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Morbark Serves Wood Pellet Market
The world’s largest exporter of wood pellets since 2012, the United States, has seen wood pellet exports grow from 1.6 million short tons in 2012 to 3.2 million in 2013 and 4.4 million in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Worldwide demand for wood fuel exported to Europe is expected to double over the next 10 years.
Morbark is uniquely positioned to help its customers meet that demand.
“There’s a reason Morbark has always been the industry leader in whole tree chippers,” says Michael Stanton, Morbark regional sales manager. “The exclusive Advantage 3 drum gives biomass fuel contractors the flexibility to meet various market requirements and produces a far superior and consistent end product. Our dealer network is also a differentiating factor. We are in the business of setting end users up for success.”
The Advantage 3 drum is available on Morbark’s four models of industrial drum chippers—the Beever M20R Forestry, 30/36, 40/36, and 50/48B—and can be configured to produce “micro-chips.” Field data from Morbark customers has shown up to 70% or more accepts at 1⁄4 in. minus and up to 98% or more 1⁄2 in. minus during in-woods applications.
Morbark’s MicroChipper configuration also features an operator-friendly slide-in forestry grate system to further reduce oversized chips, and a straight discharge chute with a mechanically driven chip accelerator and a hydraulically operated chip deflect with vertical and horizontal adjustment to fully load vans.
Recent improvements to the drum chipper line include a sloped live floor and an internal drive feed system with fewer moving parts. Morbark’s Integrated Control System (MICS) provides the ultimate diagnostic monitoring system.
“We’re committed to continuous improvement at Morbark to help our customers be successful,” says John Foote, Morbark vice president of Sales and Marketing. “The volume we manufacture attests to not only the continued growth in the market, but also the confidence our customers have in our equipment.”
Price LogPro Upgrades Drum Shells
Price LogPro has developed a number of new products due to the ever-increasing desire to better utilize small wood diameters for energy, lumber, pulp and engineered wood products with the focus lately on energy. In response to these new applications Price LogPro has engineered a family of efficient drum systems featuring new technology. The two most significant upgrades enhance the design of the debarking shell in the form of Price LogPro’s “Enviro” drum shells and “Versa” drum shells.
The “Enviro” line of drum shells utilizes smaller segmented lifters resulting in greatly reduced fiber damage and white wood losses in softwood species that have a density of less than 70 lbs. per cubic foot. Another feature of the enviro drum shell is the angled, narrow bark slots that allow for overall greater bark slot area throughout the length of the drum while reducing white fiber losses to the bark system located directly below the drum. This arrangement allows for transfer of small diameter fiber and logging waste to be successfully delivered to the chipper or grinder system.
The “Versa” drum shells are engineered to work with segmented lifter segments much like the Enviro shell, however the segmented lifters are bolt-in rather than fix welded to the shell. Price has built drums for more than 20 years running bolt-in rubber lifters; the Versa drum shell is just an adaptation of that design.
This Versa flexibility in lifter selection allows for proper fiber agitation based on species being processed and allows the drum to perform better during frozen wood processing. Clients processing wood in climate areas that are split with semi-equal frozen to non-frozen fiber processing months will have the ability to interchange the aggressive lifter segments for winter applications and then change back to standard non-aggressive lifters to reduce breakage and white wood losses during the non-frozen fiber months. Versa drum shells can also be outfitted with specially designed lifters with cutting attachments to help process Eucalyptus.
“Enviro” & “Versa” drum shells are available in all drum sizes and configurations including the Urban and Trailer mounted mobile drum systems. Price LogPro has the experience as well as the innovation to help clients process their fiber at the highest possible recovery at the lowest possible cost per ton.
Familiar Name Wins Peterson Pacific Award
Peterson Pacific Corp., a Eugene, Ore. based manufacturer of horizontal grinders, drum and disc chippers, blower trucks, and screens, has named Barry Equipment, Co. of Webster, Mass. as its 2014 Dealer of the Year. This is the third year in a row that Barry Equipment has won the award.
“Barry Equipment Co. has achieved this award three times in a row due to their assembly of a world class sales and product support team. Their support after the sale is unsurpassed within our industry and Barry’s dedication, focus and vision to the Peterson product line, and the markets we serve, make them a tremendous partner and raises the bar for dealer performance,” says Brian Gray, Eastern Sales Manager.
