The test plant in Aldersyde, AB. (Supplied by Cielo Waste Solutions)

By David Opinko

Plant to open in Lethbridge that would turn garbage into fuel

Jan 15, 2020 | 10:20 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Shovels are expected to hit the ground later this year for a company that not only wants to make “renewable diesel” but also to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill.

Cielo Waste Solutions Corp., based out of Red Deer, has teamed up with RenewableU Energy Inc to open plants in Grande Prairie, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge.

RenewableU Energy Inc CEO Lionel Robins explains that Cielo Waste Solutions has developed a proprietary technology to make new use out of old products.

“Basically, it’s heat and catalysts where the feedstocks are ground up into a kind of fine powder, they’re mixed with used motor oil and then they interact with our catalyst at high heat temperatures, which then convert it into a distillate, which we then separate into the diesel, kerosene, and naphtha separately.”

They are able to take all seven types of plastics, as well as wood waste, rubber, and other materials. Robins claims that they can use “basically anything” except for rock, metal, and glass.

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Once they take a truckload of waste from a landfill, they sort out the materials, but as long as everything entering the bins is usable in their process, it does not matter if certain items get mixed together.

Of the seven percent of the end product that is considered waste, Robins says it is mostly water and ash.

The water can easily be disposed of, while the ash can be used to make agricultural fertilizers.

“Our goal is less than 1% waste, which would make us the greenest refinery on the planet.”

The companies have been operating a “test plant” in Aldersyde near Calgary, testing out all of their operations with different materials at a variety of production output levels.

For each of the plants they are planning on opening, Robins says they want to start out initially with approximately 4,000 litres of fuel being created every hour, 24-7. Eventually, this could be scaled-up to anywhere from 8,000-12,000 litres per hour.

Robins and his business partners have been in discussions with the City of Lethbridge.

While they do not have a location finalized just yet, he hopes to have all of the paperwork approved shortly so construction could begin in either the late summer or early fall in 2020.

Assuming they can meet these timelines, the plant in Lethbridge would open sometime in 2021.

40-50 jobs would be created during the construction phase, while another 25-30 people would be employed full-time once they are ready to open.

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