In February 2015, Airtek broke Ground on a multimillion dollar project in Coldstream, BC. Eight months to completion, the project would draw on Airtek’s 140 years of sheet metal trade experience to successfully complete and facilitate the opening of a new, $30 million Pinnacle Pellet operation.
Pellets have a wide range of use from consumer through industrial buyers, and they’re a part of BC’s growing clean energy industry and export sector. For example, the largest single site coal fired electricity generator in the UK has substituted wood pellets for coal and is now leading the way in decarbonizing base-load thermal power. Pinnacle runs seven pellet plants throughout BC, including the new Coldstream facility, producing more than one and a half million tonnes annually. Pinnacle produces for a global market.
Pinnacle relied on Airtek to provide dust control and collection systems to efficiently move fibre supply from the nearby Tolko Industries’ Lavington planer mill to the new pellet operation.
“Tolko had three separate shavings and dust collection systems,” says Airtek project manager Dan Bowles. “We needed to collect the fibre supply and then pipe it into a single 90,000 cubic feet per minute negatively charged system.”
To get the job done, Airtek acquired Cyclofilters through Quebec suppliers. The fibre would have a travel of 500 to 600 feet from the planer mill to the pellet plant.
“The setup in the planer mill had the three raw material stream terminate at cyclones,” says Bowles. “There were separate shavings and dust collection systems. We pulled those streams out of the cyclones, and fed them into the new Cyclofilter system.”
Airtek constructed support tower to a height of 35 feet, and ran transport duct between the towers to reach the new Pinnacle plant.
While Bowels says the project went incredibly smoothly, there were some environmental concerns that came to the fore. Airtek listened and then pit in the extra effort to install additional mitigation measures. In the end, compared to Tolko’s former environmental footprint, the new system provides significant reductions in airborne particulate.
Airtek also installed critical dust collection systems at the new Pinnacle facility, including a 70,000 CFM separate standing system that services the pelletizers. Dust collection is a critical component of wood process systems. In 2012 explosions blew up both the Babine sawmill in Burns Lake, killing two men, and the Lakeland Sawmill in Prince George, again killing two men. Wood dust was to blame in both. Pinnacle relied on Airtek to provide safety and efficiency to the new pelletizing plant.
Airtek was also responsible for systems to draw hot air off the pellet cooling containers and collecting dust from two hammer mills in front of the pelletizers. Pellets are formed under heat and then cooled in large bins and emit high temperature gases in the process. So again, safety was a factor.
The Pinnacle project employed eight employees full time, including sheet metal workers, millwrights, and crane operators during the build. Airtek relied on Stolberg Engineering for technical services.
Airtek is optimistic about future growth prospects. With the mining industry in its current state of doldrums, most of Airtek’s work has been on the forest products side lately, at least projects co-ordinated out of the company’s Kelowna office. The company has recently installed dust mitigation systems in Conifex Timber’s mills in Mackenzie and Fort Saint James.
“We have done some mining work,” says Bowles. “And we’re looking at ventilation, industrial, and light manufacturing as new markets.” Clearly, he’s looking for new opportunities in the Okanagan and Northern BC.
The Airtek Surrey facility deals with a wider range of projects, with expertise in design of low-pressure systems, bag houses, cyclones, and conveying systems for any size project—and the company has the resources capable of meeting any high-pressure system requirements. With its depth of experience, Airtek Pneumatics is an obvious choice for industry in the Lower Mainland.
In October 2015 Pinnacle Pellet shipped it’s first load from the new facility in Coldstream, thanks in part to Airtek’s expertise and smooth execution on the dust collection and materials handling systems, and providing pneumatic systems at both ends to ensure safety and efficiency.