THE DAILY GRIND Renewable Forest Products, RFP, is one of the first of the local contractors that has taken on the job of sup-plying chipper debris and logging slash for the boiler. Mario Letourneau, the owner of RFP, saw the benefit of adding a grinder to his operations immediately. He explains his reasons for jumping into the business: “biomass is a byproduct of forestry so I think it is a nice addition to our business. It’s good for the environment and it’s a good utilization of the fibre. It’s one of the operations I like the most – it really works with our business.” The logging contractors that take on this additional work are more productive. They’ve built the same amount of road and harvested the same amount of area but they’re able to use more of the fibre from the roadside so the vol-ume they’re getting for their effort has increased. Opticon biomass dec12.pdf 1 2014-02-04 2:33 PM The biomass, a mix of sawdust, chipper debris and logging slash, is brought into the mill on a conveyor belt. Established 1973 World’s Toughest Industrial CCTV Camera The industry standard for Sawmills, Pulp/Paper Mills, Panelboard Plants and Wood Biomass Refineries • • Vibration Resistant 560 TV Lines • • Waterproof, Rating 2.9, 4.3, 6, IP68 8, 12, • 700 TV Line 16 mm lenses • • 2.9, 4.3, All 3.6, Weather, Extreme Environment 6, 8, 12, 16 mm lenses Heavy Gauge Di-Cast • • All Weather, Metal Alloy & Titanium Extreme Environment Components • Heavy Gauge Di-Cast Metal • Tri-Axial Mounting System Alloy & Titanium Components • –60°C to +60°C • Tri-Axial Mounting System • –76°F to +140°F • • –60°C to +60°C and Waterproof, IP68 Rating –76°F to +140°F • Vibration Resistant Available from leading electrical wholesalers throughout North America Canada – Ph. 604-569-3240 • US – Ph. 269-966-2900 www.toughestvideocamera.com 1-800-578-1853 the sawmill and the forest and they get screened to remove any pins, slivers and fines. The rejected material that can’t be used for making paper gets collected as biomass for the boilers. Sawmill residuals (bark and sawdust) get collected from the company’s sawmill. Chipper debris and logging slash is brought in from the company’s logging operations by the truckload. The mill currently has a core supply of six contractors who run grinders and send 35 trucks a day to the yard, five days a week to collect about 200,000 tonnes a year from the sustainable forest licences and almost 100, 000 tonnes from private land. The boilers consume about 700, 000 metric tonnes a year of green biomass. “The U.S. housing market recovery means there has to be a home Established 1973 for biomass because as the sawmills spin up, the biomass [from the saw-World’s mills] has to go somewhere and the best Toughest thing to do is to make energy with it,” said Skiffington. Industrial CCTV Camera A healthy regional The forest industry a Pulp/Paper balance Mills, that has to be for Sawmills, standard requires industry Panelboard Plants and Wood Biomass Refineries maintained in order for operations to be profitable. The market demands lumber from the sawmills but if the sawmills can’t sell chips or sawdust, • 560 TV Lines they can’t compete over time with • 2.9, 4.3, 6, 8, 12, other sawmills that have a healthier ecosystem with customers their leftovers. 16 mm for lenses • All Weather, “It’s very important that this [pulp and paper] mill and other key Extreme mills in Ontario are in a position where they can be completing that Environment balance otherwise, sawmills can’t run.” • Heavy Gauge Di-Cast Alloy Approximately half of Metal the volume of wood that goes into a saw-& Titanium Components mill comes out as chips. In Northwestern Ontario, the industry is in • Tri-Axial Mounting System a balanced state where all the sawmills have customers to buy their • Waterproof, IP68 Rating chips. Installing a condensing turbine that also consumes some of • Vibration Resistant • –60°C to +60°C [–76°F +140°F] the leftovers from sawmills helps to to maintain this balance and gives the company the confidence to from build more sawmills in the region (in Available leading electrical wholesalers throughout North America Atikokan and Ignace). The biomass is delivered in trucks from within 200 kilometres of the mill from Monday to Friday. It’s brought onto the site and dumped into piles that are constantly being turned over to keep TECHNOLOGIES Inc. them from overheating and causing a fire. Sawdust is mixed with Canada – Ph. 604-569-3240 bark and chipper debris to come up with the perfect mix to fuel US – Ph. 269-966-2900 www.opticomtech.com the fire. Sawdust alone is too combustible to be put in the boiler; it 1-888-410-2447 would be like throwing gasoline on a fire. “We have sawdust that is 42 per cent moisture and then we have MARCH/APRIL 2014 Opticon biomass janfe1b4.indd 1 16 Canadian BIOMASS 2014-02-05 11:03 AM
Canadian Biomass March/April 2014: Page 16
