News 1988 Review, March 30, 1988

A LOT OF
THINGS HAVE
CHANGED
INCLUDING ...

COMINCO

Just as skiing has evolved
from the days of Olaus
Jeldness to meet new
challenges, Cominco is
continuing to modernize its
Trail Operations to meet the
challenge of today for
tomorrow.

Meeting challenges is what
success is all about, as the
men and women of Cominco’s
Trail operations know.

FERTILIZERS
ELECTRONIC MATERIALS

March 30, 1988

CELGAR PULP

Company will spend
$90m in next decade

Celgar Pulp Company has embarked on an ambitious
modernization program that will see the company spend
$90 million over the next decade, including $10 million
this year alone.

In fact, Celgar Pulp will spend more in the next three
years on the bleached and semi-bleached kraft pulp mill
than has been spent in the 27 years since the mill was
built.

“It would certainly appear the new owners are
committed to the long-term,” says Jack Heavenor, Celgar
Pulp's Fibre Supply Manager.

Some $48 million of the $90 million total has been
earmarked for improvements to the mill's pollution
control system. The balance — $42 million — will go into
upgrading the mill “to ensure its long-term viability,”
says Production Manager Eric Ross.

Around a table in the mill's conference room, the
mill's said the willi to spend money
where needed is the single biggest change under the new
owners.

‘Some $48 million has
been earmarked for
improvements to the
mill's pollution control
system’

CS

Controller John Lebidoff points out that spending on
mill maintenance, for example, will jump to $4 million in
1988, more than twice the amount spent on maintenance
in other years.

This year, the focus of the company’s capital
expenditure program is a new $6.5 million chip unloading
and distribution system and $3.5 million in improvements
to the recovery boiler.

The two projects are typical of how Celgar Pulp is
tackling its pollution control requirements under the
10-year provincial government variance order, while at
the same time modernizing the mill.

The changes to the chip unloading and distribution
system were, in part precipitated by the fact that trucks
have become more cost effective than rail for
transporting woodchips.

When the mill was first built in 1960, 80 per cent of
its chips came from roundwood. Even in the early 1970s,
when the present chip unloading and distribution system
was put in place, there were still only a few chip trucks
arriving at the mill gates each day as the majority of
purchased chips were delivered by rail.

But as more chips became available from area
sawmills as a result of changes in government Policy,
sawmill technology and economics, Celgar Pulp began
purchasing more and more residual chips and the
transportation of these chips has gradually shifted to
truck from rail.

It has reached the point where today the mill gets all
of its chips from area sawmills — 11 to be exact,
stretching from Golden to Midway. Most of the chips
come by truck. This has forced Celgar Pulp to implement
a new unloading system.

The old system is located just north and in front of
the mill's office.

“It's a problem for us,” explains Heavenor. 'e have
serious congestion in the chip unloading area and the
existing system cannot efficiently handle the volume of
truck traffic.”

So the new unloading system will be located adjacent
to Celgar Road at the rear of the mill.

“The chip traffic is taken away from the main road
through the plant site,” says Heavenor.

But the relocation of the unloading system isn’t the
only new wrinkle. The system will also be able to unload
the largest chip trucks on the road in less than 10
minutes.

With the present system, a single truck can take as
long as 15 to 20 minutes to unload because the truck must
be backed into the unloading area and the cab separated
from the trailer. The trailer is then tilted and the chips
slide out into a holding area.

The new system is much simpler. The truck can
drive straight onto the unloading platform which is then
tilted — cab and all.

“The truck isn't there for 10 minutes,” says
Heavenor.

But Heavenor and Bob Foubister, Chip and Material
Handling Superintendent, say the change to hauling most
of the mill's chips by truck won't mean more trucks. “We
can bring in a lot more volume of chips by truck without
bringing a lot more trucks,” says Foubister.

That's because the new chip trucks can carry 40 per
cent more volume than the older style trucks. In fact,
Heavenor and Foubister say the number of trucks
arriving at the mill should remain about the same.

The mill's unloading area isn't the only part of the
chip system getting a facelift. The way the nine species of
wood chips are distributed into six separate piles will also
change.

The present system blows the chips through pipes
onto the piles but there's one major problem with that
system: it damages the chips by breaking a portion of
them into fines which are not suitable for pulping.

Under the new system, the chips will be transported
on huge conveyor belts about a metre wide, part of which
will be enclosed within steel tubing. The enclosed
conveyor was originally constructed for coal mining, but
Celgar Pulp has adapted it for its chip transportation
purposes.

Foubister explains that the pulp company purchased
the conveyor system from Westar Mining, which didn't
need it after its underground coal mine at Sparwood was
closed.

The entire conveyor system, which will stretch
nearly 1,100 metres and travel more than 22 metres
above the ground, will also save Celgar Pulp up to $1
million a year because it doesn't damage the chips.

The use of belt conveyors rather than a Pneumatic
conveying system for transporting the chips to the
various piles will also result in a reduction of the noise
problem is of frequent concern to the mill's neighbors.
There will still be some chips unloaded from rail cars that
will be handled by a blowing system.

It is also hoped that this conveying system will result
in less windblown wood fines.

The first phase of the system — linking the pulp mill
with the Southern Wood Products sawmill — will be
completed by April 25 with the entire project estimated
to be completed by October, 1988.

