Loren Davies's corporate safety and environmental officer said to Lakes District 亚洲天堂 that the commissioning period for the 亚洲天堂 Lake plant has taken a lot longer than originally expected.

As reported in the Lakes District 亚洲天堂 edition of April 27, 2011, Pinnacle Pellet started their commissioning phase in early last year, with the first pellet being produced at the plant on Jan. 27, 2011.

Davies explained that during 2009-2010 the imposed new regulations to increase emission controls for new plants. He said because of this, Pinnacle Pellet's 亚洲天堂 Lake plant, which to his understanding is the first pellet plant to come online in Northern B.C. after the new regulations, installed a high efficiency cyclone system, in addition to micro mist wet scrubbers.

He said because the technology is new and has never been used behind a rotary wood dying system in a pellet plant before there has been a number of issues during the commissioning period.

He pointed out that the issues have more to do with operational efficiency than just emission problems however he said, that once the new technology is running properly the plant's emissions will be substantially lower.

"The system is not running efficiently and plugs up, which shuts the plant down," Davies said.

He likened the system to an air filter on a vehicle. "If your air filter on your car plugs up, your car doesn't run efficiently ... when the cyclone system is running correctly, everything at the plant is working fine ... we just need to get the system to where it is running 24/7."

Davies said they are using an older wet scrubber system at another one of their plants, which is working well.

"It is not a simple system and this new scrubber technology is higher efficiency than the older scrubber system at our other plant. We are pioneers in the industry with this technology. Another difference is that the old wet scrubber system uses shavings and sawdust, not the bark and hog fuel that is being used at the 亚洲天堂 Lake plant. We are using bark and hog fuel to eliminate the need for beehive burners so this is all new technology and we have had a bunch of issues with the system. It is a tedious process, but once we are up and running we plan to build future pellet plants using either this or the wet electrostatic precipitator that is in use at our Meadowbank plant, just outside of Prince George."

Davies explained that the wet electrostatic precipitator uses electric current to collect particles. "Pacific BioEnergy in Prince George is also using this technology. We will be comparing the wet scrubber technology and the wet electrostatic precipitator to see which is the most cost efficient for future plants."

He said the wet scrubber system is also used in pulp mills behind rotary dryers to clean emissions.

The good news, Davies said, is that the white plume that locals see from the plant is mostly water vapor.

"The emissions that we are treating have no chemicals in them at all. We don't use any chemicals. We burn wood to dry other wood ... basically we are drying wood off, so the plume is just water vapor."

Davies said the shut down of the has also required the plant to use feedstock that has more moisture content than usual. The feedstock for the 亚洲天堂 Lake plant primarily comes from Babine Forest Products and Decker Lake Forest Products.

"The fibre were using was already kiln dried from the Babine Forest Products sawmill, but now we are drying some wood that has a lot more moisture. The higher the moisture content the more water vapor there is."

Davies said that Pinnacle Pellet is currently working with the system manufacturer, the Ministry of Environment and a world class consulting company to solve their operational issues. "Test work is being completed now and when the data from this comes back we will have a time line and a response plan. We had hoped that everything would be up and running as per the design by December 2011 but we are not where we want to be yet. We have made a lot of progress, but it is just taking a little longer than we thought."

Suntanu Dalal, communications officer from the Ministry of Environment said to Lakes District 亚洲天堂 that the Ministry is aware of the challenges Pinnacle Pellet is having commissioning their wet scrubber system.

"The wet scrubber is the first of its kind in this application and when operating as designed, is considered the best available pollution control technology," Dalal said.

"When the air discharge permit was issued in January 2011, a commissioning period of two months was authorized however design problems have resulted in an extended commissioning period and particulate concentrations in the discharge have at times been above those originally permitted."

Dalal said, "The Ministry of Environment has been in discussions with Pinnacle Pellet throughout the process of resolving the problems with the wet scrubber and an action plan to address the design problems has been submitted to the Ministry.鈥�

鈥淲e are optimistic that emissions will meet the provincial pellet plant guidelines and permit limits for dryer emissions in the near future."