Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Irish company plans to produce ‘sustainable aviation fuel’ on Eastern Shore

Simply Blue previews project at Superport Days

  • July 3 2024
  • By Helen Murphy    

DUNDEE — While the proposed site of its “renewal energy park” planned for the Eastern Shore remains a secret for now, Simply Blue Group outlined its plans to produce “sustainable aviation fuel” and bio-methanol here at the annual gathering of business and government leaders at Strait of Canso Superport Days in Dundee on June 27.

The Ireland-headquartered company, whose global offices include Halifax, wants to use green energy to produce sustainable fuels targeted at aviation and marine transport.

Nova Scotia has two key ingredients needed for this kind of project: “excellent winds” and biomass, said Megan Harris, Simply Blue’s stakeholder engagement lead. For biomass, the company plans to use chips from the forestry industry.

Sustainable aviation fuel, she noted, matches the performance of conventional jet fuel and doesn’t require new infrastructure to use. It would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 91 per cent compared to conventional jet fuel, she said.

  

N.S. advantage

“There is an abundance of biomass here,” Harris explained of the attraction of Nova Scotia. “It’s under-utilized; it is being shipped across the ocean to Europe and beyond… So, we are going to be using some of that and it will benefit the local economy. It’s going to provide stable jobs to the forestry industry in Nova Scotia… We are going to be using [biomass] sustainably harvested from locally managed forests and by-products of existing sawmills.

“So, to be clear, we will not be cutting down any trees for our project; we will be using biomass that already exists.”

The company was also attracted to the province because it has “excellent potential sites, deepwater marine facilities and government support in a stable country.”

  

Aggressive timeline

Harris said the company has a “pretty aggressive” timeline.

“We hope to start construction in 2026 and begin operations in 2029.”

Although Simply Blue has been working on this project plan for a couple of years, Harris said they’ve intentionally kept a low profile, so far.

“We wanted to come out when we had a bit more information to share,” she added.

It appears that residents can expect to hear more from Simply Blue in the coming months.

“We want to develop strategic relationships in the communities that we work in. We want to be out there talking to people, and we want to treat people like people. We also believe that local knowledge is key.”

  

Goldboro connection

As this newspaper reported in May, Pieridae Energy has applied to transfer its development permit in the Goldboro Industrial Park to a numbered Nova Scotia company associated with Simply Blue. In March, Pieridae applied to the NSUARB to transfer its permit – pursuant to an asset purchase agreement on Feb. 16, 2024 – to 4574030 Nova Scotia Limited, whose president, Sam Roche-Perks, is also the co-founder director of Simply Blue Group, a green fuels developer, headquartered in Cork, Ireland.

Pieridae had purchased the 266-acre parcel of land from the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) in 2015, intending to build a $10-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and processing plant. It put the property up for sale last year after global market and financing conditions rendered the project uneconomical.