MAIN: Two Caterpillar 950 wheel loaders are used to move fibre around the storage yard and to load the plant’s infeed bins. Shavings that are already dry when they arrive are put under covered storage. RIGHT: Plant manager Jack Levesque has been at the Meadowbank plant for just over a year. plant. “This is essentially any solid wood waste that sawmills can’t use, but we can,” Levesque explains. Another growing source of fibre for Meadow- bank is bush waste, which includes stumps and limbs left over from logging activities. Currently, this represents up to 30% of the fibre required for the plant, but Levesque says they expect that number to grow in the future. He adds that the bush waste is ground at the log- ging block to a four-inch size and then further refined at the plant with a large stationary hog- ger manufactured by West Salem Machinery. production flow The mill’s dependence on fibre is evident from the huge piles of sawdust, mill waste, and log- ging debris that surround the infeed to the CanadianBIOMASS 17
Canadian Biomass November/December 2009: Page 17
