KEMPTVILLE — For two centuries Canadian farmers produced plants for food and all the research went into developing nutrients. But there’s a new focus in research and on farms. Plant scientists have begun breeding research to increase carbon in a plethora of crops to support renewable energy. Carbon is a fundamental element in fuel and the western world wants more fuel from renewable sources and less from fossil fuels like oil.

"We are moving quickly into new industries called the bio-economy," University of Guelph researcher, Ian Mcdonald, told an audience at Crop Day in Kemptville last month. In the bio-economy, farmers leave their crops in the fields until the nutrients leach out of them. He sees farmers capitalizing on new markets for heat, power, fuel, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

The need for biomas is just one opportunity. The Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will need about 4 million tonnes of biomas to supply the Nanticoke and Lambton power generating stations after Ontario converts the systems from coal to biomas in 2014.

Robert Lyng, director of environmental policy with the corporation, says 2 million tonnes will come from forestry and 2 million tonnes will come from agriculture.

The biomas can come from corn stover and cobs, distillers grain, and a number of crops grown as biomas crops. The most popular of the biomas crops at the moment are switch grass and Miscanthus, two plants that have enormous growth and are short on nutrients.

The company will be buying in large quantities. "You can’t get into your pickup truck and deliver a load to the plant," he said.

Farmers could transport biomas by ship and rail, he said. But they would first have to combine their crops to get enough and manufacture them into pellets to make the operation viable. The Port of Prescott has suitable facilities to handle biomas pellets.

Green entrepreneurs are already on the move. Canadian Bio Pellet Inc. is building an $80 million plant at Ingleside, near Cornwall. The plant has the capacity to produce 360,000 tonnes of wood pellets annually, making it one of the largest in the world.