One mill's waste another man's treasure: Wawa-based entrepreneur unveils plans to develop wood-pellet fuel mill. (Forestry: Special Report).What is considered one forest producer's waste has become almost gold for the start-up of a fledgling Wawa outfit that has plans to convert sawdust into environmentally friendly Environmentally friendly, also referred to as nature friendly, is a term used to refer to goods and services considered to inflict minimal harm on the environment.[1] and clean-burning pellet fuel for heating homes. Gerry Bugyra expects his wood-pellet fuel mill will be operational this fall, the first of possibly four such facilities he intends to establish in Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River and Lake Nipissing. Northern Ontario has a land area of 802,000 km² (310,000 mi²) and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it . Through a long-term agreement struck with Weyerhaeuser, Bugyra's company, NorWa Manufacturing and Distribution Co. Ltd., will receive sawdust and other residnal wood-waste material from the forestry company's oriented strand board Oriented strand board, or OSB, or waferboard, or Sterling board (UK), is an engineered wood product formed by layering strands (flakes) of wood in specific orientations. plant in nearby Limer, and produce about 12,000 tonnes of wood fuel pellets a year. "It will be the first operation of its kind in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. ," says Bugyra. It will utilize a special prototype pelletizing Pelletizing or pelletising is the process of compressed or molding of product into the shape of a pellet. A large range of different products are pelletized including chemicals, iron ore, animal compound feed, and more. system developed by a British Columbia British Columbia, province (2001 pop. 3,907,738), 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. Geography environmental firm. Construction on the $500,000-mill is expected to be complete by mid-September, and NorWa should be ready to ship pellets by early October. The operation would create 15 full-time positions, running three shifts a day at Full production. Woodbridge Constructors of Thunder Bay Thunder Bay, city (1991 pop. 113,946), SW Ont., Canada, on Thunder Bay inlet of Lake Superior. The city was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur and two adjoining townships. was awarded the contract to build a steel-structure building in the Wawa Industrial Park. The building will house a modern punchdie pelletizer developed by Enviro 2000 of Surrey, B.C., a system that produces a pellet about the size of an eraser head. NorWa will produce a very dense and hot, clean-burning hardwood pellet with a BTU Btu: see British thermal unit. factor of 8,800 BTUs per pound. "It's a 100 per cent natural product that we're manufacturing," says Bugyra, a former Algoma ore division diesel mechanic millwright mill·wright n. One that designs, builds, or repairs mills or mill machinery. Noun 1. millwright - a workman who designs or erects mills and milling machinery who financed the $500,000-project with his own money and an investment from a small local investors group. As well, the Superior East Community Development Corp. came aboard as a major financier contributing its ceiling limit of a $125,000 loan, along with funds pooled from 14 other community futures development corporations in the northeast, for a total of investment of $875,000. Dan Friyia, general manager for Superior East, says what struck home with the agency's board of directors was the proposal's job-growth potential, the quality of Bugyra's submission and the fact that it is value-added forestry, identified by the organization as one of their strategic objectives for regional economic development. "We certainly ran into the right entrepreneur with the right idea," Friyia says. The genesis of the idea began a year and half ago. Bugyra, who runs a Wawa hardware store, decided it was too expensive to have fuel pellets shipped by transport from Winnipeg and asked his next door neighbour who worked at the Weyerhaeuser OSB OSB abbr. Order of Saint Benedict plant what the mill did with their sawdust waste. It was hauled away by a waste management company for landfill, he was told. "Basically I came in the house and told my wife and kids I wanted to build a pellet mill A pellet mill is a type of mill used to create cylindrical pellets from a mixture of dry powdered feedstock, such as flour, sawdust, or grass, and a wet ingredient, such as molasses or steam. The pellets are made by compacting the mash or meal into many small holes in a die. ," Bugyra says. Bugyra had conjured up the notion several years before, but purchasing a new ring-die system was expensive -- about $1 million certainly not economical for a small operator to run. He began searching on the Internet for a used system and up popped Envior 2000's Web site and its new punch-die pelletizer system. Used mainly in the agricultural industry for processing chicken manure Noun 1. chicken manure - chicken excreta used as fertilizer manure - any animal or plant material used to fertilize land especially animal excreta usually with litter material , Bugyra says it is a versatile machine and could easily be adapted for wood waste. After making the initial phone contact, two months later he flew to the west Coast and business relationship was formed. After six days in B.C., and extensive negotiations, he Secured the exclusive technology marketing and distribution rights for the pelletizer, an augerless pellet stove and a wood-pellet boiler system for eastern Canada, the midwestern U.S., U.K., and Europe. With further commitments expected from Dubreuilville Forest Products and Domtar in White River, "we may have the potential of expanding into the U.S. and Scandinavian market, and in two or three years we could create another 15 jobs if we had another pelletizer," Bugyra says. Bugyra says the Northern Ontario residential market for wood pellets is very popular but "pocketed;" however, there is substantial room for growth in Canada and huge. potential in Europe. He is now working on contracts with two companies in Denmark and Norway. "(The Europeans) are keenly interested in the product because the peat which they're using for cogeneration and pellets are being depleted de·plete tr.v. de·plet·ed, de·plet·ing, de·pletes To decrease the fullness of; use up or empty out. [Latin d , and they're looking to North America for alternatives. The potential market demand out there, counting North America, Europe and the Scandinavian countries - "we're probably looking at 600,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes a year," more than any mill in North America can provide, he says. gitcanva@onlink.net. |
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