ABOVE: The Peterson 5710C provided the sizing and options needed to produce the right spec fibre for Excel’s contract with Pacific Bioenergy. RIGHT: Excel grinds approximately 100,000 odt per year for pellet production. had a supply contract in place. The available company also had the necessary equipment to begin grinding operations immediately. “The local company was selling out, so there was an excellent opportunity to buy-in,” says Keith Brandner, operations manager of Excel Resources, a subsidiary of Excel Transportation. Brandner was hired in 2013 by Excel to run the new grinding operation as it was imperative that long term expertise support this new venture The supply contract in place was an agreement with Pacific Bioenergy, which has the capacity to produce roughly 400,000 tonnes of pellets per year. The contract that was part of the purchase made by Excel represents roughly 100,000 oven dried tonnes of fibre. Part of that fibre is part of Pacific Bioenergy’s agreement with the University of Northern British Colum-bia’s Nexterra bioenergy system. According to Brandner, the contract involves woodlands in a close proximity to Pacific Bioenergy’s Prince George pel-let plant. Brandner and his team of nine run the operations in the forests within an approximate 100km radius of the plant, where there remains a high volume of beetle kill wood residues, along with bro-ken trees and limbs and a solid amount of bush grind. THE EQUIPMENT SOLUTION One of the first challenges that faced Brandner and his team came right at the beginning of the operation. The grinder that had been handed over as part of the buy-out was an older grinder that did not meet the needs of the new operation. As a result, Brandner had to look for a new grinding solution for the operation. That, however, was easier said than done. Based on the semi-remote nature of Prince George in the northern half of British Columbia, some types of heavy equipment can be difficult to obtain. That includes biomass grinders, which are in limited ready supply in northern B.C. But the research done by Brandner led him to the one company whose grinders are readily available in the region: Peter-son. Peterson grinders are sold and ser-viced in B.C. by Woodland Equipment, which has a distribution hub right in Prince George. Brandner worked with the team at Woodland Equipment and purchased a Peterson 5710C grinder for the Excel Resources grinding operation, “The Peterson grinder was the right size for our operation,” says Brandner. “So we worked with the local dealer, MAY/JUNE 2015 20 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass May-June 2015: Page 20
