Albchem plans sodium chlorate in Manitoba
Albchem plans to begin construction as soon as it meets environmental and other licensing requirements. It expects to open the new facility by January 2002.
Albchem president Kevin Kohler says the facility will meet rising demand in the resurgent pulp sector, which sodium chlorate is an environmentally preferred replacement for chlorine bleaching of wood pulp.
"In Manitoba we will have very competitive electrical rates from Manitoba Hydro and a ready source of salt which we will recover through solution mining. We expect this facility to be a low cost producer for the foreseeable future," says Kohler.
The Manitoba plant will also give Albchem a way to balance costs when Alberta deregulates electricity in January 2001. When provincial energy costs rise, the company plans to throttle back the unit's operating rates and shift production to the Manitoba facility.
"The new facility in Manitoba will be operated at full capacity to compensate for fluctuating operating rates in Alberta and growth from our existing customer base," Kohler explains.
The company makes sodium chlorate electrolytic process. It passes an electrical current through salt solutions to form sodium chlorate, then evaporates away the water to form a dry crystal product. Most sodium chlorate is used as an intermediate bleaching chemical in the Kraft pulping process to make white paper products from wood pulp.
Incorporated in 1989, Albchem serves Western Canadian customers and Asian markets (through the port of Vancouver, BC). It received ISO-9002 accreditation in 1994 for its sodium chlorate facility, which it expanded in 1998 and 2000.
The new Manitoba facility will create 125 construction jobs and 26 permanent positions.
Edited by Alan S. Brown
Managing Editor, Chemical Online
abrown@vertical.net
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