Humboldt Flakeboard Panels receives rebate for lowering carbon dioxide emissions

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our or .

| Sourced From |

Feb 04, 2009 (Times-Standard - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — PCG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating — With the completion of a biofiltration system in an effort to meet federal emission standards, Humboldt Flakeboard Panels Inc. was rewarded for its work Tuesday with a $531,508 rebate from Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Humboldt Flakeboard Panels Inc., an Arcata subsidiary of employee-owned Hambro Group, manufactures composite wood products by bonding materials — such as wood fibers and particles — with resin under heat and pressure, to form structural panels or engineered wood products.

The biofiltration system made up the bulk of Humboldt Flakeboard Panel’s Hazardous Air Pollutant Reduction Project. The rebate is the largest given to a Humboldt County business to date.

Biofiltration uses living material to capture and biologically degrade process pollutants. Microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, degrade the pollutant, in this case formaldehyde. The new system has effectively reduced, from three to one, the number of smokestacks at the facility.

PG&E Senior Account Executive Ivan Marruffo said by choosing a biofiltration process, Humboldt Flakeboard will save more than 2 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. Marruffo said the completion of the project will prevent greenhouse gas emissions of more than 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, which equates to emissions from powering 300 homes. Also, the facility will save nearly 900,000 therms per year, the amount of natural gas needed to power 1,600 homes in one year.

“The plant’s reductions in energy and natural gas will prevent us from adding infrastructure to support it,” Marruffo said.

The entire project cost $5.3 million, and was aided with a $2.4 million loan derived from a partnership between Arcata Economic Development Corporation and the City of Arcata.

“We really appreciate these programs, without which, we would not have been able to complete the project,” said Hambro President Dwayne Reichlin.

Reichlin said his goal for the company was to save money while maintaining jobs. The plant currently has 62 employees and is operating three to four days a week. Reichlin hopes the wood products industry will improve, at which point he may be able to operate seven days a week with 135 employees.