The Pinnacle Pellet plant in 亚洲天堂 Lake has now completed upgrades to its air quality and emissions systems that began earlier this summer.

Suntanu Dalal, communications officer from the Ministry of Environment reports that the plant was inspected by ministry staff on Sept. 18. 2012 and stack (emission) tests were completed over two days. Although the full results of those tests were not available at press time, the ministry expects particulate emissions to meet permitted levels.

The ministry reports that Pinnacle Pellet has hired a full-time employee to manage scrubber operation and maintenance. This, as well as improved systems for ensuring accurate and consistent blending of raw materials, feed rates and temperatures will improve local air quality.

The wet scrubber, which is the last stage in the particulate emissions control system, is now fully operational. Lorne Davies, Pinnacle Pellet鈥檚 environmental officer, told the Lakes District 亚洲天堂 in July that the pioneering technology has been difficult to set up from the start.

鈥淲e鈥檝e put in the changes we planned on doing,鈥� says Davies, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e not necessarily satisfied yet.鈥�

According to Davies, although the system is currently working to control emissions it is not yet fully optimized. 鈥淭he systems are running,鈥� Davies explained, 鈥渂ut they鈥檙e still not running as good as we鈥檇 like them to. They鈥檙e costing us a lot more money than we鈥檇 like.鈥�

A big expense in running the emissions system is the cost of the chemicals required to maintain clean system fluids. If the system gets dirty then pumps may fail. The pumps are in a sequence so that the failure of one pump doesn鈥檛 affect the operation of the whole, but a failed pump still needs to be replaced.

Davies expected problems like this with a new system. 鈥淭here鈥檚 growing pains with the system,鈥� Davies said, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e moving forward with it.鈥