>> Paper production requires three things beyond wood, lots of electrical power, lots of high pressure steam and lots of highly corrosive chemicals. After chopping the wood into small pieces and adding whatever other materials the customer requires, depending on what the end product is, it all goes into what is called a digester along with the first batch of chemicals, lots of chemicals. This produces the slurry which is pressed, dried and has the chemical residue extracted. (Just recently a mill in Jay Maine whose sole product was toilet paper had their digester blow up in a massive explosion. This besides idiot hording was the cause of the recent shortages and price spike, particularly in the Northeast.) >> This chemical residue is considered one of the most toxic and corrosive by-products that come out of any industry. It's so toxic that it can't simply be disposed of. So what is done is that it is reprocessed into first "red liquor" and then into "black liquor." This product is then burned as a fuel in specially designed "recovery" boilers to extract as much of the energy back out of the chemicals for use in making needed steam and electricity. >> Every paper plant in America has at least two COAL fired plants and at least one recovery boiler. I have been to some plants that had as many as five coal plants and three recovery boilers.