Regardless of whether the fibre is obtained by truck or con-veyed from the Tolko sawmill next door, the fibre is separated by fibre type, shavings and sawdust, and conveyed into the ap-propriate storage tent. A system of conveyors from Continental Conveyors move the fibre throughout the plant, including from the storage domes to the bed dryers, supplied by Stela Luxhuber of Germany. The belt dryers dry at a temperature of around 100C as compared to a rotary dryer, which has a typically inlet tem-perature of around 500C. Both the pellet plant pneumatic system, and the upgrades to the Tolko Lavington fibre delivery system, is supplied by Airtek Pneumatics in Kelowna. The systems were installed to NFPA standards, in accordance with B.C. regulations. Sub-suppliers including Rodrigué Metal who manufacture the cyclofilter tech-nology, Northern Blower who provided the industrial fans, Baum Pneumatics who supplied the airlocks and Clarke’s Sheet Metal Inc. who supplied the abort gate and backdraft dampers. The hammermills were supplied by Bliss Industries, which re-duce the particle size of the material prior to the seven Andritz pelletizers, which extrude a small, sleek wood pellet that can be sold to both domestic and international markets. The site provides limited pellet storage, however, the two 100-ton storage silos are situated directly over the train tracks for ef-ficient transfer to a series of railcars ready on site. Once the cars are loaded, the pellets travel just over 300km to Fibreco, where they are accumulated in advance of shipment. EFFICIENT CONSTRUCTION Pinnacle began construction of the Lavington mill in early Feb-ruary of 2015 following a design review with WorkSafeBC, a first for the pellet industry in B.C. With the organization’s feedback, construction of the mill was done quickly and efficiently, with just nine months from groundbreaking to the first batch of pellets produced. The project was completed with no lost time due to injury, on time and under budget. The business case was based on a 12-month ramp up to 700 tonnes per day equating to annual production volume of approx-imately 260,000 tonnes. During the commissioning phase in Oc-tober and November, the plant exceeded expectation with several days above the business case capacity. However, the company is quick to recognize that winter conditions will challenge the plant in the coming months. While the 260,000 tonnes per year production is in line with current fibre availability in the region, the company has built the plant with the capacity to add equipment for increased produc-tion. Based on the construction, Pinnacle is in a position to add a hammermill, two pelletizers and a baghouse. The Lavington mill has provided a valuable addition to the forest industry in the Okanagan Region, giving mill operators a home for residues from lumber production. And in the process, the company has set a new standard for dust and emissions con-trol in Canadian wood pellet production. • Continental Bulk Handling Storage and Reclaiming Mechanical Conveying Feeding and Sizing Fuel and Ash Handling Contact us to see how we can help you convey bulk materials. Thetford Mines, QC : 418-338-4682 Winnipeg, MB : 204-661-3321 Vancouver, BC : 604-233-2008 Napanee, ON : 613-354-3318 Edmonton, AB : 780-245-1664 New Orleans, LA : 504-284-7759 www.continentalconveyor.ca CBM_Janfeb16_Continental_CSA.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 2016-01-25 3:14 PM 13
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