I don't intend to speak for ten minutes, Mr. Chair, but I thank you very much for the invitation to be here.
Members, it's a pleasure for Iogen Corporation to have the opportunity to appear.
I just want to echo the comments made by Canadian Renewable Fuels Association chair Bliss Baker, and briefly describe cellulose ethanol.
Iogen Corporation is in the cellulose ethanol business. Ethanol is ethanol. It's the same molecule. The unique difference between grain-based ethanol and cellulose ethanol is that grain-based ethanol comes from corn or wheat or barley. In our case, we would not use the corn, we would use the cob and stalks and leaves, or we would use the straw in the case of wheat or barley. The other interesting thing about cellulose ethanol, of course, is that like grain-based ethanol, it has a very good greenhouse gas emission reduction profile, which is part of the goal of Bill C-30.
Iogen is the world leader in this technology. We have a demonstration plant here in Ottawa, right in your backyard. Any of you are welcome to come and have a tour of it. We're the only company in the world to have built a demonstration plant.
This technology has yet to be commercialized in the world. We are looking forward to getting it commercialized, but there are three legs to that stool. One leg is the technology leg, which we're responsible for. Another leg is the financing leg. Third, when you do financing, you have equity and debt. On the equity side, we have our partners, Goldman Sachs and Shell, ready to provide the equity, and we've had a long-term partnership with the Government of Canada. The government has been supporting our research and development over the last number of years. But on the debt side, lenders simply don't take technology risks. They don't lend conventional debt to emerging technologies. There's where the role for government comes in.
Iogen is looking forward to the commercialization of the cellulose ethanol technology. We've had good discussions over the years with a number of countries' governments, including the Canadian government, and we certainly are looking forward to the implementation and commercialization so that we can deliver on both the greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits and the rural economic development benefits that Bliss spoke about a few minutes ago.