'Bioeconomy' to change how North does business.

To fill up my old 1981 Mercedes Benz, I drive to a French fries stand and pick up a few pails of waste vegetable oil from the deep fryer. I take the stinky, oily mess to my garage, and then I turn it into biodiesel.

My garage has the constant smell of a roadside canteen. But my fuel cost is less than 25 cents a litre. My three children shake their heads in a mixture of shame and amazement while sitting in the back seat of the Benz while I drive it around town.

This isn't mad science. Making diesel from vegetable oil isn't particularly complicated. Many others are brewing biodiesel the world over, some in large facilities.

It's not time consuming either. If I start the reaction with battery acid and wood alcohol on Saturday morning, I will be able to fill up the Benz on Friday. And there is little work spent on the reaction in between.

I'm not recommending that everyone should make biodiesel at home, but the fact that I make my own biodiesel is part of an increasing trend called the bioeconomy.

The bioeconomy has potential to go so big that experts anticipate it will become a new economic wave and replace the current information economy. Pundits predict its impact on the Canadian economy and culture may be as profound as that of information technology.

More and more, organic material from living organisms goes into goods that used to be made from fossil fuels.

Car components are increasingly made from plant matter. Daimler-Chrysler is already using industrial hemp for paneling.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's election platform stated that his party targets the use of five per cent renewable fuels in cars and trucks by 2010 (www.conservative.ca/2023/36479). So when I fill up my Benz with biodiesel I'm just a bit ahead of the wave.

The bioeconomy isn't a conspiracy.

No one is to blame.

It is coming out of economic necessity and the decision to enter the bioeconomy is made by business owners as they face escalating production costs.

Since January 2000, the cost of crude oil has more than doubled, climbing from $30.89 US to $66 US per barrel, and so, biomass from agricultural opreations and forests and their derivatives are getting cost-competitive as sources of energy or carbon molecules.

Necessity is pushing us into Dr. Frankenstein's version of a marriage between agronomy, forestry, chemistry and biotechnology.

The bioeconomy will rely heavily on the manufacturing and trade of bioproducts. These are commodities made from living organisms through the use of technology and biotechnology. A soon-to-be released treatise on the bioeconomy by Dr. S. Wetzel of the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie shows a potential for Canada alone in excess of $100 billion annually and will draw from most of Canada's economic sectors: energy and transportation, food and agro-food, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, forestry, materials and manufacturing, waste management and a large variety of consumer goods.

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The BioCap Canada foundation (www.biocap.ca) is a national, not-for-profit research foundation working to find solutions to climate change by using our forests and farmlands. Bioproducts are very much at the center of the organization's mandate.

The bioeconomy will reduce the environmental impact of economic growth by increasing the use of industrial and urban wastes and developing goods that are biodegradable. For example, a new research program at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick aims at producing energy plantations by using industrial wastes and municipal sewage sludge.

What does this mean to all of us? How will it affect the average family? Ultimately, it will provide some sheltering against the rising cost of fossil fuels.

It means that we will bring our groceries home in biodegradable bags made from corn starch.

Our cars will have plant parts in them. We know industrial hemp provides long fibers which is excellent for moulded paneling.

It means drugs will come from an increasing number of genetically modified plants or micro-organisms.

It means the seat cushions in our cars will be made from canola oil.

Diesel fuel will come from oilseeds like soy beans and canola.

Gasoline will be blended with ethanol, which may come from wood or agricultural wastes.

It means candles will be made from natural wax as opposed to crude oil byproducts.

Recycling will increase in importance.

Farmers and foresters will become central supporters of the bioeconomy. Land will increase in value.

We can also assume that an increasing number of universities will focus their programs toward the bioeconomy. In a few years, it might be trendy to study biology. The best jobs for graduating students might well be in this field.

The bioeconomy is coming. There is no doubt. It may arrive progressively and be driven by emerging economic opportunities, political constraints and environmental necessities. It may come quickly in response to global political conflicts and economic pressures. Regardless, its emergence will change the way Canadians live, that is certain.

Over the next few months, my columns will inform our readers about key issues about the bioeconomy and how they will present new business opportunities in Northern Ontario.

Dr. Luc C. Duchesne is president and CEO of Forest BioProducts Inc., a Sault Ste. Marie company focused on the development of business opportunities in this field. He holds a PhD in Botary from the University of Guelph and specializes in molecular biology, molecular genetics and molecular engineering.