Tolko Industries to build a new energy plant at its lumber mill in High Level

Tolko Industries Ltd. will build a new energy plant at its lumber mill in High Level, AB. Construction of the energy plant has commenced, and the plant is to be operational by June 2019, as the company says.

“We’re excited to bring this project to the community,” said Dave Gillespie, plant manager for Tolko’s High Level division. “This system is the first phase of Tolko’s plan to permanently decommission the beehive burner.”

Gillespie noted that there are many benefits to the new energy system, including that it will: consume most of the bark produced by the High Level sawmill; use a state-of-the-art electrostatic precipitator to minimize air emissions; enable the sawmill to significantly reduce natural gas used in the lumber drying process by replacing it with bioenergy; and, provide green bioenergy to the future pellet plant at the site which is currently planned to begin operation in 2020.

Tolko Industries is a private, Canadian-owned forest products company based in Vernon, BC. The company is a producer and marketer of lumber, veneer, plywood, and oriented strand board, with manufacturing operations across Western Canada.