The Greening of Sarnia-Lambton

Abstract

T he community of Lambton County, including its major urban area of Sarnia, is located in southwestern Ontario on the Canada-U.S. border, where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River. Home of North America’s first commercial oil field, which began producing in 1858, Lambton County’s industrial roots are well-established; the region is best known as the center of Ontario’s chemical and refining industry. Twenty major chemical and refining companies built plants there between 1942 and 1980. The area has benefited tremendously from global innovations in chemistry, which shifted 95% of the products made from biobased sources in the previous century to hydrocarbon-based production. The region is also part of the larger core of agricultural and automotive clusters that dominate southwestern Ontario. While traditional petroleum-based fuels and chemicals will remain a core industry in Sarnia-Lambton, the region is experiencing a new industrial revolution. Biobased feedstocks are gradually supplementing, and may in some cases eventually replace, petroleum and petroleum-derived products. A marriage of chemistry, biology, and information technology is underway, and the development of new technologies and convergence of others among the chemical, agriculture, and automotive sectors offer exciting new possibilities. This is an opportunity not only for Sarnia-Lambton but for Ontario and Canada as a whole. Canada must assume a leadership position to establish a chemical industry based on both petroleum and biobased feedstocks. At present, the chemical industry is the fourth largest manufacturing sector in Canada, exporting more than 80% of production and creating more than 80,000 direct and 390,000 indirect jobs. While overall global trade increases equal about 3% compound aggregate growth rate (CAGR), renewable chemicals are growing at a 13% CAGR. It is important that Canada remain at the forefront of chemicals production as the transition to biobased materials occurs. The Sarnia-Lambton cluster offers several advantages for producers, including access to sufficient quantities of cost-competitive locally produced biomass; access to existing chemical industry services, land, infrastructure, and know-how; and the skills and technical knowledge of the region’s labor force, educational institutions, and research and development facilities. The evolution of SarniaLambton as an important cluster is tied to the onset of globalization and the harsh realities of aging technology and aggressive global competition facing the petrochemical industry. The ability to leverage Sarnia’s abundance of biobased feedstock draws on the regions inherent benefits and could restore jobs lost by the closure of key manufacturing facilities. During the past 10 years, a number of industry studies and various committees have focused on the challenge of repositioning the local refining and chemistry industries. In 2001, for example, the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership identified industrial biobased industries as having exceptional potential as a partner for the region’s petroleum-based economy. In 2003, the City of Sarnia and County of Lambton joined together to purchase the property that formerly was home to Dow Chemical’s Canadian office, with the intent to establish a research park. Economic development representatives had approached the University of Western Ontario, and this partnership resulted in the creation of the University of Western Ontario Research Park, Sarnia-Lambton Campus, which is operated under a long-term agreement with University of Western Ontario Research Parks. The Research Park is now home to the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre (BIC)–a Canadian Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research and Canada’s leading industrial biotechnology incubator–and a shared pilot plant facility. Established in 2008 with $15 million (USD15.17 million) in seed funding from the National Centres of Excellence program, the BIC was conceived to help bridge the gap between research and commercialization in chemicals, fuels, and energy production. Renovations to the Centre were partly funded by Ontario’s Ministry of Innovation through a $10 million (USD10.12 million) grant. The BIC is working with the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (a research institute within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Western Ontario) to accelerate the development and introduction of Canadian biofuels, renewable chemicals, and co-products into the marketplace. The Sustainable Chemistry Alliance (SCA), in conjunction with the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership and other community partners, has been another significant player in advancing biobased industries in the Sarnia-Lambton region. Established in 2008, the not-for-profit organization promotes growth and prosperity by supporting innovation, development, commercialization, and related business activities and projects in sustainable chemistry. Headquartered at the Research Park, it is uniquely positioned to collaborate with the BIC and further its mandate of investing in the commercialization of green, sustainable technologies, processes, and businesses beyond concept and into the piloting stage. In addition to