Charlie Bagnall, Peterson’s Northeastern sales rep, echoed Gray’s comments. “Barry Equipment winning the 2014 Peterson Dealer of the Year award for the third year in a row underlines the unparalleled service they provide. The customers in the New England and New York region expect the highest standards from their Peterson dealer and Barry Equipment delivers that every time.”
Barry Equipment Co., Inc. was established in 1985 and is a family owned and operated equipment dealership located on Interstate 395 in Webster, servicing New England and New York State.
Viking Streamlines Rail Tie Processing
Thomas Vine, plant manager of the Michigan biomass energy plant, Viking Energy of McBain, LLC, has big plans for his facility’s recently acquired Sennebogen 825 M material handler.
“With the completion of a rail spur to our plant, our Sennebogen 825 M will be put to work off-loading used rail ties from open hopper rail cars on site,” Vine says. “This will increase our processing capabilities significantly.”
The McBain facility, a subsidiary of GDF Suez, one of the world’s largest independent power producers, is a busy place that puts a premium on productivity and uptime. With a workforce of 21, the McBain plant processes about 500 tons of material daily with a blend of waste wood, creosote treated wood (mostly railroad ties), and used rubber tires. It generates roughly 143,000 MWH of power annually enough for about 14,000 homes.
The McBain plant is unique in that it processes whole railroad ties. “Many biomass plants buy their fuel already prepared usually in the form of chips they can run into their systems. McBain does the chipping operation itself using a low speed grinder feeding into a high speed hammermill,” says Vine.
McBain’s Sennebogen 825 M feeds the plant’s two grinders and assists in their scheduled maintenance, including lifting equipment belts off the conveyors. “Our green machine has been operating about seven hours daily for about four months, with operators switching off every three and a half to four hours,” says Vine. “Its 43 ft. reach and ability to handle a larger grapple has made it much easier for us to handle the used ties. Our operators love the machine’s sensitivity and control it offers.”
McBain has been off-loading used rail ties from rail cars onto logging trucks at a freight yard about 10 miles from the plant. “The real value of the Sennebogen 825 M handler will become obvious when we begin off-loading the ties onsite once the rail spur is complete,” says Vine.
Vine says due diligence resulted in the acquisition of the Sennebogen 825 M handler. “We did a review of specifications and capabilities, and spoke to a lot of people before reaching our decision,” says Vine. “The 825 M material handler’s ability to raise its cab to 19 ft. allows the operator to see into open rail car hoppers. For its size, it’s the highest in the industry. This was a major deciding factor for us.”
The 825 M’s load capacity enables operators to pick up eight to 10 railroad ties at a time. It also offers the kind of mobility the McBain plant requires. “Ours is a relatively level site consisting of compacted material and the Sennebogen machine’s solid rubber tires are ideal,” Vine says.
New Chains, Sprockets Geared To Biomass
FB Chain has launched a range of conveyor chains, sprockets and scrapers designed and developed in Sweden and Finland to address the specific challenges of the growing biomass sector.
“Ash from biomass fuel—whether forestry waste, grain husks or poultry litter—can be highly corrosive, causing excessive wear to all moving parts it touches. Standard conveyors, especially belt conveyors, just won’t cut it,” says Graham Barber, conveyor specialist at FB Chain.
Chain conveyor components manufactured from carbon steel will, if untreated, quickly rust, he adds. This not only shortens the service life of the conveyor but can contaminate the ash, which could otherwise be sold at a profit as fertilizer or a liming agent. Careful handling and removal of the ash is also critical for health and safety reasons.
FB Chain reports it has resolved these issues for the biomass sector by manufacturing its conveyor chains from martensitic stainless steel, which offers greater resistance than carbon steel, together with hardened and tempered pins and bushes. Furthermore the pins and bushes are welded to the inner and outer plates, which helps keep the corrosive ash away from the areas where chain wear most frequently occurs—and increases the strength of the chain by 30%, allowing a lighter, more energy-efficient specification to be used.
FB Chain has also developed its own self-cleaning sprockets with induction-hardened teeth made from the same corrosion-resistant steel. The grooves around the edge of each sprocket prevent fuel or ash from becoming trapped between the teeth, reducing maintenance requirements and increasing the life of the sprocket.
In addition to clogged sprockets, deformed scrapers are another major cause of chain conveyor downtime in the biomass sector. When conveying fuel to the burner, steel scrapers may buckle under heavy loads and even snap off, causing costly damage to surrounding chains, sprockets and even the burner itself. “In many cases we’ve seen jammed steel parts being conveyed into the burners and re-emerging on the ash removal conveyor, where they cause more unsalvageable damage,” Barber says.
