New Pellet Plant to Create 20 Direct Jobs

Friday, September 17, 2010 12:50 PM

Burns Lake, B.C. - A new plant near Burns Lake will produce pellets from mountain pine beetle- killed wood and help boost the local economy. Pinnacle Pellet has officially broken ground on construction of it's newest plant.

Wood pellets are a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels such as coal, and will be made from mountain pine beetle-attacked timber. The estimated 400,000 tonnes per year of wood pellets to be produced at the Burns Lake facility will be exported to European and Asian markets.

"When this pellet plant starts up, we'll be creating more than 20 full-time jobs at the site and about 50 more spin-off jobs," said Pinnacle Pellet chief operating officer Leroy Reitsma. "We're looking forward to working with Babine Forest Products and the
Burns Lake community that includes government agencies, community members, First Nation groups and other stakeholders."

Construction of the $30-million plant is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.

Pinnacle Pellet Inc. is a privately held company with a reputation for producing high- quality wood pellets. The company is the largest single producer of wood pellets in North America. The current combined production of the existing 5 plants is over 750,000 tonnes annually, most of which is sold to overseas markets.

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Posted on Friday, September 17, 2010 12:50 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on September 18 2010 1:04 AM

I wonder if you could get a steam powered micro generator powered by wood pellets? That would be a huge value added component to this industry IMO with practical applications all across the north.

Posted by: detoe43 on September 18 2010 6:37 PM

Hey Eagleone,
Deltech makes a small chip/pellet fired
energy system that produces around a few
million BTU/hr.(I'm not quite sure of the exact #). One could easily run a small to med. size turbine off of it or whatever steam generation application in mind.

Posted by: Eagleone on September 18 2010 11:47 PM

I was thinking of the Capstone portable micro turbines as the most efficient fit, but they don't yet have the capabilities to run off of wood pellets (thus the opportunity). If one could merry a good steam unit powered by wood pellets and have it run a Capstone turbine generating unit, then I think one would have a world class product. It would be an excellent value added product that would fit well with the Northern BC economy and resources.

Thanks for the heads up on the Delteck unit.. wonder if they have any specs online?

Posted by: Farnorth on September 19 2010 12:11 AM

The Community of Balty Hughes recovery centre (west of PG) is totally ran of a Delteck pellet fired energy system.