Innovative Technology Adds Value to Wood Affected by Mountain Pine Beetle
A research pilot project backed by Innoventures Canada (I-CAN™) has ensured that paper pulp mills facing wood shortages due to mountain pine beetle infestations can not only survive the blight, but thrive. Wood from trees killed by the mountain pine beetle can now be used to manufacture quality newsprint paper, following the successful pilot test of new sensor and processing technology facilitated through I-CANTM.
This new technology has helped Alberta Newsprint Company (ANC) retain its economic footing by continuing to make paper products out of the mountain pine beetle wood. ANC and other newsprint companies across Canada can now access this suite of technologies to maintain paper quality in the face of the mountain pine beetle infestation.
The insect has attacked forests and put businesses and communities in Alberta and British Columbia under economic distress. Prior to this technology, paper mills in B.C. had been forced to shut down when their woodchip feedstock was hit by the infestation, since the beetle-killed wood is weaker, drier and not well-suited to papermaking. This has devastated their local communities and economies.
The new technologies in producing quality newsprint paper from wood damaged by the mountain pine beetle were displayed in November 2009 by ANC at their Whitecourt plant to their research and funding partners. ANC and I-CANTM led this project by manufacturing, installing, calibrating and testing custom-designed equipment and sensors, while I-CANTM member Alberta Research Council (ARC) provided research services.
In preparation for the pilot project, ARC conducted a series of pulping and bleaching process studies from beetle-infested wood and identified several characteristics. The pulp mill installed five new ARC sensors on the production line to detect and respond to changes in both wood supply and mill process water quality, better equipping them to handle beetle-killed wood’s drier, weaker and darker characteristics.
Pulp samples were sent to German paper machine manufacturer Voith, which custom engineered a press to handle the beetle influences while maintaining ANC’s premium sheet quality and throughput. This ANC pulp mill was the test site for the sensor technology, which has proven so successful in converting inferior beetle attacked fibre into high-grade newsprint that their production has increased 10 percent over their previous record volumes.
The pilot was part of a $28-million, three-year project aimed at using new technology to counter the effects of using mountain pine beetle-killed wood in pulping operations. The pilot plant retrofit was announced in September 2008 and the results are now out. "This research partnership came up with an innovative answer to a unique problem — and it’s good news for the people who work here as well as for the folks in the community of Whitecourt," says ANC technical director Gary Smith. But the impact could be even farther reaching. "This technology could be employed at other facilities facing the same challenge, thanks to the foresight of our partners."
"ARC is delighted with the success of the pilot field trial at ANC. We are looking forward to helping deploy this technology in other paper mills," ARC President and CEO John McDougall said in November 2009. McDougall has since left ARC and is currently President of the National Research Council, as well as Executive Director of I-CANTM.
Funding and support for this project came from ANC, federal-provincial Community Development Trust (CDT), Alberta Forestry Research Institute, ARC, National Research Council Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and Woodlands County.
This project has been nominated for a 2010 Alberta Science and Technology (ASTech) award in the area of bio sciences.
