Fraser Papers will invest $17.5 million in biomass boiler, new kilns and equipment

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By Mark Rickard

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Plaster Rock's main industry received a new lease on life recently when Fraser Papers announced a massive upgrade to the Plaster Rock sawmill boilers, two new kiln driers and sawmill improvements, Paul McKinley, general manager of the lumber operations, told the Victoria Star last week.

McKinley confirmed the Fraser Papers board of directors recently announced $17.5 million for the Plaster Rock sawmill upgrades. Work on these upgrades will start this fall and continue throughout the winter, he stated, and the manager is upbeat about Plaster Rock's future.

"This is so critical to the future of this mill. This new boiler and upgrades really move Plaster Rock in the cost curve and the pecking order of lumber mills in the east here. We're very excited about it. The folks at the Plaster Rock mill have weathered the storm, all the trials and tribulations, downtimes and shutdowns and everything we have had. People have hung in there," McKinley said. "They pull together and produce like the dickens, always meeting targets and exceeding targets, and doing it all safely."

The mill conversion is projected to be completed by July 1, 2009, but mill management hopes to "get this up and running before that."

"We are buying a new 80,000-pound-per-hour boiler to replace our existing steam plant, which is primarily made up of oil burning equipment right now. There is a huge improvement there in terms of cost and environment. Burning oil generates lots of greenhouse gases while biomass doesn't generate any. We will eliminate anywhere between 17,000 and 18,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas on an annual basis."

McKinley said the biomass that the mill will be burning is waste bark currently stored at the mill. Some of this waste material is trucked to Fraser's Edmundston facilities for their biomass-fired boilers.

"When the new boiler starts up we will not be generating electricity, but the boiler that we are installing will be designed to have the capability to install a turbine and generate electricity at a later date, if that becomes economic to do so."

The mill will also receive two new dry kilns that will dry lumber in a fraction of the time of the mill's existing kilns. The kilns will dry lumber in 36 to 48 hours for most softwood logs, compared to five days to four weeks for the existing units. All the steam and heat requirements for the kilns will be powered by the biomass plant.

McKinley said the new plant should result in improved air quality for the Plaster Rock area. In addition to the greenhouse gas elimination, the biomass boiler will meet modern emission requirements.

"The new boilers are very efficient to converting bark into energy verses the old antiquated system we currently have in Plaster Rock."

Inside the sawmill, new equipment will be purchased to upgrade recovery and efficiency – how much marketable wood is achieved from each saw-log. The upgrades include new laser guided scanners and other state-of-the-art technology.

"It will mean about the same manpower working at the mill, but we will be generating more lumber, which means we will have to run more planer shifts which means more work for people," McKinley predicted.

Plaster Rock sawmill is now running, but a projected downturn in the lumber market this winter could mean another shutdown. The Fraser Papers mill in Juniper will be operating for a single shift starting in late September for a three- to four-month period.

In June, the New Brunswick Liberal government announced a $40-million loan for the struggling forestry company, and, at that time, a biomass energy source for the Plaster Rock mill operations was high on the priority list.

"Energy today plays a much greater role than it did even last year. It's up 15 per cent over last year. To eliminate the use of oil would mean dramatically reducing our energy cost," stated Peter Gordon, president and CEO of Fraser Papers during the funding announcement in Edmundston.

The $40-million loan is for up to six and a half years at the government's standard industry rate of 4.7-per-cent interest.

"Combined with a recent $60-million equity offering, the loan will allow us to upgrade our equipment and lower costs," said Gordon.

Fraser Papers employs 820 people in New Brunswick.