Biofuel Innovator

• GreenField is a leader in green fuel research and development.Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  A group of investors headed by real estate developer Ken Field built the first Commercial Alcohols plant in Tiverton, Ontario, in 1989. The company originally produced, packaged and distributed alcohol for beverages. In 1998 GreenField opened the first large-scale fuel ethanol plant in Canada, located in Chatham, Ontario, followed by its plants in Tiverton and Johnstown, Ontario, and Varennes, Quebec. A fifth facility, planned for Hensall, Ontario, has been delayed by the economy as of 2011. Commercial Alcohols changed its name to GreenField Inc. in 2006 and is a prominent player in the Canadian fuel ethanol industry.
  
  

Waste becomes fuel

• Wood waste products become fuel.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The Cellulosic Ethanol Division was established by GreenField in 2007. It is deeply involved in developing a simplified mechanical system of pre-treatment that doesn't involve the use of harsh chemicals for the conversion process. Cellulosic ethanol, created from waste products like corn cobs and corn residue, trees, wood chips, solid municipal garbage and pulp from the paper industry, is fully biodegradable and burns clean. Unlike fossil fuel, it is a renewable resource.
  
  

Ethanol From Corn

• Ethanol manufactured from corn creates a new market for farmers.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The GreenField Ethanol plant in Johnstown, Ontario, which opened in December 2008, received its first shipment of corn on Nov. 21, 2008. The plant requires 20 million bushels of corn a year. Since receiving that first shipment of corn from a farmer in eastern Ontario, GreenField's ethanol production has become a large new market for corn grown by local farmers who are able to sell their products directly to the corporation. Approximately one-third is recycled to the farmers as dried distillers' grains.
  
  

Enerkem Partnership

• Fuel is produced from municipal garbage.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  GreenField Ethanol formed a 25-year partnership with the city of Edmonton in Alberta, and Enerkem, a corporation that converts non-recyclable garbage into clean fuel. Edmonton and Alberta spent $70 million to establish the world's first industrial-scale municipal waste-to-ethanol facility, capable of producing 36 million Canadian liters of biofuels every year.
  
  

Impact

• Substituting small percentage of ethanol for gasoline benefits environment.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Relative to greenhouse gas emissions, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association found substituting only 5 percent of Canada's gasoline with ethanol yearly is equal to removing 1 million cars from the road. Their calculation used the GHGenius, a tool that identifies how much greenhouse gas is generated by alternative vs. traditional fuels. However, what still remains to be seen is whether use of corn for ethanol will impact production for food and whether removal of corn cobs every year might have a negative effect on levels of organic matter, pH and nutrients in the soil or on crop disease.