FB Chain has created a new type of scraper attachment, using technology previously found in Formula One skid pads and terror-proof cladding for buildings. FB Chain’s Inno scrapers are made from multi-laminated beech, which, when processed and assembled using thermosettings, weigh one-tenth as much as traditional steel scrapers but are equally as durable.
By using this tough yet lightweight material, the company is able to reduce the stress exerted on the conveyor drives and limit damage in case of overloading. Instead of buckling like traditional steel scrapers, the Inno scrapers simply snap without damaging the conveyor chain or sprockets and can be quickly and easily replaced. Furthermore, being made of wood, they can be disposed of in the furnace.
“Our unique approach to conveyor design, using a combination of high-performing components manufactured from alternative materials, offers a practical and cost-effective solution to the challenge of operating a conveyor in harsh environments,” Barber says. Visit fbchain.com.
Wood Waste Supports New Gasification
Wood waste from local industry will be a major driver in providing positive financials for a municipal gasification plant now under construction by PHG Energy (PHGE) in Lebanon, Tenn., and the project will keep thousands of tons of that waste from being dumped into area landfills each year.
The plant will deploy the world’s largest commercial downdraft gasifier, according to PHGE Vice President of Engineering Chris Koczaja, with the capacity to convert up to 64 tons per day of biomass into electricity. A blend of mostly industrial wood waste, sludge from the city’s wastewater treatment plant, and shredded used tires will provide the feedstock for the gasifier.
Wood waste to fuel the gasification facility will be secured from local manufacturing plants and distribution centers that had previously paid retail hauling and tipping fees to dispose of the wood pallets, casing and packing material. By participating in the city-sponsored waste-to-energy project, they will realize considerable savings and the city will receive income to help operate the plant.
“One of the great things about the project is the cooperation between the local industries and the City of Lebanon,” Koczaja says. “This system creates a win-win situation economically, and provides 300 KW of sustainable electric power for use at the wastewater treatment plant.” The electricity is produced utilizing an Organic Rankin Cycle (ORC) generator.
Some 500 tons per year of used tires will also be converted to fuel gas for power generation during the process. “Our gasifier can accept those shredded tires without the need to remove wires or steel belts,” Koczaja says. “There is neither smoke nor odor from our thermo-chemical conversion process, so this is a terrific solution to the county’s tire problem.”
The Lebanon plant will be completed in mid-2016. A $250,000 matching funds grant has been awarded to Lebanon to assist with construction of the facility. The funding comes from the Clean Tennessee Energy Grant program administered by the Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).
Funding for the Clean Tennessee Energy Grant program originated from a federal court settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under the Clean Air Act that resulted in TVA providing the state $26.4 million over a period of years to fund designated environmental mitigation and energy projects carried out by municipal, county and other government agencies. TDEC was chosen to manage the selection process.
Once completed, the project will mark the 14th gasifier installation for PHGE. The company’s first municipal installation was commissioned in Covington, Tenn. in 2013.
MDI Enhances Under Conveyor System
With 50 years of experience, Metal Detectors, Inc. has established itself as a proven leader in advanced industrial metal detection systems and remains committed to continually improving its technology to meet the needs of a demanding industry. Instead of customers having to wait for a new product line down the road, MDI will often upgrade its existing technology immediately. This ensures that its customers are always getting the very best product.
MDI announces its latest improvement to the popular XR-3000 Under Conveyor System, the new XR-9 Digital Electronic Function Block. This advancement in CB radio filtering and AC noise interference gives customers greater stability, less false tripping and better maximum sensitivity. Ensuring consistent protection against both ferrous and non-ferrous tramp metals, the XR-9 provides better protection for all applications where an XR-3000 metal detector is installed. “With all of the environmental electrical noise in today’s mills, you need a system that can handle the interference. Keep your metal detector one step ahead by upgrading to our new XR-9 digital technology today,” the company states.
MDI takes pride in its experienced and well trained Service Dept. With thousands of successful installations worldwide, MDI has the knowledge, experience and technology to help with any metal contaminate needs.
BFNUF Solves Feedstock Challenges
Biomass Feedstock National User Facility specializes in bioenergy solutions, developing feedstocks to user specifications for process design, scale-up and validation of feed handling and conversion.
