Alberta-Pacific looks to a future in bioenergy and biochemicals [From the web]

EDMONTON, AB, Aug. 30, 2011 (Local News) - Al Ward has a message for those who think the pulp industry is a 19th century dinosaur, destined to be obliterated in the digital age.

Think again, he says. When the President of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries looks out a decade or two, he sees an industry that's likely to be utterly transformed, producing an array of highvalue products from bioenergy to biochemicals.

In fact, pulp mills will no longer be called pulp mills, he says. They'll be known as biorefineries - the forest products industry's equivalent of petroleum refineries.

And while mills like Al-Pac's 650,000-tonne-per-year operation 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton will still churn out pulp as a core product, today's low profit margins will be boosted by new products such as biodiesel and biomethanol.

Edmonton Journal - From pulp mill to biorefinery

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