Friday Nov 07, 2008
By the Working Forest staff
Prior said the purpose of the forum was to promote the development of a strong forest product value-added industry in Northern Ontario.
Two October conferences in Ontario were held in Ottawa and Thunder Bay. Focused on bioenergy and value added forest products, respectively; issues around available wood supply were prevalent at both venues.
CanBIO’s October 6-8 conference in Ottawa testified to rapid industry momentum in 2008. Presentations were heard from president Doug Bradley and directors, Chris Rees, Dean Johnson, Mark Ryans of FP Innovations, John Swaan Wood Pellets Assoc., Rob Cormier, and others.
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) Program Manager for the Northwest and CanBIO Director, Jane Todd, told the 200-strong crowd that the province’s major power utility is intensively testing biomass to ready itself should the Province decide to convert the coal-fuelled plants to biomass.
From just one biomass-testing program at its Nanticoke plant last year, OPG is now in the throes of an "aggressive testing program in all of our plants." The utility is thrilled with the results so far.
"Last year the Atikokan plant had never put a wood pellet in their plant," said Todd, "but by July of this year it had burned 100 percent wood pellets for four hours. We can’t believe how easy it was."
Large co-generation isn’t the only area making big strides this year. Communities in Quebec are working co-operatively to develop bioenergy to boost a slowing forest economy.
Many of the Finnish companies in the trade show followed the conference with side-trips to Matapédia, Temiscaming and Ville Marie in Quebec and Hearst in Ontario to help these communities move forward with bioenergy solutions.
An issue that was always in the background at the conference was access to the forest on public lands. In the closing panel discussion, Christopher Rees of VisionPower Canada Inc. spoke of the need to open the debate on access to biomass for bioenergy projects – particularly those initiated by communities and small/medium sized industry players.
Twenty-five tradeshow exhibitors from Canada, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S. demonstrated the latest technologies and equipment.
Abitibi-Bowater’s co-generation plant in Hull, Quebec, a biomass harvesting and processing operation, Camionnage Normand Sans-Cartier, and Plasco’s waste-to-energy demonstration plant in Ottawa were popular study tours.
In mid October the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay hosted the Growing Forest Value conference. The 200+ attendees heard speakers ranging from Ian de la Roche, president and CEO of FP Innovations, the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, Donna Cansfield and Peter Woodbridge, president of Woodbridge Associates covering topics ranging from global market opportunities to entrepreneurial success stories.
In her luncheon address, Minister Cansfield touched on wood supply concerns saying that the OMNR "would access fibre as needed" in addressing concerns from small and medium value-added enterprises.
"Attendance was beyond our expectation," said Rick Prior, Director of Development at Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre and one of the organizers of the forum.
"We had participants coming from all over the country and select parts of the world."
Showcased over the two days of scheduled events were successful businesses from across Canada and the world that produce value added products such as disposable wood cutlery (see page 9).
Also present were industry experts and political leaders promoting the benefits of diversifying the Ontario forest product industry.
Prior said value-added industries would act as a buffer during harsh economic times not unlike the ones the industry is currently suffering."If we had more value added in the north, and similar economic situations happen in the future, we may not be hit as hard as the value added industry has not been as badly hit elsewhere," said Prior.
"If we intend to live through the down times in the future more prosperously then we need to think about how we are going about using our forests."
Prior said enough interest has been shown to organize another such forum in the future.
"It was an excellent forum for networking between those who have an interest in a value added industry and those that have and can facilitate it," said Prior.
Showing posts with label biomass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biomass. Show all posts
Monday, November 17, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Demain, l’or boréal
Carburants, médicaments, cosmétiques, textiles : avec les arbres, on fera bientôt plus que des meubles. Les bioraffineries, planche de salut de la forêt québécoise ?
par Jean-Benoît Nadeaupublié dans L'actualité du 1er avril 2008
EXCLUSIF!
Oubliez les scénarios catastrophe pour l’industrie forestière. D’ici 20 ans, les papetières seront devenues des bioraffineries, qui produiront, en plus du papier, des biocarburants, des polymères, des médicaments et divers sous-produits servant à la fabrication de pneus, de cosmétiques, de pièces autos, alouette ! Les vieilles scieries seront devenues des usines de maisons, de murs, de planchers et de toits préfabriqués, de cercueils, de meubles... Grâce aux progrès en sylviculture et en opérations forestières, les forêts pousseront plus vite. Et on fabriquera des biocarburants sur les chantiers eux-mêmes.
