The plan is to move it the final distance by barge
Georgia-Pacific is finding it easier to move its new natural-gas boiler more than 800 miles from St. Catharines, Ontario, than the final two miles down the Fox River to the Broadway mill in Green Bay.
The plan was to deliver the boiler to Georgia-Pacific’s Fox River dock, but the cargo ship Palmerton proved to be too wide to pass through the railroad bridge immediately north of the mill. That set in motion a series of audibles the company was still working through Friday morning.
The boiler, which will replace the company’s largest coal-fired boiler at the mill, was off-loaded at the K&K Integrated Logistics terminal at the north end of downtown Green Bay on Thursday afternoon. The plan is to move it the final distance by barge, probably later next week.
Georgia-Pacific spokesman Mike Kawleski said engineers on Friday were assessing whether it would be best to put the boiler on a trailer that could be rolled off the barge or to lift it off by crane. Also, it might be necessary to remove part of the mill’s security fence, but because the Port of Green Bay falls under the auspices of the Maritime Transportation Security Act it would be necessary to have additional security personnel on site during the transfer.
“A smaller boat would have made it a little easier,” he said.
The boiler, designed by Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, is 30 feet tall, 23 feet wide and 40 feet long, and weighs nearly 200 tons. Trenergy Inc., which manufactured it, says it’s likely the heaviest piece of equipment it ever made. It will produce steam for process use and to generate electricity at the mill. With the boiler in place, the mill will have the capacity to produce 75 percent of its electricity needs. It is scheduled to be operational in mid-2015.
Georgia-Pacific estimates using natural gas instead of coal will reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions at the mill by 80 percent. Kawleski said it will cut coal use by 150,000 to 200,000 tons a year. The mill normally uses 400,000 to 450,000 tons of coal annually.