The Bowman Centre at Sarnia's Western Research Park is tweaking its ambitious plans for an Advanced Bitumen Energy Refinery.
Executive Project Manager Don Wood says prospective companies have expressed concerns that the initial design isn't environmentally sustainable.
As a result, the project has been renamed SABER 21 to reflect a more modern design.
The previously announced $10-billion SABER project would process heavy crude from the Alberta Oil Sands and had been described as a potential game-changer for the economy.
Wood says they're looking at the possibility of introducing bio-based feedstocks to process in conjunction with bitumen, making the refinery a significant raw material source to make things like asphalt and products with a high carbon component.
"What we are trying to do is maximize the products that are made that are non-fuel that use the unique characteristics of bitumen," Wood says.
"We think the outcome is likely to be a more environmentally sustainable project and therefore with much high probability of obtaining (senior government) policy support."
As of late November, 30 local organizations had committed over $100,000 to take the project to a new level.
