Lets hope it makes a difference to the air quality in Prince George ... the mills have been stinking the place out the last few days!

the stink is alot better than it used to be in the mid 90's. Still, and reduction in ordour is good.

The fact they had to turn away orders is a good sign of this part of the economy doing well. Lets hope they and all the mills will be up to maximum soon to get our fellow residents, friends, and neighbours all working again.

What is black liquor and why were they paid to produce it?

Acopolympics. Black Liquor is a by product of the pulping process. It is usually burned to provide steam.

Some time ago the US Pulp Mills added diesel fuel to thier Black Liquor, and burned it. They then applied to the US Government for subsidies on the basis that they were elegible because they were reducing the amount of fuel they were burning.

This was not much more than Voo Doo economics, however they were able to get hundreds of millions of dollars from the Government. The Canadian Government then gave a **black liquor** subsidy to the Canadian Pulp Mills (Canfor to receive $112 Million) with the proviso that the money be spent on **Green Projects**

The whole process is nothing more than transferring tax payers dollars to Industry both in Canada and the USA. It is suspected that the subsidys in the US may be illegal, and could be discontinued this year.

In any event the Canadian Mills have the money now, and with any luck at all we will get some decrease in pollution.

Wikipedia says that black liquor is the spent cooking liquor from the kraft process when digesting pulpwood into paper pulp removing lignin, hemicelluloses and other extractives from the wood to free the cellulose fibres.

I think it is easier to understand black liquor as to how it pertains to the pulp cycle. So, here goes....

The wood chips that you see in the B-trains are delivered to the pulp mill and are offloaded and screened. The chips are then fed into the digester (the big tall building at the pulp mill) and cooked under pressure in a steam heated chemical solution. The chemical used for cooking is called white liquor.

The pulp that is created in the pulping process above must be separated from the liquor. The liquor that was used for cooking is now called weak black liquor. It is no longer useful for cooking. It is sent to something called an evaporator to make it stronger by evaporatoring off liquid. It is now strong black liquor.

Strong black liquor is then burned in something called a recovery boiler. Another pretty tall building at the pulp mill, but with a big stack.

The black liquor contains organic and inorganic material. The organic material burns and releases great quantities of heat that is used to generate steam. The inorganic material falls to the bottom of the boiler and pours out holes in the bottom, this is called smelt.

The smelt is directed into a weak chemical solution and it is now called green liquor. The green liquor gets caustic chemicals added to it and gets converted back to white liquor. The white liquor is now sent back to the digester to cook more chips.

So, black liquor is just a part of the liquor cycle. Black to green to white.

So, no one was really paid to produce black liquor per se, but our friends to the south (the U.S.) took advantage of a tax credit and received a giant subsidy from the U.S. Government for every litre (well, probably gallon in their case) of black liquor burned under the guise of it being an alternative fuel........which it is really.

This could have decimated the pulp industry outside of the U.S., so the Canadian Government annouced a program where Canadian pulp producers could receive funds based on how much black liquor they burn. Hence, the $122 million that you have probably heard about.

One thing that is pretty cool, at least I think, is that the money has to go towards environmental improvements.

Good for Prince George!

If you actually read all this, sorry for my rambling explanation that is probably all wrong, but this is rough and dirty how she goes......

Thanks Palopu and Ouch. It's clearer now.