Pellet Profile Integrated operation Premium Pellet rounds out Nechako Lumber site By Maria Church Over nearly 20 years, Premium Pellet in Vanderhoof, B.C., has established itself in Canada and globally as a provider of high-grade white wood pellets for the heating market. The brand is a recognized pellet leader, competing with the likes of Pinnacle Renewable Energy and Pacific BioEnergy in northern B.C. Behind the scenes, Premium Pellet operates as one cog in a well-functioning wheel of value-added production at the Nechako Lumber site on which it resides. “Being an integrated site, we consume our own residues which provide electricity for the site and pellets for the domestic and international markets, which is good for us but ultimately it’s good for the community. This model works really well,” says Nechako site manager Dave Herzig. Nechako Lumber was originally built in 1969 as a planer mill. A sawmill, L&M Lumber, was constructed on the same site in 1972. Premium Pellet was added in 2001, and Nechako Green Energy — an Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) Turboden generator — in 2011. All companies operated separately until last year when Sinclar Group Forest Products out of Prince George, B.C., purchased them and merged the sawmill and planer mill under the banner of Nechako Lumber. Premium Pellet is retaining its name. Located on a 112,000 square foot site, pneumatic conveyors connect each of the facilities and are continually transporting sawdust, shavings or hog to its respective end use. The sawmill pumps out about 245 mmbf a year, while the pellet mill produces about 165,000 tonnes, and the energy system consumes 56,000 dry tonnes of hog. The pellet plant ingests about 185,000 oven-dried tonnes of sawdust and shavings a year. The bulk of the fibre diet is white wood from Nechako’s sawmill and planer mill, but the plant also consumes sawdust trucked in from other suppliers in the area. “Premium Pellet has strategic partnerships with Nechako, Premium, Premium Pellet was built in 2001 on the Nechako Lumber site in Vanderhoof, B.C. The plant is fed by planer chips and shavings conveyed directly from the sawmill to produce 165,000 tonnes of pellets a year. JULY/AUGUST 2018 10 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass JulyAugust 2018: Page 10
