Storage & reclaiming - USA

Cost-efficient operations delivered to US wood pellet plant 

Drax Biomass’ Amite BioEnergy pellet plant needed a modern solution for handling over a million metric tons of green wood annually and a system for receiving dry wood. The result, a fully automated woodyard from Bruks Siwertell, removes the need for costly manual operations, enhancing material flows and profitability.

Customer need

Headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, Drax Biomass, subsidiary of Drax Group, wanted a modern solution for the woodyard at its Amite BioEnergy wood pellet plant in Gloster, southwestern Mississippi. 

The site receives over a million metric tons of green material annually, and from the outset, Drax was looking to automate the system to avoid costly manual reclaim operations. The plant also required bulk truck-receiving systems, hopper stations and conveyors for wood chips and bark, and a dry-shavings receiving and storage system.

In addition to Amite BioEnergy, Drax Biomass owns and operates two other manufacturing plants, Morehouse BioEnergy and LaSalle BioEnergy. All convert locally sourced wood fiber into compressed pellets. Each of the sites is served by a range of Bruks Siwertell wood-processing and handling technology. 

Based on experience at its various sites, the company approached Bruks Siwertell for systems to handle processed wood residues so that it could make the most of their potential in the bioenergy market. 

Our solution

Bruks Siwertell was selected to provide a complete engineering and equipment package to feed raw material to the plant. With a production capacity of around 525,000 metric tons of biomass pellets annually, the mill now receives wood chips and bark via 22.9m (75ft) truck dumpers and 3.66m (12ft) enclosed receiving hopper stations, with a dust-tight pivot cover design. 

These materials are stored, stacked and reclaimed with two fully automated circular overpile stacker reclaimers in a 56,634m3 (2,000,000 ft3) and a 5,664m3 (200,000 ft3) pile, eliminating the need for manual reclaim operations. 

For dry wood, the totally enclosed dry-shavings receiving system ensures material flow consistency and protection from any external moisture, beneficial for bypassing the dryers. Shavings are transferred from the hopper onto an enclosed vibratory conveyor where the larger fractions are screened. Material is then fed into a silo, which features an underpile screw reclaimer that reclaims the dry shavings onto a conveyor based on demand for further processing within the plant. 

Outside the woodyard, Bruks Siwertell also delivered the dry-chip and pellet-handling chain conveyors, along with all structural support towers.