Bref, si les nouveaux sorciers de la forêt tiennent leurs promesses, l’avenir est dans le bois !
Ces nouveaux sorciers, ce sont les 650 chercheurs et techniciens de FPInnovations, le plus important institut de recherche forestière sans but lucratif au monde. La moitié de son budget de 100 millions de dollars provient de 500 entreprises privées ; le reste, des 14 gouvernements canadiens.
Ce qui se mijote dans les quatre centres de l’institut, c’est le contraire du cauchemar productiviste que dénonçait L’erreur boréale, de Richard Desjardins. Paprican, à Pointe-Claire, s’intéresse aux pâtes et papiers. Forintek, à Sainte-Foy, au bois de sciage, et Feric, à Pointe-Claire, à la foresterie. Quant au Centre canadien sur la fibre de bois, aussi à Sainte-Foy, il se livre à l’étude fondamentale de l’arbre à partir de la graine même. Leur mission : préparer des lendemains qui chantent aux régions forestières du Québec, durement éprouvées (voir « Carte bois »).
http://issuu.com/dsigouin/docs/or_boreal?mode=embed&documentId=080312130657-29558d370c594831ac8930a90901f749&layout=grey
par Jean-Benoît Nadeaupublié dans L'actualité du 1er avril 2008
EXCLUSIF!
Oubliez les scénarios catastrophe pour l’industrie forestière. D’ici 20 ans, les papetières seront devenues des bioraffineries, qui produiront, en plus du papier, des biocarburants, des polymères, des médicaments et divers sous-produits servant à la fabrication de pneus, de cosmétiques, de pièces autos, alouette ! Les vieilles scieries seront devenues des usines de maisons, de murs, de planchers et de toits préfabriqués, de cercueils, de meubles... Grâce aux progrès en sylviculture et en opérations forestières, les forêts pousseront plus vite. Et on fabriquera des biocarburants sur les chantiers eux-mêmes.
Bref, si les nouveaux sorciers de la forêt tiennent leurs promesses, l’avenir est dans le bois !
Ces nouveaux sorciers, ce sont les 650 chercheurs et techniciens de FPInnovations, le plus important institut de recherche forestière sans but lucratif au monde. La moitié de son budget de 100 millions de dollars provient de 500 entreprises privées ; le reste, des 14 gouvernements canadiens.
Ce qui se mijote dans les quatre centres de l’institut, c’est le contraire du cauchemar productiviste que dénonçait L’erreur boréale, de Richard Desjardins. Paprican, à Pointe-Claire, s’intéresse aux pâtes et papiers. Forintek, à Sainte-Foy, au bois de sciage, et Feric, à Pointe-Claire, à la foresterie. Quant au Centre canadien sur la fibre de bois, aussi à Sainte-Foy, il se livre à l’étude fondamentale de l’arbre à partir de la graine même. Leur mission : préparer des lendemains qui chantent aux régions forestières du Québec, durement éprouvées (voir « Carte bois »).
http://issuu.com/dsigouin/docs/or_boreal?mode=embed&documentId=080312130657-29558d370c594831ac8930a90901f749&layout=grey
Friday, February 15, 2008
Excellent article from today's Globe
PUBLICATION: GLOBE AND MAILIDN: 080460048DATE: 2008.02.14PAGE: B2 (ILLUS)BYLINE: KONRAD YAKABUSKISECTION: Report on Business EDITION: MetroDATELINE: Montreal PQ WORDS: 845WORD COUNT: 844 Thinking outside the woodbox KONRAD YAKABUSKI kyakabuski@globeandmail.com
MONTREAL Leave it to the Sunday New York Times - which has historically consumed more of Eastern Canada's forests than probably any other publication - to (once again) declare the death of paper.
Without a hint of irony, the latest edition of the venerable rest-day read-a-thon profiles a Google employee whose family lives a near paper-free life. Everything in the Uhlik household, from grocery lists to school manuals, has gone digital.
The article reminds readers that global per capita paper consumption has plateaued in recent years. In the wealthiest countries, it has actually declined. "Paper has been dealt a complete death blow," Brewster Kahle, who heads something called the Internet Archive, tells the Times. "When was the last time you saw a telephone book?" It actually matters very little that rich Westerners are using less paper. A two-kilogram per capita, per year increase in the consumption of paper products in India, China and Brazil can create enough demand to more than offset a 10-kilogram drop in the rich nations.
