With the $37.5 million boiler upgrade at the mill nearing completion this week, Howe Sound Pulp and Paper (HSPP) has just found out they will get another $780,000 for further energy efficiency upgrades.
The money comes from the $1-billion Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program (PPGTP), which was created in 2009 to help Canadian pulp and paper companies that produce black liquor improve their energy efficiency, environmental performance and capacity to generate renewable energy.
Black liquor is a term used for the liquid by-product of the kraft paper production process. That liquid contains more than half of the energy content of the wood fed into the kraft process. A boiler is then used to recover some of that energy.
Money for HSPP's boiler upgrade came from the PPGTP earlier this year, as well as $7-million for an evaporator upgrade that was completed last August.
This latest announcement of $780,000 will be used to cut down on the need to reheat water used in the pulp and paper process, which will lower the mill's energy consumption.
"We've discovered places where we are sewering or allowing hot water to go into our effluent system while we're heating water someplace else to go into the process. So we're going to install pumps and valves and piping so the hot water is redirected to places where we need the hot water. That will result in a lower steam consumption, so we'll require less energy to heat the water," said Fred Fominoff, general manager of fibre and energy at HSPP.
He said staff at HSPP are constantly looking for ways to improve the mill's energy efficiency and pump more energy into the grid.
"The ultimate intent, of course, is to create renewable energy for a contract we have in place with BC Hydro," Fominoff said.
He expects this latest energy saving project to take about a week to install once all the planning is done.
"We've got to engineer the required piping, what kind of pumps, what kind of valves and then buy the equipment and then schedule a time to install it. Because these are continuous flows, it will probably require some down time. We'll have to choose a time when that area of the plant is down to make the installation," he said.
He expects the upgrades to be in place by March 2012 at the latest, but notes the mill would like to see the work done before this winter as cooler temperatures cause more heat to be lost from the pipes.
