Investors will soon get a chance to throw their money behind another biofuel play in Canada. BIOX Corp., the Oakville, Ont.-based company that designs, builds and operates biodiesel production facilities based on its own proprietary process, announced today that it has filed with regulators for an initial public offering. RBC Capital Markets is leading an underwriting syndicate that includes BMO Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc., GMP Securities LP, Cormark Securities Inc., Genuity Capital Markets and Dundee Securities Corp.

The company currently owns and operates a continuous flow biodiesel production facility in Hamilton, Ontario, with a nameplate capacity of 67 million litres per year, achieved through two production lines operating in parallel.

“Using our existing modular design, it is our intention to build, own and operate additional biodiesel production facilities in jurisdictions where markets support the production and use of biodiesel. At this time, our target jurisdictions include Canada, the United States and the EU. We are currently in negotiations to establish four additional 67 million litre per year nameplate capacity plants that would provide us with up to an additional 268 million litres of capacity per year,” according to the company’s prospectus.

The company has not yet priced the offering, but you can get more details from the prospectus filed on SEDAR.

BIOX will join SunOpta and Lignol, and eventually Greenfield Ethanol, as publicly traded biofuel plays in Canada.

UPDATE: I’ve got an article in the Star on this. It points out that BIOX plans to build four more 67-million-litre a year plants with the IPO funds, and that it’s aiming to raise $150 million, which would give the company a valuation of over $300 million.

Yet another reason why we should be forming a cleantech cluster in the Toronto area. Mississauga-based 6N Silicon Inc. announced today that it has raised $6 million in venture capital financing through a round led by Ventures West and Yaletown Venture Partners. The company, founded in 2006 by Scott Nichol, has developed a proprietary process for purifying inexpensive, readily available metallurgical grade silicon into solar grade silicon. The company believes its low-cost process can help clear the silicon bottleneck for PV manufacturers. “Ontario and Canada have the opportunity to develop a domestic solar industry that includes the entire manufacturing value chain and 6N’s technology will play a part in that,” said Nichol in a statement.

You may recall that 6N is also receiving funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada to develop a pilot manufacturing line for its process. SDTC is contributing $4 million to this project.

My podcast today is an interview with Rob McMonagle, senior energy consultant to the City of Toronto and former executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association. Rob chats about Toronto’s new climate plan and highlights some of the more interesting initiatives that are in the works. If you live in Toronto, you may want to have a listen…

My podcast today is an interview with Rob McMonagle, senior energy consultant to the City of Toronto and former executive director of the Canadian Solar Industries Association. Rob chats about Toronto’s new climate plan and highlights some of the more interesting initiatives that are in the works. If you live in Toronto, you may want to have a listen…