Millar Western agreed to trial a Keestrack K4 Scaling Screener and Edge Innovate MC1400 Material Classifier. Millar Western rented the equipment from Frontline. Millar Western and Whitecourt Power split the cost of the Frontline equipment rental, with Millar Western paying 60 per cent and Whitecourt Power paying the remaining 40 per cent. Whitecourt Transport moved the Frontline equipment onto the power plant site and resumed hauling the yard waste with their fleet of Tycrop and Titan livefloor trailers. The company also supplied a Caterpillar excavator to sort and feed material to the Keestrack K4. Other costs associated with the project included fuel for the rental equipment and salary for an additional operator who operated the equipment and a front-end loader that moved the rock to a waste pile and the clean material to Whitecourt Power’s conveyors. The equipment began operating on Sept. 25, 2019. The project ran until Nov. 2, with about 300 operating hours put on the equipment. CHALLENGING MATERIAL The Keestrack K4 was set up with a four-inch top screen deck to screen out rocks and wood pieces over four inches. Any rocks under four inches went to the Edge MC 1400 density separator, which separated out the majority of the rocks, Anderson says. However, the wood material coming out of the density separator didn’t meet Whitecourt Power’s size specifications, so it had to be re-processed through their existing wood hog. According to Anderson, the Edge MC 1400 was around 80 to 90 per cent effective. Unfortunately, this meant there was still some rock in the material going into Whitecourt Power’s boiler. The material itself also had a moisture content of 60 per cent or more, but Whitecourt Power’s material typically has a moisture content of 43-45 per cent. An approximate analysis on the material also revealed that it had lost 50 per cent of its volatiles and produced eight times more ash than the company’s normal supply. These problems meant that the cleaned hog fuel could not be fed directly into the company’s boiler. Instead, one loader bucket of the cleaned material had to be mixed with three loader buckets of their regular waste supply. “That’s not without cost, because we still had the rock to contend with. Due to the design of our furnace, we have to somehow get rid of the rock, because if the inventory of the rock in our furnace gets too high, it stops our process and we have to shut down or reduce our output in case it causes other issues,” Anderson says. To combat that issue, the company drained some of the material from their bubbling fluidized bed boiler. The boiler has approximately 60 tonnes of sand in the furnace heated up to 800 C, which allows Whitecourt Power to burn higher moisture content material because it provides a large heat sink, Anderson explains. But draining some of the rock meant they were also losing some of the sand, which they then had to replenish. On top of that, the higher ash content overloaded the plant’s flue gas bag house, NOW OPEN! #3 -1099 COMMERCE WAY, WOODSTOCK ONTARIO We are excited to announce the opening of our new branch in Woodstock, Ontario. Due to market demand, we have expanded our grinding, shredding, screening, crushing and material handling equipment sales, rentals, services and parts, and are ready to serve you! CALL: 1.855.625.2009 VISIT: FRONTLINE-MACHINERY.COM CB_Frontline_Spring20_CSA.indd 1 Canadian BIOMASS 2020-04-06 9:04 AM 21
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