Lockheed Martin invests US$4M in University of Alberta spinoff company

Lockheed Martin is providing US$4 million to Forge Hydrocarbons, a University of Alberta spinoff company producing the next generation of renewable fuels. The investment by the global security and aerospace giant, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, will help the startup build a $25-million production facility in Sombra, Ontario. The facility is expected to be operational in late 2019 and produce 19 million litres of renewable biofuel annually. Forge Hydrocarbons uses a patented technology developed by Univ of Alberta bioresource scientist David Bressler that converts waste lipids—such as cooking oil, animal renderings and crop seed oil—into various fuels including gasoline and diesel. The "drop-in" biofuel doesn’t need to be blended with petroleum-based fuel, as ethanol does, and can produce renewable fuel with 90% less greenhouse gases than conventional fuel. Charles Bouchard, chief executive of Lockeed Martin Canada, said the company is impressed with Forge’s development of the renewable fuel technology.