Fortress Paper Ltd.

Located in the Papineau Regional County Municipality in the Outaouais region of Western Quebec, about 35km from Gatineau, QC on the Ottawa River, the Thurso pulp mill is a staple in Thurso, Quebec. The Thurso mill dates back to the 1950s and was a major force in the pulp and paper industry in the Quebec/Ottawa region. Today, it continues the tradition. Employing nearly 300 people, the pulp mill currently manufactures high quality northern b...

Many pulp mills around the world rely on the benefits of cogeneration – the recycling of steam and heat to produce electricity – to help reduce waste, save money and increase efficiency. At the mill in Thurso, Quebec, for example, small-scale cogeneration is already taking place. Black cooking liquor is burned off, generating heat, electricity and/or stream for the mill, steam gathered from the recovery boilers used during the pulping proc...

One of the main products created from dissolved pulp is rayon. While rayon is predominately used in the textile industry to make silk-like clothing, it is also used for plastic products such as cellophane and film. Aside from these products, however, rayon filament is also used in a product many of us use every single day: tires. Using rayon in tires is not a new development. Prior to “the nylon revolution” (the period when tire manufac...

For contrarian Chad Wasilenkoff, a nose for overlooked potential led him to a pulp mill in Thurso. Bert Hill reports for The Ottawa Citizen. OTTAWA — From golf courses to art auctions and old mill towns, value can hide in unexpected places. Just ask Chad Wasilenkoff, the 38-year-old chief executive officer of Fortress Paper Ltd. When he was a child in Calgary he built a savings account fishing golf balls out of ponds and buying and sel...

Thanks to their recent acquisition of a pulp mill in Thurso, Quebec, Vancouver-based Fortress Paper Ltd. is reporting an increase in adjusted second quarter profits. Fortress purchased the nearly bankrupt mill from Fraser Papers Inc. in March with the intent of transforming it into a specialized dissolving pulp producer. Though some of the conversions have been started – three massive digesters are currently en route from Finland – Fortres...

In a recent article written for Biomass Magazine, Todd Taylor – a shareholder in Fredrikson & Byron’s corporate, renewable energy, securities and emerging business groups – gives a detailed rundown on the benefits of biomass cogeneration in the pulp and paper industry. For many companies, the decision to create a cogeneration facility on site is a smart business decision. “Whether you believe in climate change or support carbon cap ...

For the town of Thurso, Que., a shot at economic renewal is literally arriving on massive barges in the Ottawa River. Next month, the first shipment of bulky industrial equipment from Finland is scheduled to arrive in Thurso, in western Quebec. It will be used to transform the town’s hardwood pulp mill into a facility that makes a key ingredient used in the manufacture of rayon, which is seeing big spikes in demand in Asia and elsewhere....

At the beginning of the month, Fortress Paper Ltd. announced the purchase of equipment that would be necessary to begin the conversion of the Thurso hardwood pulp mill into a dissolving pulp specialist. Acquired from Finnish company Stora Enso Oyi Cellulose Inc., three digesters (as well as several other pieces of specialized processing equipment) began their journey from Finland to Thurso, Quebec this week. So what are digesters and why ar...

With the demand and cost of cotton on a continual upswing, more and more pulp and paper manufacturers have been stepping into the textile markets to provide dissolving pulp, a pulp product used to make rayon. A new study released by RISI, a leading information provider for global forest products, show that the global market demand for dissolving pulp is increasing the world over. In response, pulp manufacturers are stepping up their game. ...

A recent article in The Ottawa Citizen taking an in-depth look at the status of the logging, timber, lumber and pulp-and-paper mills along the Ottawa River valley laments the seeming demise of a once booming Canadian industry. “Driven by the imperatives of globalized economics and digital technology, Ottawa’s pulp-and-paper heritage has been reduced to a remnant,” writes Robert Sibley. One of the major reasons for this decline is the ...