Greenfield Global

29 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 we oversee construction management, and all the accounting and project management stays in house. This is a central part of our expertise, and it allows us to fully define project scope, vet and qualify technology suppliers, while continuously managing the risks of delays or cost-overruns,” says Roberge. Working with experienced and reliable suppliers and subcontractors is another key to Greenfield Global’s achievements. Acknowledging an important distinction between price and cost, Roberge shares, “Sometimes you are better off working with reliable suppliers that you know and trust. It’s more expensive at the beginning, but in the end, the product will be reliable, and will reduce the need for expensive retrofits over the life of the facility.” Highlighting again the company’s deep involvement in projects, he says, “The way we tackle projects has been unconventional. We put the right expertise in place, and we retain full project control from the very beginning to the very end. And this has been our approach for over 20 years.” Greenfield’s ethanol plant at Varennes presently produces about 200 million liters of fuel ethanol each year with the lowest carbon- intensity score available in Canada. Co-products from ethanol production include distiller’s grains (used as a high protein animal feed), distillers corn oil (used as a feedstock for renewable diesel), and biogenic carbon dioxide (used for beverage carbonation and freezing applications). As for future plans, Roberge reports, “we are planning a major expansion and carbon-optimization of our ethanol plant that will increase annual production by 50% while further reducing the carbon intensity of production through installation of electric boilers and other energy efficiency advances. As well, we are developing a hydrogen hub at Varennes. Phase 1 of this multi-year project will incorporate a hydrogen production plant scaled at 60-megawatts using proton exchange membrane technology. We will combine that hydrogen with biogenic Co2 from our ethanol fermentation process to produce a near-zero