Biomass Innovations Reaping Residuals Rewards By Andrew Snook W hen local investors de-cided to purchase Hefler Quality Lumber, a sawmill in Middle Sackville, N.S., from the Prest family, producing lumber was only one of the opportunities they envisioned at the mill. The new owners knew that the mill had the potential to become a cogene-ration facility, in addition to producing upwards of 15 to 18 million board feet annually. While planning upgrades to increase board-feet production last March, a harsh winter storm collapsed a section of the roof and walls, forcing the company to increase the scope of its upgrades. By late May 2015, the mill was back up and running. By last November, the mill had reached its target of 60,000 to 65,000 bdft a day, thanks to a $2.8 million in-vestment in equipment and building up-grades. This meant the mill could now produce its target of between 15 to 18 million fbm annually. The increased production was im-portant for two reasons: to keep the sawmill competitive and to fuel the com-pany’s latest investment, a 3.1 megawatt, biomass-fuelled power generating sta-tion, which was commissioned this past summer. Hefler Quality Lumber signed a 20-year contract to supply power from its biomass generator to the grid as part of the Province of Nova Scotia’s community feed-in tariff program. To help the new owners achieve their goals they hired Blair Saulnier, the mill’s general manager, who had previously worked for the mill from 1993 to 2002. He knew the capabilities of the sawmill, which was underperforming at the time of its purchase by the new owners. Saul-nier was also hired for his 10-plus years working for an engineering company that specialized in troubleshooting, com-missioning and designing various boiler ABOVE: Blair Saulnier, general manager for Hefler Quality Lumber, shows off the company’s Britespan fabric dome, which houses three weeks of residuals from the sawmill. LEFT: The plant’s combustion chamber burns at 2,000 F. BELOW: The majority of the sawmill residuals are housed in a fabric dome away from both the sawmill and the cogeneration plant. Canadian BIOMASS 19
Canadian Biomass March April 2016: Page 19
