Canrex Biofuels Ltd, Richmond Hill, ON

The origin of our business dates back to 1991, when Founder and CEO, Nick Mashin was awarded a contract to supply cement to a company building a hydroelectric dam in Sierra Leon. The venture to supply cement from Russian sources opened the way to other commodity markets. Over the years since, various agro and energy ventures culminated in the establishment of Canrex Biofuels Ltd. which continues to pursue investment and development of biofuel from algae. Where most biofuel comes from oilseeds such as canola (a Canadian hybrid of rapeseed) and soybean and thus compete with the food chain leading to higher commodity prices, algae grows quickly and yields very high levels of oil; typical oilseeds used to produce biodiesel such as canola and soybean yield approximately 50 gallons per acre, algae can potentially yield as high as 15, 000 gallons per acre. The added advantage of algae cultivation is that it requires enormous quantities of carbon dioxide which can be source from industrial waste outputs.