Domtar pulp mill to use wood waste as fuel in Ontario

This is just in time for Earth Day. The scene in Back to the Future where Dr. Emmett Brown used garbage to fuel a flying car may not be that far off. A few weeks ago we saw the maiden flight for the PAL-V ONE flying car and last week it was announced a pulp mill in Ontario is going to use waste to help power the facility and transportation. This technology may be used to fuel anything that currently runs on fossil fuel.

Domtar's pulp mill in Dryden, Ont., has teamed up with Battelle, the company that invented the Xerox machine, to develop an eco-friendly way of producing fuel using materials that would have otherwise gone to waste.

"This project points the way to Ontario's future as a clean technology and innovation leader," said Minister of Economic Development and Innovation Brad Duguid in a press release. "This groundbreaking process will turn waste wood into fuel we need. That's good news for the environment and good news for our economy."

There is a lot of waste associated with making paper such as branches and wood chips that can't be used in the paper process. Currently, the mill burns this wood (or, as they call it, biomass) in a boiler and gets a small amount of energy to help run the plant.

Battelle has created a method to take that waste product and melt it in a zero-oxygen environment turning it into a sludge. That sludge gets refined into something you could literally put right into the gas tank of your car. However, it is usually combined with traditional gasoline or diesel. Battelle is currently testing it at its lab in Ohio and plans to use it for the first time in the Domtar mill.

While it is not using the household garbage that Back to the Future's Doc dumped into his DeLorean, this method still turns some sort of waste into a fossil fuel alternative.

The mill and Battelle are also getting financial help from the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE), an arm's-length not-for-profit paid for by the government of Ontario. It is charged with making Ontario a leader in the bio-economy transforming the forest products industry in northern Ontario.

The plan is to build a 100 ton-per-day pilot plant that will be integrated with the Dryden facility. If successful, CRIBE hopes the plan can be applied to other forestry operations to add a revenue stream and reduce operating costs.

"This in turn will sustain jobs at the mill level and increase demand for products and services of supporting industries," states a CRIBE press release.