Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries has received a multi-million dollar boost from the federal government for a green initiative looking to turn a waste product into potential profits.
On Oct. 13, Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver announced a $4.5 million dollar investment into the company’s bio-methanol purification project. Al-Pac was one of two Alberta-based pulp and paper companies to receive money from over $80 million being invested into the industry in efforts to stimulate innovation and efficiency across the country.
In a press release, Fort McMurray-Athabasca Member of Parliament Brian Jean said that broad investment into forestry protects local jobs and maintains the federal government’s efforts to keep Canada’s economy strong.
“New technologies are helping mills create innovative products and reduce their environmental footprint. These are important steps to ensuring the long-term viability of the forest industry,” he said.
Al-Pac investigated the potential of turning the methanol into a revenue stream in 2009. Dubbed “wood alcohol” upon its discovery in 1661, the substance is present in all trees the company processes.
In a partnership with Canadian engineering firm A.H. Lundberg Systems Limited, they developed a way to produce grade AA bio-methanol. The 99.85 per cent methanol is the highest purity ever before produced by a Kraft process mill.
Under the current system the company simply burns off the impure gas in its kiln alongside other waste products.
The new system will begin purifying the bio-methanol by the first quarter of 2012. Tie-ins to equipment were made during the spring 2011 maintenance shutdown.
Al-Pac president and chief operating officer Al Ward explained that the new equipment will collect the gas, distill it, then compress it into liquid, making it easier to store and transport.
That liquid methanol will then be used in the company’s pulp whitening operations, as it is essential to the production of chlorine dioxide, a product Al-Pac already mixes on-site.
The company currently imports their methanol, meaning the new system will cut down on both time and the impact of market forces.
They will also be able to sell the excess liquid to local companies, as methanol can be used as a solvent, antifreeze and fuel, and in the production of formaldehyde.
“Alberta-Pacific is here for the long-term and today’s funding announcement makes our goal of becoming a more diversified manufacturer a reality.” Ward said.
Twelve companies from across Canada received similar funding under three federal forestry stimulus programs. The investment into Al-Pac stemmed from the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program.
The program sets out $100 million to be dished out over four years for projects that “implement new technologies leading to non-traditional high-value forest products and renewable energies,” the federal government’s website states.
