New Page

NewPage Joins the Bio-fuels Set

NewPage joins the biofuels set
With a Swedish partner, the company is looking to build a black liquor gasification plant in Michigan...
...US producer NewPage and Swedish engineering company Chemrec have recently signed an agreement with the purpose of pursuing the prospect of developing a black liquor gasification plant (BLG). This plant, which will be housed at the NewPage pulp and paper mill in Escanaba, MI, is intended by parties on both sides to be up and running by 2010....
....“This partnership between Chemrec and NewPage is a great opportunity for us as we work to make Michigan the North American hub for alternative energy production,” Governor Granholm commented. “With its potential for biomass-based fuel production, this plant in Escanaba could put Michigan at the forefront of renewable next-generation fuels, helping to end our dependence on foreign oil while bringing jobs and investments to the community.”...
...Collaborating is undoubtedly a huge undertaking for both NewPage and Chemrec. “Pulp and paper has not recently been the most profitable business,” said NewPage CEO Mark A. Suwyn. “When the BLG plant is in place, we can increase our production of paper, and at the same time get a new income from production of biofuel. We are taking the step from being a pulp mill to become a biorefinery.”
NewPage has extremely high hopes for the agreement. “We are in what we are calling a pre-feasibility phase, which we expect to be complete by mid-January. Either side can walk away at that point, or at the end of the feasibility stage, which will be complete by the end of the third quarter of 2008. At that point, if all lights were green we would go to our board of directors to fund a commercialization project,” Smyth comments. “We would expect to produce a liquid fuel or syngas that was commercially viable and economically feasible.”

NewPage is headquartered in Dayton, OH, and is mainly a producer of coated papers. With 4,300 employees, the company operates four integrated pulp and paper manufacturing mills located in Escanaba, MI; Luke, MD; Rumford, ME; and Wickliffe, KY. ...

Do you suppose that future planning includes something like this for Rumford?

also, what is this new thing with short-cut flowers sitting bunched-up and upright in casserole dishes? This to me is the most troubling!

Well, now see? That bothered me too...I think I haven't recovered from reading your mind yesterday...lol

I have to apologize for making a cheap comment , when the New Page issue and what will happen to the Rumford operation is a serious one. Also, I realize that frivolous comments such as mine take the thread off the track that it should stay on. While I still have a problem with the flower arrangements (obviously someone OTHER than me has been watching too much Martha), I DO care about what happens to the mill and the people whose livelihoods depend on it.

We also are the general partner and have a 30% investment in Rumford Cogeneration Company L.P., a joint venture created to generate power for us at our Rumford mill and for public sale. We have an option through 2014 to purchase all of our co-investors’ interests in the partnership.

The primary sources of wood fiber are timber and its byproducts, such as wood chips. We are a party to various fiber supply agreements to supply our mills with hardwood, softwood, aspen pulpwood and wood chips. These agreements require the
counterparty to sell to the mills, and require the mills to purchase, a designated minimum number of tons of pulpwood and wood
chips during thespecified terms of the arrangement, which have various expiration dates from December 31, 2009 to December 31, 2053. The annual purchase requirement under these agreements is approximately 3 million tons in 2009, approximately 2 million tons per year from 2010 to 2015, approximately 1 million tons per year from 2016 to 2020 and approximately 250,000 tons per year from 2021 to 2026. In 2020, all of the agreements terminate with the exception of the agreement with respect to the Rumford mill, which terminates in 2053. For all of the pulpwood agreements, we may purchase a substantial portion of any additional pulpwood harvested by the counterparty during each year. The prices to be paid under these agreements are determined by formulas based upon market prices in the relevant regions and are subject to periodic adjustments based on procedures stipulated in each agreement. The amount of timber we receive under these agreements has varied, and is expected to continue to vary, according to the price and supply of wood fiber for sale on the open market and the harvest levels the timberland owners deem appropriate in the management of the timberlands.

source

not at all. they are trying to unload it. (which may ultimately be a good thing, but certainly not in the short run).