E. B. Eddy Forest Products Ltd. October 1995

Transcription

1 CANADA S VOLUNTARY CHALLENGE AND REGISTRY (VCR) E. B. Eddy Forest Products Ltd. October 1995 COMPANY DETAILS Company name: E. B. Eddy Forest Products Ltd. Corporate office: 1600 Scott Street Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 4N7 Telephone : (613) Fax : (613) Products: Kiln dried lumber, bleached kraft pulp and fine and specialty paper products Forest lands managed: 1.6 million hectares in Ontario (as of 1994). Production locations in Canada: Sawmills:- Four locations in Ontario: Elk Lake, Nairn Centre, Sault Ste Marie and Timmins. Pulp mill:- Espanola, Ont. Paper mills:- Espanola, Ontario, Ottawa, Ontario, Hull, Quebec, New Westminster, B.C. Production locations in the USA : Paper mill:- Port Huron, Michigan Deink mill:- Blue Water Fiber, Port Huron, Michigan. Report prepared by : Roger Cook, Vice President, Environment Telephone: (705) Ext. 487 Fax: (705) Date: October 1995 Other reports available: Further information on the Eddy company is available from our 1993 and 1994 status reports on sustainable development (reference numbers ISBN , ISBN X). TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS 2.2 Sawmills Nairn Sawmill, Nairn Centre, Ontario McChesney sawmill, Timmins, Ontario Agawa Forest Products Ltd, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Grant Lumber, Elk Lake, Ontario. 2.3 Pulp and Paper mills Espanola Pulp and Paper mill, Espanola, Ontario Ottawa / Hull Paper mills, Ontario & Quebec Island Paper Mills, New Westminster, B.C. 3.0 DISCUSSION 3.1 Managed Forests act as a carbon sink 3.2 Managed Forests release less NOx and CH4 4.0 CONCLUSIONS APPENDIX A Greenhouse gas emission factors APPENDIX B Canadian Pulp and Paper Association statement on Global Climate Change. ( CPPA, September 1995) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Canada was one of over 150 countries to sign the Framework Convention on Climate Change at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in June In accordance with the convention Canada, along with other industrialized countries, has established a national goal to stabilize net emissions of greenhouse gases at 1990 levels by the year Canada s National Action Program on Climate Change has developed the Voluntary Challenge and Registry program to encourage Canadians to make commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. E.B.Eddy is pleased to participate in Canada s Voluntary Challenge and Registry (VCR) and make a commitment consistent with the national objectives. This VCR report presents the fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions from all E.B.Eddy Canadian operations, including forestry

3 operations, for each of the years 1990 to the year 2000 inclusive. Methane and Nitrogen oxide emissions are also calculated and discussed. The analysis of the data for the Eddy company shows that as a total company the emissions of fossil fuel CO2 were 290,000 tonnes in The emissions in the year 2000 are projected to be almost the same as the 1990 emission level. This is a significant achievement given that the Eddy company has acquired a paper mill, two sawmills and increased the area of managed forest lands since The fossil fuel CO2 emissions from these acquisitions, plus the increases in production from the existing facilities has added (or is projected to add) almost 150,000 tonnes of CO2 to the Eddy CO2 inventory. These additions to the inventory are balanced by a reduction of approximately 150,000 tonne in fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the Espanola mill principally as a result of energy conservation measures and a plan to replace two existing gas fired boilers with a new bark fired boiler. On a per tonne basis, the fossil fuel emissions from the Espanola mill will decrease from 525 kg CO2 / tonne production in 1990 to 83 Kg CO2 / tonne production in the year An analysis of CO2 emissions from a managed forest compared to the emissions of CO2 from an unmanaged forest provided some interesting information. The act of fire suppression and forest management in a forest 1.6 million hectares in size creates a carbon sink of almost 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year. This more than offsets the CO2 emissions from all the fossil fuels used by E.B.Eddy. 1.0 INTRODUCTION E. B. Eddy is pleased to participate in Canada s Voluntary challenge and Registry (VCR) program. E. B. Eddy is committed to both the reduction in use of fossil fuel and to energy conservation which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions includes such gases as carbon dioxide, methane and oxides of nitrogen. Eddy is a growing company and since 1990, in Canada, we have acquired a paper mill in British Columbia, two saw mill operations in Ontario and additional forest lands. Reducing air emissions from such a dynamic organization is no easy task.. The acquisition of new operations means that the company also acquires new additions for our air emissions inventory. Also, increasing production to improve competitiveness, usually requires additional fossil fuel energy and increased emissions. The company therefore looks not only at absolute tonnes of gas emitted but also in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per unit of production in order to measure progress. If every tonne that is produced requires less fossil fuel energy to produce it then this is an indicator that energy is being used more efficiently. The data presented in this VCR report covers the period The data includes the fossil fuel CO2 emissions from purchased fossil fuels (natural gas, diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, propane etc) and purchased Hydro electric power, but excludes all carbon dioxide emissions from biomass sources (Table 1). The projections to the year 2000 include the emissions of CO2 resulting from production increases and the emissions from facilities that were not part of E. B. Eddy in Data is provided in units of tonnes per year and in some cases units of tonnes of CO2 per tonne of production (Table 2).