COMPUTERIZED INSTRUMENTS . . . Lindsay Ander-
son (left) and John Gleave at work on new com-

puter, which will operate rebuilt recovery boiler.

UP, UP AND AWAY . . . New chip unloading system
like the one featured in the photograph above will

NEW CONVEYOR . . . Bob Foubister, Celgar pulp
mill's chip and material handling superintendent,
shows new chip conveyor system.

be used at Celgar pulp mill. System lifts chip truck
—cab and all.

Mill employs
366 people

Celgar Pulp Company is a joint venture between
CITIC B.C. Inc. (China International Trust and Invest-
ment Corp.), and Power Consolidated (China) Pulp Inc.,
which is owned equally by Power Corp. and Consoli-
dated-Bathurst Inc.

The Celgar pulp mill was the first pulp mill in the
B.C. Interior when it was constructed in 1960. It produces
560 admt a day of bleached and semi-bleached kraft pulp.

The mill employs 366 people, generating nearly $19
million a year in wages.

It spends more than $15 million a year on goods and
services, including $2.1 million in-the Castlegar-Trail
area, and pays $1.3 million a year in municipal and
regional taxes.

The mill is Western Canada’s only custom blend
specialist. Celgar pulp is made from combinations of
hemlock, spruce, pine, larch and Douglas fir.

The chips are segregated into stockpiles by specie,
allowing for accurate blending, top quality and high
uniformity. The species segregation makes Celgar unique
among pulp mills.

Production Manager Eric Ross says the nine
different wood species are the key to Celgar's success.

“You can make different grades of pulp which have
different characteristics.”

For instance, Celfine, a pulp containing cedar, is used
in making medical drape material for surgical gowns
whereas Celect, containing Douglas fir, is used in
catalogue papers and, a recent development, in paper for
decorative laminates for kitchen and bathroom counter
tops.

Last year Celgar shipped 53 per cent of its pulp to
the U.S. and the remainder overseas.

Boiler heart of program

Celgar Pulp Company's recovery boiler is an
imposing sight, standing six stories high and measuring
six metres square. It is located almost at the very centre
of the pulp mill.

But that’s as it should be, because the boiler is the
heart of the mill's $48 million, 10-year pollution upgrading
program.

The total estimated cost of the recovery boiler
modification is $5 million. Because of the experimental
risk aspects of this new technology and the fact that, if
successful, it can be used by all of Canada’s kraft recovery
boilers, the federal government is helping this project
with a $1.5 million IERD grant.

The boiler works on a relatively simple principle:
black liquor residue created in the pulping process is
sprayed into the bottom of the recovery boiler where it is
burned at temperatures reached 1400 degrees Celsius.

The chemicals from the residue drop to the floor of
the boiler and are recovered for use again.

“The key to the whole kraft pulp process is to
recover the used chemicals,” says process engineer Brian
Briscoe. “Without reusing the chemicals the mill would be
shut down because it would not be economical.”

Under ideal conditions, the boiler would remove
almost all of the chemicals and the remainder would be
eliminated by the pulp mill's air emissions scrubber
system.

But the problem is the boiler isn’t recovering enough
chemicals, overloading the scrubber, which in turn can't
do its job properly.

Briscoe is confident the changes to the boiler next
month will improve its efficiency — which will both save
money and reduce pollution.

“Our expectations are we can reduce air emissions to
well below the design maximum for the scrubber, so we
should be back in control.”

Briscoe says the project may sound simple, but it is a
massive effort involving mill management, all of the
various maintenance trades and mill operators.

“It's teamwork all the way,” he said.

Engineering for the boiler modifications is being

coordinated by the Celgar engineering department. Much
of the design work has been contracted out to Sandwell
Swan Wooster, Inc. an internationally-known engineer-
ing firm, whose engineers have conceived the unique
design concepts being incorporated in this project.

Briscoe says the project has required a lot of time. It
has been two years in the making.

Work began with a computer model of the boiler,
then a physical 1/12th seale model. Various modifications
were made to the scale model until the final changes were
arrived at.

Briscoe says the changes are “a new technology. It's!
almost . . . stage of the art technology for large boilers.”

In fact, other pulp mills have expressed interest in
the final results and are closely watching Celgar Pulp.

“It's a very unique design,” says Briscoe, adding that
there were “tremendous improvements” on the scale
model.

Now the chore is to make the changes on the actual
recovery boiler.

“We have estimated . . . we need two weeks of fairly
intensive mill shutdown contract work to modify the
boiler,” says Briscoe.

That will come around the middle of April.

In addition to changes to the boiler itself, Celgar
Pulp Company is also’ planning to change the boiler
instrumentation, bringing it into the computer age.

Briscoe says about $500,000 worth of instrumenta
tion is currently being installed which will allow the mill
to measure things like the actual sulphur released from
the boiler — something the mill cannot gauge now.
However, Briscoe said because of the number involved,
all of the changes will not be in effect immediately. There
will be a phase-in schedule to start up each change one at
a time. It is anticipated that all of the changes will be in
full operation by September.

Briscoe stressed that the boiler is the key to the
mill's pollution upgrading because once it is operating
with greater efficiency, the mill can tackle the effluent
system.

He pointed out there is no use being able to recover
more effluent if the boiler can’t handle the present load.

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