Wood Burning Pellets

Explosion damages Waycross plant; no injuries reported

An explosion damaged the Georgia Biomass wood pellet processing plant near Waycross early Monday, crippling production at the factory that began operations a little more than a month ago.

No injuries were reported in the blast that occurred about 8 a.m. at the plant in the Waycross-Ware County Industrial Park about five miles west of Waycross off U.S. 82 and U.S. 1.

"It did extensive damage to the processing end. ... They'll probably be down an extended period of time," Ware County Fire Chief Dennis Keen told the Times-Union.

Georgia Biomass is a subsidiary of RWE Innogy of Germany, one of the top five electricity and gas companies in Europe. An estimated $175 million investment, the factory is deemed "the world's largest wood pellet plant."

Plant manager Ken Ciarletta, however, said the damage looks worse than it actually is.

"I wouldn't say the damage is extensive. It's in a very small portion of our facility," said Ciarletta, who described the incident as "a small fire."

Plant operations, however, have been suspended.

"We're off line because of it," Ciarletta said "We haven't determined how long we'll be off line. We're still in the assessment mode."

As they assess the damage, company officials are searching for the "root cause" of the problem, so they can resolve it and prevent future mishaps, Ciarletta said.

Employing about 80 people, the plant began operating May 12. Using yellow pine timber from throughout Southeast Georgia, its goal is to produce about 750,000 tons of wood pellets annually. Wood pellets are used as fuel — a cleaner-burning substitute for coal — primarily in Europe.

"Fortunately, no one was in the area of the explosion when it occurred," said Keen, who praised the company's fire suppression system and emergency procedures.

Ciarletta said the plant was evacuated "to ensure proper control of the situation."

"They made sure everyone got out all right and were accounted for." Keen said.

Keen stationed a fire truck at the plant Monday as a precaution against flare-ups or other problems as authorities and company officials searched for the blast's cause.

It's possible, Keen said, that dust might have caused the explosion.

"It may take several days to figure out what caused it," Keen said.

Describing it as a "flash-type explosion," Keen said the blast damaged equipment included a cooler, a section of the conveyor belt system and a storage hopper for the pellets.

Wood Burning And Pellet Burning Stoves | Fat Burning Foods

There are many things to consider into thought when using wood burning and pellet burning stoves. it is crucial to learn what forms of fuel your particular form of burning stove incorporate the use of and what are not able to be place into use safely. A stove individual will also want becoming mindful of why their particular buring stove employs certain materials to burn.

Regular wood burning stoves are vented by way of the chimney. they are doing not burn away as hot as pellet and corn burning stoves and therefore aren’t as efficient. It should be mentioned here that wood burning stoves aren’t designed to burn away with identical depth that pellet and corn burning stoves do.

Wood burning stoves carry out on the theory of radiant high temperature coming straight away the stove. this really is very unique from the workings of pellet and corn burning stoves. These stoves provide high temperature by having an electric motor blow the high temperature produced covering the burning pellets into the room the stove is in much identical way a furnace would blow high temperature because of this of ductwork. The fumes from pellet- and corn-burning stoves are commonly vented straight because of this of an exterior wall for the outside.

Wood pellets and corn aren’t necessarily interchangeable as a source of fuel in a pellet-burning stove. One should verify a manufacturer’s recommendations in advance of exchanging one fuel source for the other. it’s also doable that using the faulty fuel source will void a manufacturer’s guarantee if you take place to have got a problem with your stove lower the road. Do your homework when shopping for a pellet-burning stove. Know forward of time when the stove you need will burn away your favored fuel source and also know forward of time if your favored burning fuel is easily available within your area. There are stoves on the market place that are produced to burn away equally as corn and pellets, both separately or as a blend, while most are ideally produced for one or the other.

You need to learn that wood burning stoves aren’t designed to burn away corn or pellets knowning that wood and pellet burning stoves high temperature your home dependent on unique principles. wood pellet s and corn could perhaps or could perhaps not be suitable to burn away in identical stove. make sure you already know very well what are the stove manufacturer’s recommendations are in advance of purchasing a stove or in advance of using any form of fuel in it.

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1st World Conference on Biomass for Energy and Industry, proceedings of the conference held in Sevilla, Spain, 5-9 June 2000

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