By KELLY LOUISEIZE
Deciding to erect a chemical plant on Bowater property was not only convenient, it was a strategic move to position ERCO WorldWide for growth and expansion in the next few years, a director says.
Jon Christie, commercial director of the water technology business at ERCO says he can easily imagine an increase in the use of chlorine dioxide in potable water throughout North America in the next two or three years and the Thunder Bay ERCO plant is poised to capitalize on the market.
ERCO, formerly known as Sterling Pulp Chemicals Ltd., manufactures the sodium chlorite. Before the 1990s, lumber mills used chlorine for bleaching, and as a result found toxins in the affluent pipes. In response, companies introduced chlorine dioxide, of which sodium chlorite is a compound, and found there was no harmful after effects left in the outgoing pipes from the mill.
Using the same idea, places like Sudbury, Trenton, Deep River, Quebec and Southern United States by the Gulf of Mexico began using chlorine dioxide instead of chlorine to disinfect their drinking water.
“Chlorine dioxide does not produce things in drinking water called disinfection byproducts or harmful byproducts that were found in the pulp mill affluent,” Christie says.
In addition, chlorine in a liquid or gaseous state has certain risks to workers who are transporting or using it.
Currently, the Thunder Bay-based plant’s output is about 5,000 metric tons of sodium chlorite per year, however Christie believes that figure could soar to 10,000 in two or three years.
Chlorine dioxide is not new to potable drinking water. In fact it has been around since the 1940s and Christie says it has a number of desirable characteristics.
“It has benefits in improving taste and odour qualities in water, it can be used to remove colour, so chlorine dioxide use in North America is growing.”
Evidence suggests chlorine dioxide is more effective on most pathogens that can be found in drinking water than chlorine, and Christie says there is an emerging market in Ontario for chlorine dioxide. ERCO is presently working together with engineers and researchers in Canada to promote this technology and its product.
The purpose for locating their chemical plant on Bowater Canada’s property in Thunder Bay was methodical, Christie says.
“There is an excellent industrial workforce and this is an industrial plant so we couldn’t ask for a better location.”
Coupled with easy transportation accessibility and proximity to the United States, Christie says the company would like to expand as the North American market grows.
“When we installed that plant we did it with the ability to easily expand it. At the design stage we had already included some, not all, but some capability to expand it to 10,000 metric tons per year.”
Growth is expected to gain momentum in 2005-06 according to statistic analysts, and Christie says the company plans to expand around that time.
