BATH, ON, June 11 /CNW/ - Today, Lafarge North America Inc., thecountry's largest cement manufacturer and Performance Plants Inc. (PPI), aKingston-based biotechnology company, announced a multi-year agreement to growand develop clean energy biomass grasses and woods for use as fuel at theLafarge Cement Plant in Bath.

For Lafarge, the joint project is part of the company's ongoing publiccommitment to reduce its carbon footprint including the use of renewable andlocal fuel alternatives.

"The future of the environment, our business and the communities we servedepends on reducing the need for fossil fuels to run our operations," saidRobert Cumming, environmental and public affairs manager at the Lafarge BathCement Plant. "We're proud to team up with Performance Plants who hasextensive knowledge in biomass technology."

The companies are also partnering with the Sustainable Bioeconomy Centreat Queen's University and the University of Guelph, Kemptville Campus tofurther evaluate the program with a special focus on assessing the fullpotential of non-food plant species as fuel.

For Performance Plants, the four-year agreement is an opportunity tocreate enhanced non-food crops that are able to be grown on less productivefarmland. By combining crop types and PPI's unique trait technologies, fuelusers will be able to create a customized biomass fuel to meet their specificneeds.

"Our challenges with biomass and biofuel energy are maximization of cropyields, crop consistency and cost efficiency," explains Peter Matthewman,president of Performance Plants. "This is where our technology will beinstrumental to develop next generation seeds that are customized for specificindustrial users looking for alternative clean energy sources. Biomass derivedbiofuels provide a sustainable and economically viable solution for reducingglobal carbon emissions."

John Gerretsen, MPP for Kingston and The Islands, praised the initiative."I commend Lafarge and Performance Plants as well and Queen's University andthe Kemptville Campus of Guelph University for this innovative researchproject into sustainable energy sources," he said. "This is exactly the kindof initiative that will contribute to achieving our greenhouse gas reductionobjectives."

By enhancing a crop's own traits, PPI has a suite of patentedweatherproof technologies that deliver more abundant, consistent andcost-effective harvests for farmers and feedstock suppliers. PPI is developingnon-food biomass feedstocks that will be grown on land and under conditionsless suitable for food or feed production. These optimized feedstocks willprovide renewable alternatives for industries producing liquid transportationfuels and biochemicals as well as those seeking solid fuels to replace coal.

Non-food grass crops were planted in late May and early June on 25 acresof land adjacent to the Lafarge cement plant and owned by the company.