BioCrude Project Game Changer for Canfor Pulp and the City
l-r Canfor Pulp President Brett Robinson, Ministry of Forests John Martin, Licella Fibre’s Dr. Len Humphreys and Derek Nighbor of Forest Products Association of Canada
Prince George, B.C. – Canfor Pulp’s partnership with Licella Fibre Fuels of Australia, will put Prince George on the map says Canfor Pulp’s Vice President of Operations, Martin Pudlas “It’s a really exciting thing for the City of Prince George, it will make the City known on a global basis.”
Dr. Len Humphreys, CEO of Licella Fibre Fuels says the pulp and paper operations in Prince George, “Are already one of the world’s largest bio refineries What you focus on though is refining one particular thing from the tree, cellulose, which makes the fibre . What we focus on, is refining everything else from the tree you don’t normally want.”
The partnership will use Licella’s technology, which has already proven to be successful, to create bio-crude from waste streams from the Canfor Pulp’s Prince George operations.
While the bio-crude can be used to create fuels for traditional uses, it can also be used to create a wide variety of chemicals, not unlike its fossil fuel cousin. “It’s really about getting the most out of the precious resource and dowry that we have and we are very excited about this announcement” says Brett Robinson, President of Canfor Pulp.
Dr. Humphreys says this kind of move will also “Add profitability and sustainability” to the company.
Canfor Pulp will be developing a feasibility plan for building an expansion to the Intercon facility to create biocrude. A decision on construction would be made once that plan has been completed and the dollar figure is known. Martin Pudlas expects such a decision would be made in about a year.
Pudlas says if the biocrude production proves to be successful, a similar facility will be added to Canfor Pulp’s Northwood operation.
Then there’s the refining opportunity. “Certainly we are good friends with Husky” says Pudlas, who says with the Husky refinery just across the road “It would be an obvious choice given the logistics.” To date there haven’t been any discussions with Husky about refining the biocrude, Pudlas says they were not in a position to start those discussions until the partnership with Licella was made public.
If the expansion is approved, it would mean new jobs and new training for existing employees.
Comments
Amazing news for this town, I hope another moron does not gets in the way of this project.
Perhaps you could explain how this process would be amazing news.
Seems to me that the process uses wood waste to produce biocrude,so the question is, is their sufficient wood waste in the area to supply the biocrude needs??
In other words, will we be using the wood waste presently used to produce pellets, and finger joint lumber, to produce biocrude, and if so, does this mean that those other industries will suffer as a result of a shortage of wood waste.??
Just askin.
It’s very hard to explian in full detail but, they use a byproduct called weak black liquor from the chemical recovery process. They normally recover the chemical and through a process, is reused to make white liquor to digest the wood fiber. They would take a portion of this black liqour and turn it into crude. They do not use waste wood. Just byproducts from the exsiting fibre digestion process.
In the end it just makes the mill more efficient and more sustainable by creating another revenue stream from a byproduct. These byproducts normally wouldn’t be as efficiently recovered in the mills steam and recovery processes. It’s a good thing.
Palopu…
The partnership will use Licella’s technology, which has already proven to be successful, to create bio-crude from waste streams from the Canfor Pulp’s Prince George operations.”
From waste streams from the pulp mills…
Seems like your answer was in the article.
Papermaker >>>
Palopu was not commenting about the success of the technology of conversion.
He was asking if there is enough waste to satisfy the many uses for the waste which has already been found – finger joint lumber, MDF, pellets, co-gen, MDF, pellets. The pellet plant south of Quesnel has already shut down for the rest of the year due to fibre supply problems. The Chief Forester will soon be releasing his AAC decision. It will likely reflect the early part midterm effect of the MPB impact.
Palopu’s question is quite legitimate and has nothing to do with the success of the technology from an Australian company.
As for the implementing the technology in one or more Canfor operations, that has been undergoing some tests over the last year. As a result of those successful tests, a partnership was formed which is moving into the next phase which would determine the financial and likely marketable viability of such a product.
If you re-read the article above you will note that “Pudlas says if the biocrude production PROVES TO BE SUCCESSFUL, a similar facility will be added to Canfor Pulp’s Northwood operation.”
So, Canfor has not determined yet whether the next phase will be successful.
Go to licella.com.au/breaking-news-licella-enters-into-biofuels-biochemical-joint-venture-with-canfor-pulp and you can read in a bit more detail of what has been going on and what the intention of the partnership is and why Licella has entered into the joint venture with Canfor.
From that site: “This joint venture will move Licella into the lucrative North American biofuels-biochemical market, where greater value and opportunity exist vs the current conventional oil market. Within the North Amercian markets exists the opportunity today to sell a barrel of biocrude oil for between USD$120-$140”
That is the driver for Licella.
It goes on to say that the partnership will investigate opportunities to integrate Licella’s upgrading platform into Canfor Pulp’s kraft and mechanical pulp mills to ECONOMICALLY convert biomass, including wood residues from Canfor Pulp’s kraft pulping processes, into biocrude oil, to produce next generation biofuels and biochemicals.