4 Estimates of methane (CH4) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are presented in table 3. The numbers for CH4 and NOx are calculated using the company data for biomass and fossil fuel usage, and multiplying by the factors provided in the VCR guidance document. Some discussion is also presented on the offsets for CO2, NOx and CH4 emissions that are generated by managing a Boreal forest and suppressing forest fires. 2.0 DESCRIPTION OF EDDY OPERATIONS 2.1 Forestry Operations The majority of the softwood supplied to the company sawmills is harvested from Crown forest lands managed by the company under Sustainable Forest Licenses issued by the Provincial Government. The amount of forest land managed by the company in 1994 was 1.6 million hectares. The acquisition of two sawmill operations in 1995 has increased the amount of forest land for which the company is responsible. The harvesting and forest regeneration activities require the use of specialized machinery which must be fueled with diesel fuel. The emissions of CO2 from this forestry equipment and the forestry vehicles are included in the calculations of total CO2 emitted by the company. A 30% increase in fossil fuel CO2 emissions from forestry activities in the years is projected based on the lumber production of the two recently acquired sawmills. 2.2 Sawmills The Eddy company has four major sawmills; two of these were only recently acquired in In general, the saw milling process does not use hot water and therefore sawmills use much less energy than paper mills. Nevertheless, sawmills do use a significant amount of energy and they have a number of ideas for reducing their energy use. The reduction in emissions from these ideas is relatively modest and are not itemized in this report Nairn Sawmill, Nairn Centre, Ontario. The Nairn sawmill has a production capacity of 215 million board feet of kiln dried lumber each year. The mill has two drying kilns, one is heated with natural gas and the other is heated by a Konus hot oil system that is fueled with wood bark. The use of wood waste to generate energy for drying the lumber also solves a waste disposal problem which constitutes a double benefit for the environment McChesney sawmill, Timmins, Ontario. The McChesney sawmill has a capacity of 62 million board feet of lumber per year. The mill uses natural gas to fire its drying kiln. Wood waste from the mill is sent to a privately owned co-generation facility that generates useful steam and electrical power. This arrangement is more economical than using the wood waste to fuel the on site kiln Agawa Forest Products Ltd, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. The Agawa sawmill has a production capacity of 33 million Board feet of lumber and 45 million square feet of quality veneer. The mill has a power boiler on site that is fed with wood bark. The steam energy generated by the boiler is used to heat the drying kiln and as space heating in the veneer mill etc. Fossil fuel usage by the mill is relatively low.

