre (WIDC). The WIDC will integrate research and teaching on resource policy and economics, global markets and trade, emerging markets, and business development with product innovation and development. It will focus on the regulatory environment, socioeconomic parameters of forest resource development, and on increasing involvement in wood product development, such as value-added wood products, innovative uses of dead wood, and byproducts from the pulp mill industry.
An existing demonstration project at UNBC is a 1.4 million BTU pellet-fired boiler system in the I.K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Lab. In addition, a 15 million BTU fixed-bed gasifier system developed by Nexterra Energy will provide heat to the core campus buildings and offset an estimated 85% of current natural gas consumption. The scale of the UNBC system will make it an appropriate model for northern communities.
A handful of research projects on bioenergy-related subjects are underway. Two researchers are conducting analyses of the fuel composition, fuel consumption, energy output, particulate matter production and ash content from the demonstration pellet boiler. A third researcher will be conducting terahertz analysis of the combustion gases. There are a number of class-based research projects being conducted within the environmental science and engineering departments, primarily on biochar and the post-combustion utilization of ash. The physics department has a research project underway to look at improving emissions monitoring on bioenergy systems. And within the ecosystem science and management departments, there has been ongoing research into the issues and questions surrounding the development of a bioenergy industry in North-Central BC, as well as into carbon storage and sequestration.
There are not currently any bioenergy-specific courses or degree programs offered at UNBC. However, bioenergy-related course material that positions UNBC students for careers in support of the development of a bioenergy industry can be described in three streams: foundational to bioenergy (e.g. biology, chemistry, physics); science and technology related to bioenergy and biomass supply (e.g. environmental engineering, natural resources management); relating to resources, people and communities impacted by bioenergy (e.g. environmental studies, geography, international studies). A relatively conservative estimate of the number of students taking courses preparatory to a career in bioenergy is approximately 312 full-time equivalents annually.
College of New Caledonia
The College of New Caledonia (CNC) was established in Prince George in 1969, and has since expanded across central British Columbia. CNC enrolls about 5,000 students each year (all campuses) in approximately 90 distinct programs in business and management, community and continuing education, health sciences, adult basic education / upgrading, trades and industry, social services, and technologies.
While there are no bioenergy-specific training programs at present, there are aspects of different programs and courses that help students learn fundamentals that indirectly will help them work in fields that contribute to the development of bioenergy industry, including: natural resources and environmental technology; computer networking / electronics technician; commerce and business administration; trades training (electrical, millwright, machinist, plumbing, heavy duty mechanic, carpentry, welding); power engineering; and university transfer courses.
Plans for future CNC programming related to bioenergy includes a process operations certificate, commercial/residential construction and maintenance of alternate energy systems, and possible specialized trades training.
Northern BC Public Sector Partners
Aboriginal Business & Community Development Centre
The ABDC is a service for entrepreneurs needing assistance with writing business plans, financial statements, and other obligations associated with starting a business
Initiatives Prince George
Initiatives Prince George is a municipally-owned corporation mandated by the City of Prince George to undertake programs and projects designed to grow and diversify the local economy. Their dynamic marketing programs integrate investment attraction, trade development, tourism promotion and events for Prince George. They also take a proactive role in assisting the completion of major business deals that have strategic value for our community.
Innovation Resource Centre
The Innovation Resource Centre enables economic growth and diversification based on the commercialization of innovative technology in the Central Interior of BC. They provide support to new and established entrepreneurs through both one to one advising as well as workshops and seminars. They organize networking and idea exchange opportunities and pursue an active communications and research programme that creates a broader, better understanding of the role of technology in the economy.
National Research Council
NRC is the Government of Canada's leading resource for research, development and technology-based innovation. NRC comprises some 20 institutes and national programs, spanning a wide variety of disciplines and offering a broad array of services.
Northern Development Initiatives Trust
Northern Development is an independent regional economic development corporation focused on stimulating economic diversification and job creation in central and northern British Columbia, a region that is strategically located, and offers a resource-rich economy with many competitive advantages and incentives for business.
