Prince George, B.C.- Canfor Pulp is working with Exploration Place and FP Innovations to track the effectiveness of major equipment upgrades at its pulpmills in Prince George.

 

With $122 million in funding from the Federal Government Green Transformation Fund, and a further $37 million of its own money, Canfor Pulp has embarked on four projects which will improve air quality in Prince George. 

 

The projects are as follows:

1.      Odour Reduction: Start up Spring of 2011, projected to reduce intensity and frequency of odour events by 60%

2.      Biofuel Utlilization Project: Start up, winter of 2010. Reduce reliance on fossil fuels and lower carbon footprint by allowing mills to better utilize black liquor as a biofuel

3.      Recovery Boiler low Odour conversion: Start up fall of 2011, increase the ability to produce energy through the combustion of biofuel while lowering odour and particulate emissions

4.      Power Boiler Upgrade: Start up 2012. Allow for increased power production from biofuels wile lowering particulate emissions and improving energy efficiency

 

The General Manager for Canfor Pulp in Prince George, Robert Dufresne, says the most noticeable improvement will be the reduction in odour.   Dufresne says there may still be some odour issues, but while the Pulp mills are the largest contributor to that  problem, there are some other sources, over which they have no control, such as landfill and sewage treatment plants.

 

A monitoring station has been established at Exploration Place. ( photo at right)

 

This portable monitoring station will continuously keep track of wind speed and direction, measurements of particulate and sulphur, and comes complete with communications electronics which can send the data to experts for analysis.

 

You can track the monitoring data online at www.bcairquality.ca

 

Data will be collected before, during and after upgrades to the mills to chart the changes.   Dufresne says while Canfor is involved  in the equipment upgrades, it has no involvement in the collection of data, or its interpretation, “We are just seeing the data the same time as others. It’s a third party that’s running those measurements and showing the results, so we’re not involved at all.”

 

 The upgrades will also reduce emissions of fine particulate, but Dufresne says the mills are not the only contributor to that air quality issue in Prince George. He says the pulpmills are responsible for about 10% of the fine particulate in the bowl area, “So we are expecting to see 1% of that 10% disappear. Will it be enough to measure it? We will definitely be able to measure our own stack, our own sources will see those reductions of 50% , 70% of those big sources, but here in the bowl at those stations (monitoring), we’re not sure yet, if we are going to be able to see it.” Dispersion modelling has shown there are other, more significant contributors to fine particulate levels in the bowl area of the city, including road dust, truck traffic and CN’s activities.

 

On days when odour levels in the bowl area are high, staff at Exploration Place will take manual samples. They have been equipped with vacuum canisters which, when activated, suck in a quantity of air. The samples will then be sent to a lab for analysis.

 

“This is another good news announcement” says Prince George Mayor Dan Rogers, “It shows the level of collaboration that’s occurring in the community to address the significant issue of air quality.”