5 2.2.4 Grant Lumber, Elk Lake, Ontario. The Elk Lake mill produces 58 million board feet of lumber per year. The mill has a Konus hot oil system which heats the drying kiln. The Konus boiler is fueled with saw dust and therefore the fossil fuel usage at the site is mostly diesel and propane fuels plus the fossil fuel portion of the purchased electrical power from the grid. 2.3 Pulp and paper mills The Eddy company has one pulp mill and four paper mills in Canada. The Island paper mill in B.C. was not acquired until 1993 and so the 1990 CO2 inventory does not include the Island paper mill emissions Espanola Pulp and Paper mill The Espanola pulp and paper mill has a production capacity of 342,000 tonnes of bleached Kraft pulp and 63,000 tonnes of paper per year. The most important energy project planned for the Eddy company to the year 2000 is by far the Espanola power boiler project: The Espanola mill currently has a power boiler fired with bark and a recovery boiler fueled with pulping liquor equipped with a 25 MW turbogenerator system. The fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the Eddy pulp and paper mill in Espanola were 157,600 tonnes in This was equivalent to 45% of all the Eddy company Canadian fossil fuel CO2 emissions in that year. The mill plans to build a new $40 million bark burning power boiler to replace two existing gas burning power boilers and reduce the fossil fuel CO2 emissions by 113,000 tonnes per year. The emission of methane from the power boilers will be reduced by between 270 tonnes per year to 2,800 tonnes per year based on the VCR emission factors. NOx emissions will increase by 18 tonnes per year as a result of the switch from gas to wood. The new boiler will be completed at the end of 1997 and will generate not only steam for the process but also an additional 16 MW of electrical power. The new boiler will enable the Espanola mill to be practically self sufficient for electrical power. All the electrical power requirements for the mill will come from renewable (Biomass or Hydraulic turbine) sources. Any surplus power will be sold to the grid Ottawa / Hull paper mills These mills are located on opposite sides of the Ottawa river near the Chaudiere Bridge. The Ottawa and Hull paper mills are managed as a single operation which has a production capacity of 118,000 tonnes per year of fine, specialty and coated grades of paper per year. The operation has 3 hydro generating stations and has been self sufficient in electrical energy for a number of years. In fact, the operation generates surplus electrical energy which is sold to produce additional revenue for the company. The mill has a power boiler fired by natural gas or oil which generates steam for the paper making process in both mills. The mill also uses gas fired infra-red paper dryers for use when the paper machines run a coated grade. The mill is pursuing a number of small projects to reduce energy use Island Paper Mill The Eddy paper mill in British Columbia is located on Annacis Island in the estuary of the Fraser River. The mill was acquired by E. B. Eddy in June of 1993 and has a production capacity of 157,000 tonnes per year of coated and uncoated paper. The mill has no hydro generating capability of its own and therefore purchases all of its electrical power from B. C. Hydro. The

6 mill has a boiler fired by gas to generate steam for the paper machines. The mill is looking at a number of ways to improve boiler efficiency and reduce water usage to conserve energy DISCUSSION Conservation of energy through wise use and increased energy efficiency is an important part of environmental protection. The company has a number of such projects planned. It is also apparent that making better use of the wood waste that is generated by the company will have the greatest impact on reducing the emission of fossil fuel carbon dioxide. Some discussion of the fibre resources used by the company will be useful here: The majority of the softwood fibre used to make pulp and paper is derived from sawmill residues. Furthermore, most of the energy used in the conversion of sawmill residues into pulp and paper is derived from biomass fuels (bark, pulping liquor, sawdust and other wood wastes). The use of biomass fuel not only reduces the dependence of the company on purchased fossil fuel energy, but also provides a useful outlet for the many tons of bark wastes that are generated annually, wastes that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated. The carbon dioxide produced from the combustion of biomass derived from sustainable forests does not contribute to the greenhouse effect to the same extent as the new carbon from fossil fuels. This is because the Northern Ontario forests were historically burned every 65 years by natural wildfires, releasing their carbon content to the atmosphere as CO Managed Forests act as a carbon sink A forest managed for multiple uses provides a home for wildlife, a source of recreation and inspiration for people, and provides important natural resources for industry and employment. The forest also has an important relationship with the atmosphere. Calculations indicate that the management of forests for multiple uses actually creates a carbon sink relative to unmanaged forests. This point is raised in the sustainable development report produced by E. B. Eddy in The report presents calculations that indicate that an unmanaged Boreal forest without the benefit of suppression of forest fires by humans, would release an average of about 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year per million hectares of forest as a result of natural, unchecked forest fires. Historical and archeological evidence indicates that, on average, an unmanaged Boreal forest burns once every 65 years, primarily due to lightning strikes. A managed Boreal forest on the other hand where humans diligently suppress most forest fires releases only 0.19 million tonnes of CO2 per million hectares of CO2 per year from wildfire and controlled burns. In other words, managing a forest reduces CO2 emissions from fire by over 90%. This is not the full story of carbon releases. Managing a forest involves harvesting, tree planting and other forest regeneration activities. When the mature trees are harvested and the trees are made into lumber, pulp and paper there is a release of CO2: CO2 is released from fossil fuels used in processing, from biomass combustion, and from the biodegradation of forest products (lumber, paper, etc.) over their life cycle. This point is best demonstrated using actual data for the Eddy company: The area of forest land managed by Eddy in 1994 was 1.6 million hectares. The release of CO2 from wildfires and controlled burns was 300,000 tonnes per year. The burning of fossil fuels as mentioned above releases about the same amount, 300,000 tonnes per year; the burning of biomass fuel releases 1,000,000 tonnes per year and the biodegradation of forest products over their life cycle releases

