Photos: Myriam Gauthier The plant uses 5% sawdust from yellow and white birch provided by Bersaco, a nearby sawmill and pallet components factory. Wood pallets with bags of Granulco pellets. The pellet industry has considerable market development work to do in hydro-rich Quebec. by the mill’s maintenance staff. Fibre is then processed in a Bliss E-44095-TF dry hammermill ahead of two pellet lines. The mill runs a Bliss B200B-120 as well as an Andritz 125-horsepower mill. Pel-lets are cooled via a Bliss 8-130-6A tower ahead of a Taylor bagging system and Polyroboteck stacker. Once the equipment was installed, ramp-up took a few months, and changes were made throughout the process. Particular atten-tion was also paid to health and safety given the reputation of pellet plants when it comes to fire. “The accumulation of dry wood dust can turn the plant into a tinderbox,” Deschênes notes. The presence of sawdust in the air can cause an explosion at the slightest spark. “It is for this reason, among others, the rotary sawdust dryer among other equipment is outside. We also have an array of spark and fire protection equipment.” In fact, the design includes a full spark detection and suppres-sion system from Hansentek. CHALLENGE In 2008, the demand for pellets grew in Quebec, before falling in 2009 during the depth of the forestry crisis and under the effects of the general global economic recession. “2008 was the frenzy before the crisis, and then we had to go through a series of cycles in difficult markets,” Deschênes recalls. “Before the crisis, the price of a 40-pound bag of pellets approached $5. Now, with a gradual recovery, the bags sell in the $4 range.” The drop in demand led to a temporary suspension of operations www. HANSEN TEK .com MODULARLY EXPANDIBLE ? Expandable up to 64 zones ? Each zone has its own processor ? Easy to expand and connect POWERFUL ? Water flow verification ? Functional sensitivity test on each detector PREVENT DUST COLLECTOR FIRES WITH THE AN6400 SPARK DETECTION AND EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM FM Approved FLEXIBLE ? Select programmable options on a zone by zone basis ? All events and memory stamped with time and date Our AN104 Single Zone System is feature rich and value priced for smaller facilities FM Approved 4141 Sladeview Crescent, Unit 18 Mississauga -Ontario -L5L 5T1 -Canada ? +1-905-607-5780 / 7 +1-905-607-5779 [email protected] / www.hansentek.com Hansentek biomass marapr13.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 13-03-13 10:17 AM 15
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