This is in fact the story that is unfolding. Unfortunately, Canada's spindly forest firms have been unable to cash in on this because they lacked the foresight to become global players when they had a chance. They're now saddled with high debt, labour and wood costs and a punishing exchange rate. Dependent on the slumping U.S. market, forest types here have not seen the worst yet.
Canada's forest industry is shrinking as production of pulp and paper shifts to the Southern Hemisphere. By the end of this year, China alone will have added more than 25 million tonnes of new paper-making capacity in the last decade. That's the equivalent of almost three AbitibiBowaters.
You remember Abitibi? Canada's top forest player still ranks as the world's biggest newsprint producer. But it's been chopping capacity faster than a contestant in the Kapuskasing Lumberjack Festival wields a Swede saw.
But, hark, a near lone voice cries out from the forest to offer hope. (No, it's not Barack Obama.) CIBC World Markets analyst Don Roberts, whose advice is sought by governments from New Brunswick to Moscow, offers a compelling case for why Canada's forest sector may have a chance to reclaim its historical advantage.
It stems from what Mr. Roberts calls the convergence of global markets for food, fuel and fibre. The phenomenon will increase the value of Canada's forests, while squeezing pulp and paper producers in the developing world as they struggle to secure wood supply.
Increased relative wealth in the developing world is driving unprecedented demand for foodstuffs. It's a simple equation - the richer you get, the more you eat. Yet, agricultural yields for all but a few crops have stagnated or declined. The result is that more land is needed for agriculture in places like Brazil, displacing the forest plantations that are the main source of raw material for Latin America's pulp mills.
Where plantations exist, they're increasingly devoted to growing forests for energy. In China, the government promises that by 2020, it will set aside 13 million hectares - an area about the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined - to grow trees to go into biofuel production.
Demand for biofuels is growing in the developing world for largely two reasons: The rising price of oil makes biofuels cost-competitive, and domestic trees are a more secure source of energy than imported oil.
In the developed world, demand for biofuels stems largely from a push for more green energy. The European Union's decision to set a binding 20-per-cent target for renewable energy by 2020 will, Mr. Roberts predicts, increase the continent's demand for wood by more than 200 million cubic metres annually - or about as much as the Canadian forest industry currently harvests in a single year.
The result is that wood will no longer be priced as a commodity used to make paper or lumber, but on its energy equivalency. If that happens, Mr. Roberts explains, the price of a tonne of wood pellets would be the same as for 3.3 barrels of oil - which is a lot more than the wood currently fetches.
For Canada's forest industry, herein lies a second chance. But it requires companies and governments to invest now in the research capacity to produce higher-value-added products - not basic wood pellets - to reflect the market price of the trees. Mr. Roberts foresees traditional pulp mills adding biorefineries alongside that use some of their wood to produce everything from ethanol for vehicles to polyethylene and other renewable plastics.
The competition is already thinking ahead: Finnish-based forest giant UPM-Kymmene is working with partners on producing what's known as Fischer-Tropsch fuel, a synthetic petroleum, from biomass.
If Mr. Roberts is right, as he usually is, Canada's forest companies have an opportunity to reinvent themselves. Will they seize it? Or, like paper in the Uhlik household, will they go the way of the dodo?
ADDED SEARCH TERMS:
GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada; Quebec
SUBJECT TERM:forestry; pulp and paper industry; competitiveness
MONTREAL Leave it to the Sunday New York Times - which has historically consumed more of Eastern Canada's forests than probably any other publication - to (once again) declare the death of paper.
Without a hint of irony, the latest edition of the venerable rest-day read-a-thon profiles a Google employee whose family lives a near paper-free life. Everything in the Uhlik household, from grocery lists to school manuals, has gone digital.
The article reminds readers that global per capita paper consumption has plateaued in recent years. In the wealthiest countries, it has actually declined. "Paper has been dealt a complete death blow," Brewster Kahle, who heads something called the Internet Archive, tells the Times. "When was the last time you saw a telephone book?" It actually matters very little that rich Westerners are using less paper. A two-kilogram per capita, per year increase in the consumption of paper products in India, China and Brazil can create enough demand to more than offset a 10-kilogram drop in the rich nations.
