THUNDER BAY – A pilot project that will look into the commercialization of bio-chemicals harvested from wood products has the potential to transform the forest industry, which is why forestry sector leaders and the government of Canada are investing millions into bringing this innovation to Northern Ontario.
FPInnovations, a not-for-profit research and innovation firm based in Montreal, will be running a Thermal-Mechanical-Pulp-Bio refinery demonstration plant within the Resolute Forest Products Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper Mill, the first of its kind in Canada.
The federal government is investing $5.8 million to the pilot project, including $3 million invested through FedNor and the remaining $2.8 million through Natural Resources Canada. Resolute is investing an additional $3.5 million and is housing the project in its existing recycle plant building.
“It’s a really important announcement today because it really reflects the partnership and it’s a partnership between the federal, provincial governments, as well as industry,” said Patty Hajdu, minister of employment, workforce development, and labour.
The $21 million project by FPInnovations to renew and transform the forestry sector has already received significant investments in 2012 from Resolute, The Ontario Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy, and Natural Resources Canada.
According to Stephane Renou, president and CEO of FPInnovations, the TMP-Bio refinery process breaks down wood into elemental chemicals such as basic sugar and lignin.
“From there we can take those chemicals and put it back into the supply chain and reconstruct other products, plastic, flocculant, actually the entire area of chemicals you see from the petroleum industry we can construct them from wood,” he said.
This process has already been demonstrated at the lab level, but the pilot project in Thunder Bay will be about scaling up that process.
“How do we put it into the large scale, into large volumes?” Renou said. “That is what this facility is about. If we can do that, we can feed our future customers and start to create that pool in the market and show that it can be done at the large scale.”
If the process proves successful, it will then be a matter of finding commercial applications for the products, which could drastically change the forestry sector across North America.
“It’s really putting wood everywhere by transforming the industry from being just a fibre industry to a bio industry,” Renou said.
This transformation is something Resolute is willing to invest in, said Remi Lalonde, general manager of the Resolute Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper Mill.
“I think what’s important is that when we think to the future and what we’re going to be, it’s important we invest in that development so we can create a path forward and have alternatives for the industry that remain viable,” he said.
In the pulp process at the mill, lignin is removed and burned to generate power to offset the cost of electricity. In the papermaking process, lignin is not removed but remains part of the fibre.
Lalonde said the mill in Thunder Bay should be able to supply the fibre to carry out research at the pilot bio refinery, but if the project was to scale up and be used for commercial output, an alternative source of fibre would need to be found.
“At this point, a commercial application for this technology is still probably several years away,” he said.
However, if bio-chemicals become the new leading product in the forest industry, Lalonde said Resolute as a company is in a strong position to make the transition, with idle mills across North American possibly being brought back online.
“We have newsprint mills all over North America that we are not using,” he said. “If we can find a commercial way we might be able to put those to good use. The good thing for Thunder Bay is we are developing the expertise and that knowledge here in that research and development phase.”
Work on setting up the TMP-Bio refinery is expected to begin this year, with all the mechanical components installed by the end of the year. Renou said he expects the pilot project will create jobs in the city, but did not have a definitive number on how many.