There is more to research than just lab work. The implementation engineering part of the exploration has barely begun.
A nice example from Australia of research diversification associated with traditional industries we already have.
This is from the pulp operations not the sawmill. Does not affect lumber or lumber byproducts.
There is no finger joint or pellet producing waste from pulp operations
biocrude, I wonder if they are talking about black liquor.
Technology, changes what use to be waste byproducts into meaningful products. 70 years ago all the parts of the log that was outside of the cant, was going to the burner.
Well if Brett is excited so am I, it is not just pulp and paper anymore. They produce electricity and waste of coarse, some goes into lagoons some does not. I wish I knew more about Brett’s plans, I guess we will find out soon enough. Paper is a bit of a dying thing you need to change with the times.
I think, or hope that our wood is special enough that our mills will be around for a while. I am sure they are not going to give the biocrude away, so they should be able to make money from it as well.
Paper is a dying thing, but not ours…
Always like a good story with growth and new jobs.
My understanding is that they would use wood waste such as sawdust, etc and turn it into biocrude. So this is the same waste that is used for pellets, co-generation, etc;
If you look at the recent announcements by the Government in regards to reducing the allowable cut in the Prince George Forest District, you would see that we will be facing a shortage of viable timber in this area. So a shortage of timber, means that we could be looking at a few more mill closures. Closures would mean less wood waste, and if Canfor increases its use of wood waste, then we could see a shortage of that product.
Furthermore the beetle killed timber that was thought to be a viable source for lumber for approx. 15 years seems to be useless in some areas after 10 years.
So, interesting times ahead.
They will be using waste from the existing pulp process. This is stated in multiple news releases by both CFX and Licella Fibre Fuels. CFX uses wood waste for power generation. Any suggestion that they would use raw fibre for bio fuels at this point is pure speculation. I’m awaiting to see the outcome of the pre-feasibility study on this..
If they use the waste from the existing pulp process, perhaps you can tell us where this waste goes at this time, how much waste are we talking about, and would their be sufficient waste to actually produce enough bio fuel to make the project worth while.
The “waste” is spent black liquor, but in a kraft mill the black liquor is recycled and recausticized using calcium oxide and run through again. This recycling process which often involves steam and power generation is what makes the pulping process economical.
Perhaps this process they talk about above has found a way to use a component of the lignin impregnated black liquor to upgrade it to a more valuable product than as just feed stock for boilers and cogeneration. Just guess though.
There is tonnes of black liquor and lignin produced in the kraft pulping process and it’s not good for anything else.
Seems to me just about any direction you drive out of town and for miles around there are still thousands, if not millions, of hectares of waste in the form of standing bug killed pine. Seems to me there is still lots of waste to choose from, it just has to be determined if it is viable, costwise, to get it to the mills for processing.
The technology uses a slipstream of the liquor from the Kraft process, it is then reformed with heat and hydrogen.
From a very high level, Liquor + Hydrogen + Heat = Hydrocarbon distillates (diesel).
Adding this technology will tighten the efficiency of the kraft process and increase profits.
Great News!
Some will complain that nothing ever happens in Prince George!
Some will complain that something is happening in Prince George!
Have you ever noticed that often it’s the same people!
Yep and sometimes you fit into both categories.
As you are one of those guys it is assuredly noticed.
I actually think that this announcement is a good news story, like many that we have seen recently!
New coach and assistant coach for the Cougars! Great news!
Duchess Park Student awarded huge scholarship! Fantastic!
Free Father’s Day Fishing! Wonderful for families to spend time with dear old Dad!
Construction starts for Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick Bravery Park, great news and about time!
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Oh and let’s not forget, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, still laughable and embarrassing! Best joke of the year!
BioCrude? LOL is there any other kind? All petroleum comes from once organic matter. They should call it resicrude or byprocrude or something else more catchy and indicative of its derivation.
As was explained earlier this is pulp mill not sawmill it will not use wood waste it would use weak black liquor which is produced in abundance in a pulp mill
Here is part of the news release relating to Canfor and Licella Fibre joint venture agreement.
The joint venture is a strategic relationship between the two companies that will investigate opportunities to integrate Licella’s unique Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) upgrading platform into Canfor Pulp’s kraft and mechanical pulp mills to economically convert BIOMASS, including WOOD RESIDUES from Canfor Pulp’s kraft pulping processes, into biocrude oil, to produce next generation biofuels and biochemicals. This additional residue stream refining would allow Canfor Pulp to further optimize their pulp production capacity. Upon successful integration of the Cat-HTR technology, the Licella Pulp Joint Venture would look towards offering this solution to other third party Kraft and mechanical pulp mills.
This agreement follows a successful program of trials at Licella’s pilot plants located in New South Wales, Australia, conducted on feedstock from Canfor Pulp’s Prince George pulp mill. In these trials, wood residue streams from Canfor Pulp’s kraft process were successfully converted into a stable biocrude oil.
There is more but you get my drift.
Notice the reference to Biomass,and Wood Residue, and the lack of any mention of black liquor.
Hmmmmm.
This particular news release was dated 28th May 2016 and precedes the news item published above.
Justin who??
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