Canada has announced nearly C$19 million in federal support to expand the London Digester in Ontario, the country's largest food-waste anaerobic digestion plant producing renewable natural gas. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson unveiled the investment on August 24 for StormFisher Environmental, a Generate Upcycle subsidiary, as Canada seeks to divert more organic material from landfills and increase domestic low-carbon fuel production.
The C$70 million expansion is scheduled for completion in 2027. Natural Resources Canada said the upgraded plant will be able to produce an additional 450,000 gigajoules of renewable natural gas each year, an amount the department compared with the annual energy needs of about 4,500 homes. Total expected production capacity will reach 675,000 gigajoules annually.
The facility accepts source-separated municipal organics and food and beverage residues from industrial, commercial and institutional customers. Anaerobic digestion breaks down that material without oxygen, capturing biogas that can be refined into pipeline-quality fuel rather than allowing decomposing waste to release methane at a landfill. The project will also produce 86,000 additional tonnes of nutrient-rich organic fertilizer per year for farms in southwestern Ontario.
The federal contribution comes through Natural Resources Canada's Clean Fuels Fund, which is designed to reduce the financial risk of building or expanding clean-fuel facilities. Canada's public grants database lists the StormFisher agreement at C$18,790,124 and says it supports the same additional annual output of 450,000 gigajoules of gas and 86,000 tonnes of fertilizer.
Ontario's environmental registry shows that the 4.27-hectare London site already holds approval to process as much as 225,000 tonnes of organic feedstock per year. The approval covers waste handling, air and noise emissions and industrial sewage, while requiring inspections, records, feedstock and digestate testing, complaint procedures and environmental safeguards. Those conditions provide the regulatory framework for the expanded operation.
Federal officials presented the project as part of Canada's path toward net-zero emissions by 2050 and a more circular economy. Generate Upcycle President Bill Caesar said public-private financing helped make the expansion possible. The central test will come as construction proceeds toward 2027: whether the plant delivers its planned fuel and fertilizer volumes while meeting Ontario's operating and environmental conditions.
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