This is in fact the story that is unfolding. Unfortunately, Canada's spindly forest firms have been unable to cash in on this because they lacked the foresight to become global players when they had a chance. They're now saddled with high debt, labour and wood costs and a punishing exchange rate. Dependent on the slumping U.S. market, forest types here have not seen the worst yet.
Canada's forest industry is shrinking as production of pulp and paper shifts to the Southern Hemisphere. By the end of this year, China alone will have added more than 25 million tonnes of new paper-making capacity in the last decade. That's the equivalent of almost three AbitibiBowaters.
You remember Abitibi? Canada's top forest player still ranks as the world's biggest newsprint producer. But it's been chopping capacity faster than a contestant in the Kapuskasing Lumberjack Festival wields a Swede saw.
But, hark, a near lone voice cries out from the forest to offer hope. (No, it's not Barack Obama.) CIBC World Markets analyst Don Roberts, whose advice is sought by governments from New Brunswick to Moscow, offers a compelling case for why Canada's forest sector may have a chance to reclaim its historical advantage.
It stems from what Mr. Roberts calls the convergence of global markets for food, fuel and fibre. The phenomenon will increase the value of Canada's forests, while squeezing pulp and paper producers in the developing world as they struggle to secure wood supply.
Increased relative wealth in the developing world is driving unprecedented demand for foodstuffs. It's a simple equation - the richer you get, the more you eat. Yet, agricultural yields for all but a few crops have stagnated or declined. The result is that more land is needed for agriculture in places like Brazil, displacing the forest plantations that are the main source of raw material for Latin America's pulp mills.
Where plantations exist, they're increasingly devoted to growing forests for energy. In China, the government promises that by 2020, it will set aside 13 million hectares - an area about the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined - to grow trees to go into biofuel production.
Demand for biofuels is growing in the developing world for largely two reasons: The rising price of oil makes biofuels cost-competitive, and domestic trees are a more secure source of energy than imported oil.
In the developed world, demand for biofuels stems largely from a push for more green energy. The European Union's decision to set a binding 20-per-cent target for renewable energy by 2020 will, Mr. Roberts predicts, increase the continent's demand for wood by more than 200 million cubic metres annually - or about as much as the Canadian forest industry currently harvests in a single year.
The result is that wood will no longer be priced as a commodity used to make paper or lumber, but on its energy equivalency. If that happens, Mr. Roberts explains, the price of a tonne of wood pellets would be the same as for 3.3 barrels of oil - which is a lot more than the wood currently fetches.
For Canada's forest industry, herein lies a second chance. But it requires companies and governments to invest now in the research capacity to produce higher-value-added products - not basic wood pellets - to reflect the market price of the trees. Mr. Roberts foresees traditional pulp mills adding biorefineries alongside that use some of their wood to produce everything from ethanol for vehicles to polyethylene and other renewable plastics.
The competition is already thinking ahead: Finnish-based forest giant UPM-Kymmene is working with partners on producing what's known as Fischer-Tropsch fuel, a synthetic petroleum, from biomass.
If Mr. Roberts is right, as he usually is, Canada's forest companies have an opportunity to reinvent themselves. Will they seize it? Or, like paper in the Uhlik household, will they go the way of the dodo?
ADDED SEARCH TERMS:
GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada; Quebec
SUBJECT TERM:forestry; pulp and paper industry; competitiveness
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Hearst Ontario
Welcome to my new economic development blog for Hearst, Ontario Canada. My name is Daniel Sigouin and I am the Economic Development Officer for the Town of Hearst.
Located in Northeastern Ontario, the Town of Hearst functions as a regional service centre, providing post-secondary education, health, social, business, financial and transportation services to wide variety of smaller northern communities. Its employment base is comprised primarily of forestry related firms. Columbia Forest Products, Tembec Inc. and Lecours Lumber, three local forestry operations, are the Town’s largest employers.
Based on a review of industry concentration and an analysis of the economies of agglomeration and linkages in Northeastern Ontario, the Town of Hearst is well positioned for future business investment in the following sectors;
- Forest related bio-industries producing bio-products such as fuel/energy, specialty chemicals and biomaterials or polymers;
- Agri-products: livestock, greenhouse products and agriculture products;
- Wood products and value-added wood products including building products, furniture manufacturing and custom millwork.
I strongly encourage you to visit our community web portal http://www.hearst.ca/ to find out more about our community.
Stay tuned for future postings!
Daniel Sigouin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)