Turning Garbage Into Ethanol: How Suncor is Reducing Alberta's Co2 Footprint

How is running a plant that is dedicated to creating renewable energy and diverting waste different than your previous experience in a petroleum refinery setting?

I would say that technology is technology. I was in a refinery plant in Montreal before – and am now running a facility with biofuel renewable technology, and in both environments, we started with operational discipline. We brought that kind of mindset into the EAB structure, talking to our people, doing the right thing, the right way every time.

To me there are three important components to this discipline: first of all, collaboration. It’s all about humans at the end of the day. You canleverage technology, but you need operators, maintenance staff and engineers to drive the effort. Collaboration was one of the big pieces of the pie that we tackled first, to make sure that we engaged our people, and created a culture of trust between Enerkem and Suncor.

Second – it’s important to bring a questioning attitude to understand the problem. When you commission something, you need to follow procedures and make sure that we adhere to them and instil accountability. As you are developing the technology, you’re not in that production mind-set and time flies by. Now that the facility is in operation, we’re bringing a more operational mind-set and putting safety and production first always.

The last one is really to continue to learn what is possible with this technology – seek the knowledge, the understanding, and ensure that the learning that we’re doing in Edmonton can be translated to other generations, and opportunities, in the future.

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