Expertise includes:
They can provide:
Biomass Feedstock National User Facility solves feedstock challenges for sustainable energy solutions.
Visit inl.gov/bfnuf.
Rotochopper Launches Slow Speed Shredders
To help customers capitalize on growing opportunities in recycling markets, Rotochopper is launching a new line of industrial slow-speed shredders. The first model in the new line, the HTS-2, is an aggressive dual shaft shredder designed to pre-process stumps, commingled C & D, railroad ties, and other forms of mixed or contaminated waste.
The HTS-2 shredder minimizes the costs of turning challenging feedstocks into end products like compost, landscape mulch and boiler fuel. By reducing maintenance costs and increasing total uptime percentage, the HTS-2 shredder maximizes the value of raw materials that pose problems for high-speed grinders.
Vince Hundt, Rotochopper co-founder and International sales manager, comments, “The introduction of the HTS-2 is the completion of a long-term Rotochopper plan and promise to provide our customers with a complete line of grinders from hammermill to hi-torque.”
The HTS-2 open shredding table allows dirt, stones and other abrasives to easily pass, reducing wear rates. Grease points and other routine maintenance areas are easily accessible.
An aggressive tooth design efficiently pulls in raw material for continuous throughput without a feed ram. The teeth and counter teeth ensure active shredding in both directions. Weld-on shredding teeth stand up to contaminants.
Designed for extreme duty applications, the radial piston drive motors deliver over 1,000,000 in.-lbs. of torque to each shaft in both directions. These radial piston drive motors offer better reliability and parts availability.
The HTS-2 shredder is available with diesel or electric power units from 400 to 630 HP, in stationary, portable, or track-mounted configurations.
Hundt adds, “The HTS-2 coupled with a Rotochopper horizontal grinder and hammermill can turn contaminated C&D into whatever product the local market wants.”
The HTS-2 shredder integrates with Rotochopper horizontal grinders. With a Rotochopper multi-stage fiber sizing system, raw waste goes in and a finished product comes out. The shredder outputs a steady stream of material that is optimized for metal removal and grinding. An in-line Rotochopper grinder then efficiently refines the shredded material to finished specifications for landscape mulch, compost, biomass fuel, or other materials. With the addition of an in-line Rotochopper hammermill, a Rotochopper multi-stage system can even produce fine texture fiber for animal bedding, fuel pellets, and other short fiber applications.
Like every machine in the Rotochopper lineup, the HTS-2 is backed by factory-direct customer support from service technicians that specialize exclusively in Rotochopper equipment. “Our unprecedented customer loyalty will continue to grow because of our over-the-top service,” Hundt states. “We have a reputation to honor: We love our customers and we love building grinders!”
Hurst Boiler Launches CAD Download Solution
Hurst Boiler announces the launch of its user-friendly online CAD download solution, featuring its latest boiler models and plan view configurations.
Featuring an extensive range of Hurst boilers available as BIM-compatible 2D and 3D CAD/Revit objects, Hurst’s Integrated CAD solution gives users the option to either download the object in the desired file type or directly import the object into their design/specification software. The application supports most popular file types and CAD software programs.
The Hurst comprehensive CAD portfolio provides a workflow advantage by streamlining planning and design to deliver higher quality projects. Offering an industry solution that gets the right information to the right people at the right time enables Hurst, as well as its customers, to innovate and compete. Visit hurstboilier.com.
Three Fairs Merge Into Wood Biorefining Week
Adforum and Elmia have agreed to combine their fairs as part of International Wood Biorefining Week, May 24-26 in Stockholm, Sweden.
The three events included in International Wood Biorefining Week are International Pulp & Paper Week, World Bioenergy and Bioeconomy Innovation Forum.
International Pulp & Paper Week continues the tradition of fairs for the pulp and paper industry that have been organized by Adforum since 1968.
World Bioenergy has been organised by Elmia and its partner Svebio, since 2004. “Thanks to Sweden’s leading position in the bioenergy field, it has been possible to develop World Bioenergy into a global event with participants from 80 countries,” comments Torbjörn Johnsen, business manager Forestry at Elmia. “When we launched World Bioenergy, the growth area was byproducts from tree harvesting and the sawmill industry. Today we have a totally new situation with a pulp and paper industry that is investing heavily to create an integrated process industry in which bioenergy is becoming an ever more important part of the product mix.”
