Resolute Forest Products pellet plant in Thunder Bay currently produces 45,000 tonnes a year to supply Ontario Power Generation’s biomass-fuelled power plant in Atikokan. Jeremy Palmer, general supervisor of the pellet plant and kilns, is one of 12 Resolute employees who operate the plant. FINDING NEW MARKETS markets – finding new customers. “At Thunder Bay we’d like to produce more, but we’re very far from the market,” Martel says. “We’ve had some small ship-ments here and there that were test ship-ments, but to produce more we need to reach out and develop our customer base. We’re committed at the current production level with 100 per cent going to OPG.” Resolute has a 10-year contract to supply OPG with pellets to run the power plant, but Martel is optimistic it won’t be long before the plant is producing more to meet new domestic demand. “As we go into a fossil-free economy in Ontario – the Ontario government says, ‘Off coal, off natural gas’ – there will be an incentive for people to look at alternatives and those pellets could find their way into that,” he says. GOING GREEN The present impediment to increasing pro-duction at the pellet plant is a matter of While Resolute has no known plans to build pellet plants at its other sawmills across Eastern Canada due to lack of demand, the company has several other green projects on the go. In northwestern Ontario, bark and sawdust from Thunder Bay, Ignace and Atikokan sawmills are funnelled into a 65-MW turbine at the nearby Thunder Bay pulp and paper mill, which is the largest green energy combined heat and power unit in Ontario. The company has similar co-generation facilities at six other sites, producing a com-bined 520.7 MW. Those in Canada include a 43-MW facility at Resolute’s softwood kraft pulp mill in Saint-Félicien, Que., a 28-MW facility at their specialty paper mill in Dolbeau-Mistassini, Que., and a 15-MW facility at their newsprint plant in Gatineau, Que. “We believe in energy and we have a huge drive over the last many years to reduce our carbon footprint,” Martel says. “Our goal is fossil fuel free. We want everything to be green energy. We do use some natural gas in Atikokan for drying wood, and we use some natural gas in Thunder Bay pulp and paper as well, but we’ve dramatically reduced our emissions.” • 563.264.8066 airoflex.com MARCH/APRIL 2017 18 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass March-April 2017: Page 18
