Wood Demolition Power Recovery The Enfoui-Bec sorting and grinding plant in Bécancour, Quebec, is diverting waste wood from landfill to local power plants. By Guy Fortin contaminated mix of materials had no local value. The times have certainly changed, as a number of industrial waste specialists, among them Yvon Lemay of Enfoui-Bec Inc., are now recycling the maxi- mum volume from this one-time waste stream. For more than two years now, the company has been running Not a massive and dynamic sorting yard, spread across the company’s 200-ha site. With few exceptions, metal, concrete, plastic and, of course, wood from demolished buildings all find a second life here. Plastic remains the most problematic, but wood is not an issue. Since the recycling began, there has been a 30% increase in the volume of recycled wood waste going to the energy plants of neigh- bouring pulp and paper mills. It’s a long way from the company’s origin as a landfill site. “In the 1980s, we would have received a fine if we did not bury pallet waste and other wood waste in our yard,” recalls Lemay, com- pany president. “Still, I was stubborn even back then. I didn’t see the point in throwing away that wood, so I rented grinders to recycle it as best I could.” This visionary entrepreneur had a point. Today that wood is all that long ago, wood waste from construction and demolition sites would have been landfilled in this part of Quebec, about 100 km east of Montreal. The almost worth its weight in gold, thanks in large part to a localized shortage of waste wood for uses that vary from panel manufacturing to energy generation. Mostly composed of softwood residuals from construction and de- molition sites, chips from this site are suitable only for power plants. Still, that frees up purer sources for other forestry biomass needs. The proactive businessman’s approach is for the company to go out to the actual work sites and to collect the mixed waste itself. Enfoui- Bec manages an inventory of 150 waste containers of various sizes (12, 25, and 40 cubic yards). Relying on a business network built up over decades, these are sent to various construction and renovation job sites across the greater Trois-Rivières region (the regional centre across the Saint Lawrence River from Bécancour). These are then col- lected every two weeks (or sooner as required), and typically contain over 50% wood waste of different kinds. Sort it out On the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, just below the mas- sive Laviolette Bridge, the Enfoui-Bec site is a hive of activity. One A Komatsu 300 works off the piles of sorted waste wood, feeding the Morbark 1200 XI tub grinder. Chips go exclusively to local pulp and paper power plants. CanadianBIOMASS 11
Canadian Biomass November/December 2009: Page 11
