The Roberts Co., with offices in Winterville and Raleigh, N.C., USA, reports that last week it participated in the groundbreaking for a $105 million upgrade to Resolute Forest Products pulp and paper mill in Calhoun, Tenn. Roberts is the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractor for this project and will be working closely with the Andritz Group, Graz, Austria, the technology provider, to ensure Resolute has a safe and successful project. 

 

Richard Garneau, president and CEO of Resolute said that "when the project is complete, the mill will produce specialty printing papers in addition to value-added grades not produced before at the mill. This project is the result of the hard work of many partners."

 

Employees from Roberts, Resolute, and state and local officials gathered to mark the occasion. "This project is a cornerstone project for Roberts, Resolute, the Calhoun Mill, the region, and the industry, and Roberts is proud to be a part of it," said Jason Dunaway, EVP of Roberts. "We look forward to a successful project and continuing our strong relationship with Resolute." 

The event concluded with officials from Roberts, Andritz, and Resolute "breaking ground" to mark the formal beginning of the project. 

 

Andritz will be supplying equipment, engineering, and field services for the mill’s new Lo-Solids continuous digester, including Andritz’s TurboFeed chip feeding system, which will replace an existing displacement batch pulping process. Startup is scheduled for the third quarter of 2015.

 

The Lo-Solids digester will be designed to switch between hardwood and softwood pulp, producing 1,400 air dried tons of bleachable softwood and 1,659 air dried tons of bleachable hardwood pulp per day. Andritz will also supply a blowline pressure diffuser and will upgrade the mill’s oxygen delignification and bleaching systems.