other material that is 52 and when we mix it all in together, we get a good product. The boiler is designed to burn biomass at 50 per cent moisture. So as long as we’re in the 46 to 48 per cent moisture, that’s where we want to be,” says Martin Kaiser, Fiber Optimization Manager for the Ontario operations. Resolute has always burned biomass at the pulp and paper mill. From 1976 to 1997, it burned bark from the local sawmills but it was very homogenous compared to the material that is currently being burned. The sawmills liked to have the residue burned to avoid sending it to landfills and the pulp and paper mill liked the cheaper fuel. But in 1997, so many of the sawmills shut down and all of a sudden, there was nothing to feed the boiler. The company took the opportunity to install a condensing turbine that would increase it’s biomass demand and started bringing in dif-ferent products from the local forest: slash, tops and limbs ground up, chipper debris and ground full-tree birch. This new biomass brought with it different characteristics when thrown into the boiler and re-quired active management. Now there’s a crew whose objective is to keep the steam generation constant; perfecting the recipe that feeds the boiler does it. The mixed fibre is brought into the mill on a conveyer belt where it is combined with the sludge from the pulp and paper mill. Whatever isn’t used in the boiler comes back out and gets pushed back onto the conveyer to make another trip through. The fibre is fed into the boiler where it burns throughout the boiler on different levels: the sawdust will burn in the air while the heavier debris will fall to the bottom and RESOLUTE TO BUILD A PELLET PLANT Resolute is building a pellet plant on the site of its Thunder Bay sawmill where it will produce 50,000 tonnes per year of pellets from the softwood sawdust and shavings from its sawmill. Forty-five thousand tonnes of the pellets produced will be shipped by bulk in a truck to the OPG Atikokan Generating Station. Equipment was ordered at the end of 2013 for construction in the middle of this year. The com-pany plans to begin commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2014. burn more slowly. “The biomass travels up the conveyor and drops into a spout” says Kaiser, “that distributes the biomass onto an inclined, vibrating, boiler grate. Air is injected into the boiler above and below the grate, and the material combusts as it moves down the inclined grate.” It’s all managed from the control room that has cameras pointed at different parts of the boiler to monitor how much air is shot in, any bark buildup or other potential issues. Every aspect of the burn is monitored from the temperature to the energy produced. The end product is green power for the city and a well-balanced forestry sector in Northwestern Ontario. • Wood Hogs and Screens hammers, rotors and liners, allowing routine maintenance to be performed safely, easily and with minimal downtime. Our EZ-Access technology even lets operators remove the wood hog’s rotor without moving the feed chute. Plus, our heavy-duty rotor discs allow maximum flexibility of hammer arrangements, up to 3, 4 or 6 rows for premium efficiency on smaller products, while our Duratip ® high-alloy hammers with replaceable tips provide increased shredding action and quick change-outs. are the industry’s #1 scalping screens. When it comes to removing oversize rejects from unscreened wood chips, hog fuel or bark, our RDS is the undisputed workhorse of the industry. With more units in operation than all other suppliers combined, you can depend on us to select the ideal disc profile, interface openings and screen size for maximum screening efficiency. Jeffrey Rader ® EZ-Access ® Wood Hogs are designed for safe, fast and easy access to Rader ® Disc Screens (RDS) CRUSH. FEED. PROCESS. CONVEY. STORE. Phone: +1 (864) 476-7523 § Email: [email protected] Web: www.terrasource.com Handling a World of Materials The brands comprising TerraSource Global (Gundlach Crushers, Jeffrey Rader and Pennsylvania Crusher) are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Hillenbrand, Inc. (NYSE: HI) © 2014 TerraSource Global. All Rights Reserved. Canadian BIOMASS 17
Canadian Biomass March/April 2014: Page 17
