A Toronto-based company plans to build a $1.35 billion facility to turn sugarcane and other plant waste into biofuels at the GlobalPlex terminal in Reserve, the south Louisiana port city, the latest in a growing list of renewable fuel projects proposed for Louisiana’s industrial corridor.
Once completed, the Woodland Biofuels Plant is expected to create 110 full-time jobs and become the world’s largest “carbon negative” biofuel plant, according to Woodland officials announcing the project on Tuesday.
The facility aims to convert waste from sugarcane production and forestry into natural gas, methanol and ethanol, and bury the carbon emissions. Plans for a second phase include doubling the number of jobs and expanding the facility into the emerging “green” hydrogen market.
“Louisiana is uniquely positioned to create an entirely new industry,” Woodland CEO Greg Natal said at the announcement event at the Port of South Louisiana headquarters in St. John the Baptist Parish.
“With our workforce expertise, great infrastructure, geology and abundant raw materials, Louisiana could ultimately become one of the largest (renewable natural gas) producers in the world,” Nuttall said. “That’s the magnitude of the opportunity here.”
The project has been welcomed by local and state politicians and economic development officials, with the potential to create more than 220 direct jobs by 2030 and more than 500 construction jobs during the construction phase.
The project announcement came the same day that the Louisiana Future Energy Center broke ground at the University of New Orleans’ entrepreneurial complex, “The Beach.” It follows a string of new energy projects around the state that include low- or no-emissions components, including CF Industries’ $2 billion low-carbon ammonia plant in Ascension Parish and a $3.24 billion ethanol plant in Lake Charles with carbon capture capabilities.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bonnet Bourgeois said the biofuel facility will bring much-needed, high-paying jobs to St. John the Baptist, while GNO Inc. CEO Michael Hecht said Woodland’s decision to come to Louisiana is a vindication of the state’s “all of above” energy strategy, in which the state attracts renewable fuel projects like Woodland while also supporting the fossil fuel sector and sometimes-controversial new industries like carbon capture and storage.
Woodland will first carry out engineering studies into early 2025 before making a final investment decision, but Nuttall said he was “100% confident” the project would move forward to the construction phase next year, given the significant amount of preliminary work already done.
Tax incentives
Woodland Biofuels chose Louisiana to build its first commercial facility because of a large incentive package, including a $10 million grant for infrastructure improvements at the Globalplex site and eligibility to participate in workforce development programs such as LEDFastStart and Quality Jobs.
The company will also seek local tax relief under the Industrial Tax Exemption Scheme.
Nuttall estimates the total aid package is worth more than $250 million to the company.
Local opposition?
The project has yet to go through state and local permitting procedures, and the company has not yet contacted St. John’s residents, so it’s likely it will face at least some resistance.
Robert Taylor, executive director of Concerned Citizens of Saint John and a longtime local environmental justice activist, said he would reserve judgment on the biofuel proposal until he studied the details, but he opposes any plans to build a carbon capture and storage pipeline through his community.
“These industries are welcome as long as they don’t negatively impact our way of life or pollute our communities,” Taylor said. “Biofuels in general sound great, but putting carbon capture pipelines through our communities comes with risks. Just look at Houston.”
A natural gas pipeline explosion outside Houston on Monday forced the evacuations of about 1,000 homes.
Taylor’s group successfully sued to have the DenkaDuPont plant in St. John Parish subject to federal pollution laws, and advocacy groups recently blocked a large-scale greenfield agricultural storage project there, in part on environmental grounds.
Nuttall said the company plans to reach out to local communities, “probably even going door-to-door,” adding that there are various alternatives to capturing carbon other than transporting it through a pipeline.
Proof of concept
Woodland Biofuels began as a research and development project 20 years ago, building a demonstration plant in Sarnia, Ontario, 10 years ago to prove it was a commercially viable, emissions-reducing fuel cell plant made from agricultural and municipal waste.
“We proved the technology worked 10 years ago and have been working to mitigate the risks ever since,” Nuttall said, referring to the process that can profitably produce fuel in a variety of commercial environments.
Supporting waste markets
The original plan was to build its first commercial-scale facility in Sarnia, but local opposition to the carbon capture plan dissuaded that, Nuttall said, and President Joe Biden’s Controlling Inflation Act and generous subsidies available in Louisiana convinced the company to come to the Reserve.
The second phase of Woodland’s Globalplex plan, which will see investment beyond the initial $1.35 billion, will see the development of “green” hydrogen production.
The market is still in its early stages and is heavily subsidized under Biden’s clean energy plan, which includes a tax credit of up to $3 per kilogram of hydrogen produced with zero carbon emissions.
If hydrogen isn’t commercially viable, Nuttall said the company would instead expand production of natural gas and perhaps methanol for the shipping industry.
Another selling point of the project is that it will help create new feedstock markets for waste from forests, sugarcane and other agricultural markets, as well as an outlet for urban waste.
