Canadian Pacific Railway has signed a deal with a First Nations power cogeneration company to dispose of its scrap railroad ties.
CPR announced an agreement Friday with Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp., which plans to have its first gasification plant operating by spring 2008 at Ashcroft, B.C., west of Kamloops.
Rather than simply burning, the planned plant would gasify waste biomass such as wood, creating a combustible gas that can then run a generator feeding power into existing transmission grids, thus lowering greenhouse gas emissions, CPR explained.
The deal calls for CPR to haul 250,000 scrap ties to the ACC plant each year. CPR said the B.C. interior location will cut the transportation time to dispose of used ties.
ACC proposes a number of small-footprint gasification plants, ranging in power production capacity from 10 kilowatts to one megawatt each.