7 a further 400,000 tonnes per year. The total release from managed forests including wild fire, controlled burns, fossil fuel, biomass fuel, and biodegradation as listed above is therefore 2,000,000 tonnes. This is about 50% of the CO2 released from an unmanaged forest of an equivalent size. Hence the notion that managing forests enables the forest to store more carbon and therefore creates a carbon sink. Table 4 Comparison of CO2 releases from Unmanaged and Managed Forest 1.6 million hectares in Size Unmanaged Forest Managed Forest ( no suppression of fire) (with fire suppression) Source of CO2 Fire 3,900,000 tonnes/year 300,000 tonnes/year Fossil fuel combustion 0 300,000,, Biomass combustion 0 1,000,000,, Lumber & Paper Biodeg 0 400,000,, Sum Total CO2 release 3,900,000 tonnes/year 2,000,000 tonnes/year Managed Forests release less NOx and CH4 When organic substances burn, the high temperature of the flame results in the formation of nitrogen oxides from the reaction between the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere. Traces of methane may also be released. The emissions of nitrogen oxides and methane during forest fires may be calculated using the factors for wood and slash burning provided in the VCR document. The suppression of forest fires prevents the release of nitrogen oxides and combustion-derived methane from the forest. Thus fire suppression in essence creates an offset for the emissions that occur in the forest products industry. The calculations of the offsets are given in table CONCLUSIONS The Eddy company will stabilize fossil fuel carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide emissions at 1990 emission levels by the year This will be achieved principally through the substitution of fossil fuels with biomass fuels. These projections are consistent with Canada s National goal for stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. A second item worthy of note is that managing 1.6 million hectares of Boreal forest lands for multiple uses and suppressing forest fires creates a significant carbon sink amounting to an estimated 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 per year. This more than offsets the 300,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions produced from fossil fuel combustion throughout Eddy s entire Canadian operations. Forest wildfire suppression also reduces CH4 and NOx emissions from combustion.

8 Forest management therefore offsets approximately 50% of the emissions of CH4 and NOx from the Eddy pulp and paper mills. APPENDIX A Greenhouse gas emission factors ( source: VCR participants Handbook) APPENDIX B CPPA Statement on Global Climate Change ( source: Canadian Pulp and Paper Association CPPA) March 25, 1996 E.B.Eddy Forest Products Ltd. Carbon Offset Investment Opportunities: As more companies develop projections of their carbon emissions to 2000 as part of the voluntary carbon registry process, it will be apparent to some that, due to business growth or other reasons, forecast emissions will be higher in 2000 than in Should such companies wish to achieve 1990 levels by 2000, it may be more cost effective for them to entertain involvement in carbon sequestering projects than in investing to attain actual emission reductions. Some companies, such as New England Power in the U.S. and TransAlta Utilities in Canada, have been active in the area of investing in carbon offset projects. E.B. Eddy has several project opportunities which, in our view, sequester measureable amounts of carbon in long-term sinks. Some are annual projects, such as a juvenile spacing program and fire prevention program on Eddy s forest management areas, which can sequester an estimated 50,000 tonnes p.a. carbon (183,000 tonnes p.a. CO2). Some are one-time projects, such as a jack-pine budworm spray program and energy reduction projects, which can sequester an estimated 285,000 tonnes carbon (1,045,000 tonnes CO2), and 85,000 tonnes carbon (312,000 tonnes CO2) respectively. The extent to which Eddy undertakes these projects will depend on the level of involvement by third parties. Eddy has already projected lower carbon emissions within the company by 2000, and therefore is in a position to allocate credit for carbon offsets to project partners, similar to that arranged in Malaysia by New England Power. Eddy s projects have added advantages in that

9 they are in Canada, and some of the projects provide additional employment to students and others in economically disadvantaged regions. Interested parties should call Doug Bradley, Director- Corporate Planning, E.B. Eddy Forest Products Ltd. at (613) (fax ).