Domtar’s Dryden Mill is launching new technology to expand markets for its pulp production.
The company’s $4-million investment will launch a first-of-its-kind commercial-scale manufacturing facility for new grades of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp.
Beyond producing its traditional writing and specialty-grade papers, tissues and paper towels, Domtar hopes to expand pulp sales into value-added products like fibreglass and cement.
“It becomes kind of a flexible product.,” said Domtar spokeswoman, Bonny Skene.
“You can adjust some of the strength properties, fine tune it, if you will.”
The federal government met the company’s expenditure last week with a $2-million grant to bring the technology from small-scale laboratory testing to large-scale manufacturing.
“Assuming our work to date translates to the full commercial scale in the project planned at the Dryden mill, then our expectation is that the new grades of softwood pulp will have improved strength properties,” Skene explained.
The Domtar-developed machine will be introduced to its existing production process in 2016.