Ron Coles hopes to make the first sale of Atlantec's sugar beet ethanol technology before the middle of next year. (CBC)

A major ethanol research facility in Cornwall, P.E.I. is one step closer to opening.

At a public meeting Tuesday night, Stantec Consulting said it found there is would be no environmental problems created by the Atlantec Bioenergy plant, which intends to research producing ethanol from sugar beets.

Henderikus Stutvoet owns the Dutch Inn, just down the street from the Atlantec Bioenergy site, and he was at the meeting to see if his concerns were being addressed.

"The smell coming from it that could impact our facility," he said.

But Dale Conroy of Stantec Consulting said that shouldn't be an issue. He said the plant will have a number of environmentally-friendly technologies in place.

"For instance, they're collecting rain water off the roof and using the rain water they collect to process the sugar beets, and clean the equipment," said Conroy.

Commercial facility previously proposed

Five years ago Atlantec attracted controversy with its proposal to build a commercial plant on P.E.I. that would produce 85 million litres of ethanol a year. That would have required 10,000 hectares of sugar beets in a four-year rotation. The provincial government didn't like the idea.

But the research facility though is backed by $3 million in government grants and loans, and Atlantec VP Ron Coles is optimistic about the future.

"We have a number of clients ready to build commercial facilities based on our technology," said Coles.

Atlantec is confident the Stantec report will lead to environmental approval from the province in mid-January, and it can then move into full fledged research and testing. That could lead to the company's first commercial deal before the middle of next year.