23 years, says that Acadian Timber is by far their largest customer, adding that they typically harvest about 200,000 cubic metres of roundwood annually for Acadian and last year processed close to 240,000 tonnes of biomass for the company. In terms of equipment, Boyd B. Harding runs a fairly substan- tial fleet of gear, including four Morbark 30-inch whole-tree chip- pers, a Tigercat 822 and two Tigercat 860 feller bunchers, four Caterpillar 322 machines all equipped with Denharco delimbing heads, and 16 skidders – one is a Tigercat E620C and the balance of the skidders are Cat 524, 535, and 545 models. “We have two skidders working with every delimber, and each site has at least one spare skidder in case of breakdowns,” Burgoyne explains. “That way, we can keep our productivity up.” Log loading is all contracted out. For biomass, the company’s Morbark chippers feed straight into waiting chip vans. Each of the chippers has its own dedicated Caterpillar skidder for moving materials to within reach of the chipper’s grapple. On the biomass side, Burgoyne says they have worked with Acadian since day one, back in 1989, and have developed a sys- tem that really works for them in terms of efficiency and pro- ductivity. “We take a good look at how far out the chippers are working and we know the turnaround times for the trucks from the bush to the delivery point, so we basically just make sure we have enough trucks arriving at each block at the right times,” he explains. “We don’t want a truck sitting in the bush waiting and we don’t want the chipper to have to shut down because he has nowhere to put the chips. Our goal is at least 10 loads/day from each chipping site and, in many cases, we will do more.” triCks of the trade Burgoyne says that they have developed a few tricks over the years to help the crews meet maximum productivity when it comes to biomass production. “It’s just little things,” he notes. “For exam- ple, in the winter we change the angle of the knives in the chip- pers, which makes them last longer between knife changes. We also position the equipment on angles so that we can minimize moving; we always work from the right-hand side when we are coming out of the bush so that production flows; and we make sure our branches are piled neatly, which minimizes tangling. If we can save just a few seconds on each grapple load being put into the chipper, it adds up to a huge amount of time and a big increase in productivity over the course of a day. We target one load of biomass in the truck every 30 minutes.” Safety is of course a big concern, and Burgoyne says they have developed a homemade system for safely and efficiently dealing with one issue many biomass producers face – Y-shaped trees. “We have welded a piece of steel on to the side of every chipper we own, and if the operator gets a Y-shaped tree, he just slides the Y under the steel and it breaks off as he pulls the tree through. He doesn’t need to get out of the cab with his power saw, which is not only safer, it’s quicker.” truCking Challenges One major challenge Burgoyne says that they must deal with is trucking weights, especially when they cross the border into Maine. “They can bar you from entering the United States if you are overweight,” he explains. “We have gone with lightweight Material Handling for Woody Biomass U Biomass Handling Equipment Complete Engineered Systems Pulverized Coal Boiler Conversions CFB Boiler Feed Systems UNITED STATES D STATES CCANADA AN A SWEDEN SWEDEN Silos Wood Hogs Disc Screens Open Storage Closed Storage Truck Dumpers Chain Conveyors Bucket Elevators Screw Conveyors Screw Reclaimers Pneumatic Conveying See our Biomass video at www.jeffreyrader.com/videoB USA: CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Jeffrey Rader Corporation 398 Willis Road Woodruff, SC, USA 29388 Phone: 864.476.7523 Fax: 864.476.7510 CANADA: Montreal, Quebec Jeffrey Rader Canada 2350 Place Trans-Canadienne Dorval, Quebec H9P 2X5 Canada Phone: 514.822.2660 Fax: 514.822.2699 CANADA: Vancouver, BC Jeffrey Rader Canada Unit 2, 62 Fawcett Road Coquitlam, BC V3K 6V5 Canada Phone: 604.299.0241 Fax: 604.299.1491 SWEDEN: Stockholm Jeffrey Rader AB Domnarvsgatan 11, 163 53 SPÅNGA Stockholm, Sweden Phone: +46 8 56 47 57 47 Fax: +46 8 56 47 57 48 For information on how Jeffrey Rader Corporation can solve your Biomass Handling needs, visit us at www.jeffreyrader.com/bio2 22 CanadianBIOMASS MAY/JUNE 2010
Canadian Biomass May/June 2010: Page 22
