Hot button issue We can learn from a close call at Pacific BioEnergy n a matter of days a frightening situation at Pacific BioEnergy turned into a remarkable one with important lessons learned for pellet producers. This past August at the Prince George, B.C., facility a silo hold-ing 3,500 tonnes of wood pellets began smouldering. The situation was critical. Up to this point efforts to put out fires in pellet silos have been unsuccessful in North America. But cooler heads pre-vailed and a co-ordinated effort between the plant’s staff, first responders and FutureMetrics’ John Swaan over the next few days ended in the best possible result – the smouldering was extinguished and the silo was safely emptied. It’s a first in North America, says Swaan, who founded Pacif-ic BioEnergy Corporation in 1994. Central to the firefighting effort was the injection of nitrogen gas to limit the presence of oxygen in the silo. In a smoul-dering situation, oxygen is the recipe for an explosion. Canadian Biomass’ Tamar Atik spoke with Swaan and Pacific BioEnergy’s CEO Don Steele. Read her article about the les-sons learned from the successful fire sup-pression on page 14. “. . . we’re beginning now to refit and add to our knowledge of our product and how to handle it,” Steele said. “And I think the whole industry is going to learn something from it too.” As an industry we need to adopt these types of safety lessons – fast. Just a week prior to writing this editorial, an employ-ee was killed at a pellet storage facility in Texas. According to local media, the em-ployee was operating a skidsteer removing Biomass, Bioenergy and Bioproducts PM 40065710 BIOMASS CANADIAN Volume 17 No. 6 Editor -Maria Church (226) 931-1396 [email protected] Associate Editor -Tamar Atik (437) 990-1107 [email protected] Contributors -Gord Murray, Andrew Snook, William Strauss and Jeff Passmore Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Account Coordinator Stephanie DeFields Ph: (519) 429-5196 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Media Designer -Curtis Martin Circulation Manager Carol Nixon – [email protected] 450-458-0461 COO Ted Markle – [email protected] President/CEO Mike Fredericks Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Business Media. Publication Mail Agreement # 40065710 Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US CIRCULATION Tel: (416) 442-5600 ext 3552 Fax: (416) 510-6875 (main) (416) 510-5133 [email protected] 111 Gordon Baker Road, Suite 400 North York, ON M2H 3R1 Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission ©2017 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca I pellets from a silo when material fell on him. In June another silo on that site collapsed from a smouldering issue that sparked in April. Fire incidents at pellet plants in North America and Eu-rope, though uncommon, prompted a research report from Swedish Civil Con-tingencies Agency’s Henry Persson. The report, titled Silo fires: fire extinguishing COMPOST and preventive and prepara-POWER tory measures , was central to Pacific BioEnergy’s strat-egy. It’s a great example of ALSO research leading to action. The Wood Pellet Asso-ciation of Canada is taking safety to the next level with its safety committee, chaired by Pinnacle Renew-able Energy’s Scott Bax. That committee organized a well-attended event in Prince George a few months back, and regularly hosts workshops. At WPAC’s AGM and conference this year safety was the subject of three pre-sentations, including the keynote. “Take the time and energy to address the culture you want to see,” Bax told at-tendees. “It’s not about making clever de-cisions or bigger deals, it’s about engaging people.” Read our coverage from the AGM and conference on page 22. Whether you’re in the business of wood pellets or other biomass production, safety is the top priority. Determine if you have the most up-to-date safety research and in-formation, and make sure implementation is a focus of day-to-day operations. November/December 2017 canadianbiomassmagazine.ca Anaerobic digester keeps organics out of landfills Stopping a silo fire Pellets in Japan 4 Canadian BIOMASS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017
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