Bioeconomy Innovation Forum is a new event for new and innovative products from the forest industry. The focus is on bioplastics, textile fibers, nanocellulose, carbon fiber, packaging, biochemicals and wooden structures. Exhibitors at this event will encounter not only visitors from the forest industry but also from other industries with an interest in biobased products.
In 2016 the three fairs will be held concurrently in the same hall at Stockholmsmässan and the conferences will also be integrated with the fairs.
New Technology Detects Forest Fires
Insight Robotics, an international technology company specializing in data visualization and risk management over large areas of land, has developed a new system capable of detecting fires the instant they break out, saving both lives and property.
The Insight Robotics Wildfire Detection System is the only system capable of detecting a single tree on fire up to five kilometers away, allowing fires to be extinguished before they can spread out of control, according to the company. Currently deployed to protect more than 250,000 hectares (600,000 acres) of territory, the system has a detection track record of 100%, catching every fire that has broken out within a coverage zone. In Jinan City, China (home to 3 million people and covering an area eight times the size of New York City), the system detected 100% of the fires that occurred in 2014, allowing each outbreak to be suppressed by a single fire truck.
Specifically designed for cost-efficiency, durability and reliability, the system can protect an area for as little as $2 dollars per hectare (2 acres) per year, safeguarding assets and reducing the cost of fire suppression. These savings can be substantial—the annual cost of combating wildfires averages more than $3 billion in the U.S. alone, nearly half of the entire Forest Service budge.
The system is composed of a network of automated InsightFD1 robots, all connected to a central control room. The robots combine a thermal sensor with geospatial intelligence to scan for fire and report its location while minimizing false alarms. The robots also provide a real-time video feed of the fire area and micro-weather data, for response coordination.
Less visibly but no less importantly, biomass fires account for nearly one-fifth of all man-made carbon emissions. E-mail info@insightrobotics.com; 888-658-4183.
Whole Log Biomass Power Plant Offered
ElectraTherm has partnered with Air Burners to develop a whole-log wood waste burner utilizing ElectraTherm’s Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power generating technology. The product, called the PGFireBox, eliminates large amounts of wood waste without any pre-processing, converting the woody biomass to electricity while providing a significant improvement in environmental impact by eliminating the production of methane as the wood decomposes in a landfill or forest.
Air Burners utilizes patented technology to dispose of vegetative waste without costly pre-processing requirements. The self-contained unit generates electricity from vegetative waste (6-8 tons per hour/30 cubic yards per hour).
The PGFireBox is portable and can be deployed close to the location where the woody biomass is collected, applicable at sites such as landfills, forest maintenance, fire prevention, and natural disaster cleanup.
ElectraTherm’s Power+ Generator feeds off the heat from the burner to generate up to 110kWe of electricity. Through the ORC process, hot water heats a working fluid into pressurized vapor. As the vapor expands, it drives ElectraTherm’s patented twin screw power block, which spins an electric generator and produces power.
The Power+ Generator utilizes waste heat on various applications beyond biomass, such as internal combustion engines, geothermal/co-produced fluids and solar thermal. Visit pgfirebox.com.
Whole Log Biomass Power Plant Offered
With the growing need for high volume processing of organics (including green waste and food waste) for compost and AD conversion, WSM introduces the WSM BioPrep Organics Processing System—a complete high capacity system to convert green waste, food waste and mixed organics into high quality feedstock for compost and AD conversion systems.
WSM’s BioPrep Organics System is a complete and integrated system that includes bulk receiving and metering infeed, shredding, conveying, metal removal and/or detection, light fraction separation, screening, sorting and grinding—the full set of tools to allow effective processing of incoming materials at rates up to 100 TPH.
By utilizing WSM’s high capacity Titan Trommel Screen (8 ft. diameter by 35-63 ft. long) and WSM’s Titan Horizontal or Vertical Feed Grinder (150-800 HP), this stationary electric system delivers substantial customer benefits including reduced handling, labor and energy costs for reduced “per ton” processing costs; full system integration with a system that is fully engineered and designed for ease of maintenance and low cost installation and operation; and WSM’s ongoing technical training and support to ensure a productive system.
If you are looking for a way to improve your processing of organic materials, check out WSM’s new BioPrep Organics System—field proven in high capacity organics, green waste and food waste processing. Visit westsalem.com/bioprep-organics; email sales@westsalem.com, or call 800-722-3530.
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