Canada’s First Activated Carbon Plant Built in British Columbia

According to an article in the latest bulletin from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Prairie Mines & Royalty, Ltd. (PMRL) and Norit Canada are building Canada’s first activated carbon plant. This plant will manufacture activated carbon for a mainly Canadian audience of coal-fired power utilities.

PMRL is a subsidiary company of Sherrit International, the largest producer of thermal coal in Canada (about 90% of total Canadian coal production volume). Additionally, 90% of Sherrit’s coal is sold to nearby power plants located at what are called the “mine-mouth”. Norit on the other hand, is the world’s largest manufacturer of activated carbon and has been in the industry for over 80 years.

It’s fairly obvious why it makes sense for a joint venture building an activated carbon production plant between these two companies, but why build an this type of plant now?

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With a price tag of about $200 million (Cdn), this is not a decision entered into lightly. However, according to Sherrit representatives:

New provincial regulations [regarding mercury emissions are] expected to come into effect in 2010 [and are] driving demand.

As highly toxic and environmentally persistent metal, mercury is being targeted by the provincial government in new emissions regulations expected to arrive in 2010. Now, since mercury is a by-product of coal-fired power generation, these new British Columbia regulations are going to affect the power generation industry. Thus, if even one of Sherrit’s symbiotically-located power plants were to be unable to meet the new mercury emission regulations, it would shut down and therefore, so would the corresponding mine.

Photo Credit: 00089 by nathelbiya via Flickr’s Media Commons

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