Horse Lake First Nation breaks ground on new bio-refinery

Macdonald says since the facility will be self-sustaining, she says it will also combine the biomass waste and agriculture waste to create heat and power, keeping the operating costs low.

She says because the facility is creating its own power and heat, it will create CO2 emissions. However, as a zero waste and zero-emission facility, the CO2 will still be captured and utilized.

“We take that CO2, and it’s sequestered into big bubbling pools of algae,” said Macdonald.

“70 per cent of it lives under one tent, under one building, and that’s where the greenhouse is, where the algae live, and where we do the processing when we harvest the algae.”

Macdonald says the algae is harvested in tanks, similarly to the process of changing grapes into wine, and are used to create biochar, which will be the commercial sales portion of the facility.

“We have two lines of products, they’re created and built within the facility itself, so there are no chemicals in the facility whatsoever,” said Macdonald. “Not even for the purpose of cleaning.”

The products that will be sold from this facility, Macdonald says, are used for soil remediation, which she says helps with soil compaction and water retention.

She says as the biostimulant folds into it, it allows roots to be established earlier, ultimately helping with erosion.

“From an Alberta oil and gas mining perspective, it folds really well into our economy. It’s a skill set that’s already here. We already have agriculture, and this is about taking lands that need a little bit of revitalization and bringing back nutrients.”

Horse Lake First Nation Chief Ramona Horseman says this facility has been in the works for over the past eight years. She says she is beyond excited to see it finally come to fruition.

“(Horse Lake CEO) Azar (Kamran) and Councillor Cameron Horseman drove actually down to Montana to go look at (a similar) facility, and once they came back, they said ‘this is amazing, let’s investigate it even further’,” she said. “That’s how it ended up unfolding and being what it is today.”

Horseman says this all will create revenue, as well as employment for nation members.

“But again, not everybody wants to be a pipeliner. Not everybody wants to be a school teacher. Not everybody wants to work in a bio-refinery, so it’ll be by demand.”

With the plant having net-zero emissions, Horseman says she is happy to see that there will be no waste, especially with the utilization of various biomass inputs such as slash pile wood.

“To me, it’s not waste wood. To me, it is something we could utilize and then this came into play, and I was like ‘hey, this isn’t waste wood, this can be something substantial.”

Horseman says in her eyes, creating the revenue and jobs on Horse Lake First Nation is their way of furthering their community’s independence.

“From let’s just say, the socialist mentality like First Nations are always subjected to that type of stereotype that we’ve got our hands out and we’re sitting there waiting,” Horseman said. “Now we have that independence.”

The plan is to eventually expand to have more greenhouses on the land and in the area.

by Abby Zieverink

Horse Lake First Nation breaks ground on new bio-refinery

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