Edmonton, in the province of Alberta, is the location for the waste-to-energy biofuels facility which is hoped to have an annual production capacity of 36 million litres of biofuels.

Enerkem’s C$80 million project could produce enough biofuels to fuel over 400,000 cars per year running on a 5% ethanol blend.

Vincent Chornet, Enerkem’s President and CEO, anticipates that the project will “lead the first wave of commercial-scale advanced biofuels plants in North America”.

It will be built, owned and operated by Enerkem Alberta Biofuels LP, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enerkem. The City of Edmonton and Enerkem Alberta Biofuels have signed a 25-year agreement to convert 100,000 tonnes of the City’s municipal solid waste into biofuels annually.

“Edmonton’s environmental leadership has us continually looking to set the bar higher,” says Edmonton Mayor, Stephen Mandel. “As a result of this facility, we will become the first major city in North America to see 90% of residential waste diverted from landfill by 2013.”

The waste-to-energy biofuels plant is scheduled to start operating towards the end of 2011.