Biofirm eyes big prize

Bluekey Energy Inc., the Prince George company developing a method to turn pulp mill waste into biodiesel has made it into the top 10 of one of North Americas largest technology business-idea competitions and will know Thursday night if it will come home with some prize money.
Bluekey chief executive officer Theo Warkentin is feeling confident cash will be in hand.
"I dont want to sound pompous, but weve got a really good technology," he said. "Weve taken a 40-year-old waste management system and revolutionized it."
The company is in the process of refining an onsite system to convert so-called "soap," a byproduct of the pulp milling process, into biodiesel good enough to be burned in cars and trucks if not at the mill itself.
As it stands, pulp mills must send the soap out to another plant to turn it into tall oil before it can be converted into biodiesel. Bluekeys process is onsite and cuts out the tall oil step, saving on time, machinery and other costly resources.
Some $300,000 in prize money is up for grabs. Warkentin believes the winners will be those ideas closest to commercialization.
"Whose got the team put together that can actually execute and can get the technologies from the laboratory into where its commercially viable, where its making money," he said.