I have been looking forward to this day since I first heard about it.  Today we traveled north to Escanaba to visit NewPage Corporation to discuss its groundbreaking partnership with Chemrec AB of Sweden.

After a bumpy flight in the wind, we toured the company's massive operations in the Upper Peninsula.  The plant sits on 2,200 square miles of land.  A snowstorm had come through the area on Saturday, leaving about a foot of snow or so on the ground, which made the drive and tour that much more scenic.  I had the pleasure of visiting NewPage back in 2004 to discuss the forestry industry and was thrilled to be back to talk about the cutting-edge technology of black liquor gasification.

During my August 2007 jobs mission to Sweden, I joined with leaders from NewPage and Chemrec to announce that they had formed a partnership to bring Chemrec's alternative energy technology to Michigan.  This new technology will take black liquor, a by-product of the paper pulping process, and convert it into a variety of biofuels.  Chemrec is already using this technology at one of their plants in northern Sweden.  If the technology works in Escanaba, their operation (the first of its kind in North America) will be 25 times larger than Chemrec's Sweden plant!  They believe they can produce 14 million gallons of biodiesel or methanol in Escanaba each year…all while making their paper processing plant even more productive.

Can you tell I'm excited about what this can mean for the U.P. and for all of Michigan? This new process will not only make additional alternative fuel available for use in Michigan, it will create jobs for our citizens.  Not only will the mill need to add a few additional workers, but jobs will be created throughout the supply chain.

The pre-feasibility study should be complete in the next few weeks, and we are all anxious to see this project move ahead.  Together, NewPage and Chemrec are clearing yet another pathway to advanced biofuels for the rest of the country to follow.  Friday I will be at Altair Engineering in Troy.  Stay tuned…