Roxul to start emissions upgrades in June
By Erin Perkins
A $6 million upgrade is hoped to help reduce odour and blue smoke emissions from the Grand Forks Roxul facility.
Roxul announced the plans to have a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) installed to help improve local air quality late last week.
The RTO is a type of high efficiency afterburner that includes desulfurization equipment. It has been custom-made for the Grand Forks factory after several years of studies by independent researchers. Installation is expected to begin this June and be completed by the end of July 2013.
After commissioning and optimization, the impact of this new equipment will result in a significant reduction of the odour and visible emissions from the ROXUL facility, the company stated in a press release.
“We have selected this technology because we believe it will best address the challenges we face due to the valley location of our facility”, says Elmar Herrmann, Factory Manager in a press release. “The technology is well known in other industries, such as wood processing facilities.”
Last year the City of Grand Forks and Roxul entered into an agreement that traded 6,000 square meters of city-owned property located beside Roxul for 3,000 square meters of Roxul property located on 72nd Street beside an entrance to the Trans Canada Trail.
Roxul agreed to improve the land by building a parking lot along the 72nd Street property, smoothing out the street access area presently located there and improving the trail entrance. The company also plans on installing new signage and planting trees along the trail that runs between the Kettle River and the factory. The work was started late last summer and with completion expected this July, said McLaren.
There will be no interruption in Roxul’s production or disruption for the city said Leslie McLaren, North American government affairs and corporate communications manager for Roxul, during an email interview with The Boundary Sentinel.
“All the construction will be done on site,” she said when asked if there would be any disruptions to the community.
