Harmac Pacific officials will proceed on a pair of carbon-fighting enhancements at its Duke Point operation. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

green projects

Nanaimo’s Harmac Pacific making significant upgrades to reduce carbon emissions

Jan 31, 2022 | 4:19 PM

NANAIMO — Millions of dollars will be invested into a major Nanaimo employer to reduce its natural gas consumption.

A little over $12 million is committed through the CleanBC Industry Fund to upgrade the biomass boiler system at Nanaimo Forest Product’s Harmac Pacific pulp mill.

Nanaimo Forest Products president Levi Sampson said the upgrades are an important investment to not only creating a cleaner environment, but the mill’s 320 full time staff.

“All those wages work their way back into the community. When the company does well a lot of that works its way back in and allows us to be part of making upgrades and being part of projects like the Clean BC project,” Sampson told a Monday, Jan. 31 news conference.

Nearly $617,000 will cover the facility’s largest pulp dryer and ventilation system to recover waste heat and lower natural gas consumption.

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Nanaimo Forest Products was the top beneficiary of a combined $166 million to support emission-reducing projects across B.C., resulting primarily from industry and carbon tax revenues paid by industry.

The upgrades at the Duke Point operation are expected to save 319,000 tonnes of carbon emissions through 2031. It’s the equivalent of taking nearly 63,000 cars off the road for a year.

Two other Vancouver Island paper mills operated by Catalyst Paper Corp. received carbon-reducing funding through the CleanBC Industry Fund.

The company’s Crofton operation will undergo $5.9 million worth of upgrades, while Catalyst’s Port Alberni plant will see $323,000 of carbon enhancements.

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