News

UBC Pulp and Paper Center wins $C30k Honeywell grant
Honeywell has presented to the University of British Columbia (UBC) a $C30, 000 grant to support research at the University’s Pulp and Paper Centre. The grant will fund joint industrial-academic supervision of graduate student thesis projects and larger research programs, particularly in the area of control engineering.

“Honeywell has long helped our center realize exceptional results in the research, development and application of industry tools, and we look forward to many more similar successes,” says Dr. Richard Kerekes, director of the UBC Pulp and Paper Center. “We are particularly looking forward to new research initiatives in our process control program, which is ably headed by Dr. Guy Dumont.”

Since 1989, research teams from Honeywell and the Center have collaborated on education, consultation, research and seminars.

A recent collaborative effort in process control, IntelliMap Version 3, illustrates the success of joint university-industry research. The software tool for paper-making control systems received the University-Industry Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), as well as the IEEE Control Systems Technology Award.
Gary Burma, director of the Honeywell Center of Excellence in Vancouver, said: “The collaboration between Honeywell and UBC has been successful because our research goals and expertise are closely aligned. Both institutions share the desire to extend successful track records in producing innovative solutions to practical engineering problems in the pulp and paper industry.”

www.honeywell.com; www.ppc.ubc.ca.

New owner for Samoa Pacific Cellulose

PPM Finance, Inc. said in August that it accepted Stockton Pacific Enterprises, Inc.’s bid to purchase the assets of Samoa Pacific Cellulose, LLC. Stockton, a privately held company incorporated in Delaware, will continue operations at the Samoa, CA, pulp mill.
New spending is planned for the mill which manufactures bleached and unbleached kraft pulp mainly for overseas markets, as well as specialty pulps for the electrical and home construction industries.

Brent Hawkins, Stockton’s president, told Paper Industry that Korea forms about 50% of its market, China about 40%, the remaining 10% being sold in places such as Malaysia and Germany to be used for products such as filters and loudspeaker cones. Some clients in China and Korea use the mill’s products as reinforcing fibers for recycled linerboard.
According to Hawkins, “We can’t sell in the US because there is no railroad serving the mill. I can ship the pulp for $50 a ton anywhere in the world but it costs $128 a ton to ship to New York City.”

Samoa has upgraded efficiency and product development over the past three years at the former Louisiana-Pacific mill. It is certified as the only 100% totally chlorine free (TCF) kraft pulp mill in North America. More recently, the company has developed the technology to manufacture wood-free market pulp.

The company says it has a three-point plan:

• Continue to produce bleached and unbleached wood pulp for world markets using, if it can, residual wood chips from northern California. Redwood and Douglas fir are the softwood furnishes and tan oak is the hardwood. However, Hawkins said the California chip supply is shrinking, mainly because of environmental legislation, and the mill’s chips are coming from southern Oregon. According to Hawkins, Stockton is currently taking legal action over the stifling of the supply chain.

• Expand the development and manufacture of Samoa Cane, its trademarked wood-free kraft pulp produced from Arundo Donax cane plants, a renewable agricultural resource “which grows to maturity 40 times faster than a tree,” according to Hawkins. Stockton will develop a regional supply infrastructure to provide the raw material for Samoa Cane. The patent covers the cooking and bleaching methods, said Hawkins. He said the cane’s density is better than hardwood and it does well in storage. Stockton “chips” the cane while it is green and then dries it. “The same sugars break down as do those in hardwood,” he said. A pilot plant presently runs for about two days at a time. Eventually, the mill’s schedule will be 14 days per month on cane and 14 days per month on wood.

• Develop worldwide production of wood-free pulps through licensing or joint ventures. Because the proprietary technology is compatible with existing kraft mills, conversion to Samoa Cane would require little capital cost, says Stockton. A major focus will be on China and the development of a domestic fiber source for its rapidly expanding paper industry.

In September, Stockton retained International Forest Products Corp., Foxboro, MA, as its exclusive world-wide agent.

Mohawk gets wind power

Mohawk Paper Mills says it is the first paper mill in the US to use wind power for its manufacturing operations. Mohawk started purchasing wind energy from Community Energy, Inc., for its mill at Cohoes, NY, August 2 this year. The wind turbines are on New York State’s largest wind farm near Syracuse. The 1.5-MW turbines are said to be highly efficient and very quiet.

The power Mohawk is using translates into 4 GW/h of pollution-free power, enough to make 12,000 tons of paper. According to Community Energy, this helps to remove over 6.1 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the air.

Part of the wind energy will be used to produce Mohawk Color Copy 100% Recycled, says the company. This new paper is chlorine-free with 100% post-consumer fiber and is certified by Green Seal.

“We see this grade as the environmental benchmark for premium printing papers,” said Craig Slemp, Mohawk’s senior vice-president of marketing and business planning, in a press release.
www.NewWindEnergy.com; www.mohawkpaper.com.

Mercantile acquires Tristar from Sam Young

Mercantile Acquisition Corporation has acquired the remaining shareholding interest in Tristar from Sam Young.

Mercantile is invested in 11 Western Canadian-based companies employing approximately 1200 employees with annual revenues of approximately C$200 million.

In addition to the sale of his shareholdings, Sam Young has retired from his position as president and CEO. Bruce Wendel has joined Tristar as president, bringing extensive experience from investment, banking and insurance. Bruce serves as a director and advisor to several western Canada-public and private businesses in the manufacturing and resource industries.

Also joining Tristar is Mark Tayler as Operations Manager, bringing 15 years in manufacturing and fabrication for the pulp & paper sector. PI
Tristar Industries Ltd., www.tristarind.com

SP Newsprint sets another world record

During ceremonies at the mill on June 19, 2003, Metso Paper presented the award to SP Newsprint, Dublin, GA, for setting a new world-record for the most productive newsprint machine in 2002.

The new record, 1069.1 kg/cm/day was a “significant accomplishment” according to J-P. Beaudoin, Metso Paper’s vice-president, paper machine lines, North America, who presented the wooden plaque to Jack Carter, mill manager, SP Newsprint.

Said Beaudoin, “In the North American market where shutdowns and cutbacks are everyday facts, setting a world’s production record is truly impressive. We congratulate the management for their vision and courage to set their goals so high. And also commend the workforce who turned those challenging objectives into reality.”

Carter accepted the award on behalf of the employees of SP Newsprint who he thanked for achieving the fantastic results. www.metsopaper.com