If the Ontario Sugarbeet Growers' Association can find a way to unlock the high-energy carbohydrates naturally produced in sugarbeets, the industry is poised to soar–literally.
Association chairman Mark Lumley told those attending Tuesday's annual meeting that Rhode Island-based Forbes Energy–which in the business of developing renewable, sustainable fuels–has indicated it believes Sarnia is a the best place to build a new jet fuel facility.
This type of interest in the green energy potential of sugar beets is why the association is working hard to secure research funding to utilize this natural high-energy source with the goal of increasing the crop’s acreage.
Lumley, who spoke to The Chatham Daily News Tuesday before heading to Queen's Park in search of provincial funding, said there are a number of companies interested in using sugar beet juice as feed stock for their processes.
He said Forbes has done a lot of their pre-work and are close to ready to go.
“Nobody, to our knowledge, has gone this far,” he added.
What's needed, said Lumley, is some capitalization grants so the association can help companies interested in using sugarbeets as a fuel source do their fiscal due diligence in order to get processing facilities built.
What makes sugarbeets so attractive, he said, is the plant is an efficient converter of sunlight to energy, even better than corn.
“It gets carbohydrates concentrated in that sugarbeet really high, so it doesn't take as many acres of sugarbeets as it would some other crop . . . to get a lot of carbohydrates in one spot at one time,” Lumley said.
The association has also made application to the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for research money to figure out the cost of building a sugarbeet slicing plant to extract the juice.
“What we need to do is figure out how to build half a sugar factory,” Lumley said, noting the beets don't need to be refined to the point where it becomes white sugar.
He said the goal is to have a pilot plant built at the Western University Research Park in Sarnia. This is where the science can be tested to see if the process works, which leads to building a full-scale plant, he added.
Currently, there are 10,000 acres of sugarbeets grown by association members, all of it in Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton, which are sold to the Michigan Sugar Company.
“We have agricultural capacity to easily double our acreage in Ontario,” Lumley said.
The reason 20,000 acres of sugarbeets aren't being grown for Michigan Sugar is its processing facility north of Port Huron is maxed out, he added.
Growers will benefit if sugarbeet acreage increases, because it is a high value crop than corn, soybeans and wheat, Lumley said.
“So more sugarbeet acres means more profitability and more money into the local infrastructure . . . like almost double compared to some of the other crops,” Lumley said.
Dresden-area farmer Mark Richards, who sits on the co-op board for Michigan Sugar, reported during the meeting that a strategic initiative is to penetrate the Canadian market.
“We want to sell sugar where we produce sugar,” he said.
However, there are a few hurdles to get over, including the stiff competition from the only two sugar companies in the market – Red Path and Lantic.
Richards said the board has been looking into such initiatives as providing private label sugar to retailers and co-packs where Michigan Sugar is used in a food products such as cake mix.
Source: www.theobserver.ca