After months of construction, the delivery system for POET Biorefining – Chancellor’s solid waste fuel boiler is up and running.
I had the chance to check it out this week during a visit, and it’s impressive.
A large building stores a mountain of wood chips. Each day 150-300 tons of biomass are sent up a conveyor to feed the five-story tall boiler. Although the building is large, it only holds enough biomass for three days of operation.
When you combine the biomass power with methane piped in from the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill, enough energy is produced to handle all the plant’s energy needs for steam generation. It offsets 65 percent of the total natural gas use, including that for drying the DDGS. That number will increase as more gas is generated at the landfill.
A peek inside the boiler showed some ferocious flames; my photo doesn’t do it justice. Check out a series of pictures at POET’s Flickr page.
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