Thunder Bay Pulp Mill in Canada Receives CAD 2.4 Million to Advance Boiler and Chemical Plant Upgrades

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 17, the Government of Ontario, Canada announced that it would provide more than CAD 2.4 million to Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper to plan upgrades to the boilers and chemical plant at its Thunder Bay production site. Once the project is implemented, the mill's daily kraft pulp production is expected to increase by 11%, and the use of forest biomass in the energy system will be expanded.

The upgrade plan covers the boilers and chemical production systems required for pulp production. The upgraded equipment is expected to reduce bleaching chemical use by approximately 30% while cutting annual natural gas consumption by more than 5 million cubic meters. Estimates released by the provincial government show that this natural gas reduction is equivalent to the annual heating consumption of about 2,000 households in Northern Ontario.

With the boiler system upgrade, the mill's additional annual forest biomass demand is expected to exceed 130,000 tonnes. The additional feedstock will come from regional forestry operations and wood processing by-products and will be used in the mill's energy system, with the related demand covering supply chain links such as harvesting, transportation, and loading and unloading.

Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper is one of the existing large-scale pulp production sites in northwestern Ontario, and kraft pulp production involves cooking, chemical recovery, bleaching, and steam energy systems. This round of provincial funding will first be used for planning the boiler and chemical plant upgrades, and the project is currently still in the upgrade plan and preliminary engineering stage.

Ontario's Thunder Bay forestry funding this time totals more than CAD 2.5 million. In addition to the Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper project, it also includes planning for biomass power generation equipment and studies on upgrading other forest product production lines. The Thunder Bay project received more than CAD 2.4 million of this amount, making it the main project in this round of funding.