Columbia Pulp I, LLC has received $20 million in critical New Markets Tax Credit financing from CEI Capital Management LLC to help the start-up build a new processing plant, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
The new company will build a 290,000 square foot facility where it will convert low-cost waste agricultural wheat and alfalfa straw supplied by farmers in the area into pulp for papermaking at regional and national paper mills. As a byproduct, the processing plant will also produce a lignin-carbohydrate co-product to be sold as for use in soil and dust abatement and industrial applications. The New Markets Tax Credits are directed toward the construction of that lignin-carbohydrate co-products processing division.
“We’re developing a next-generation pulp mill with the potential to be a transformative regional and national supplier of sustainable, tree-free pulp and unique co-products for years to come,” said Michele McCarthy, CFO from Columbia Pulp. “But it would not have been possible without the New Markets program filling a gap in our financing.”
Columbia Pulp I, LLC will create approximately 87 new, well-paying, direct permanent jobs at an industrial site in Starbuck, Washington. In addition, during construction, there will be about 120 construction workers working on the site at peak.
Columbia Pulp I, LLC is a next generation pulp mill turning waste straw into pulp for papermaking, and processed byproducts for other industrial and agricultural uses.
