Wood-based panel producer Sonae UK is investing £6.5m in improvements at its Knowsley plant.
Managing director Tony Hackney said: “Sonae UK is unique within the chipboard industry as it uses predominantly recycled material. Using such a high proportion of recycled material has been a steep learning curve and development of the know-how has been critical in the success story.
“Investment in sophisticated, improved cleaning of raw material being fed to the drier will improve the consistent running of the plant, reduce wear and provide premier products for the UK and Europe.”
Raw material is cleaned prior to delivery to the Knowsley plant. However, investment in powerful over band magnets, eddy current separators, specially developed screens, fluidised chip cleaners, air graders and sizing equipment will ensure only perfectly clean material goes through to the press as stones, metals, glass, silica ferrous and non-ferrous metals are removed.
Fine material, known to cause problems with board quality, will also be removed and used as co-products. Elaborate dust extraction and filtration equipment is being installed and sophisticated dust suppression systems are being added to improve environmental performance.
Simultaneously the outlet from the wet electro static precipitator (WESP) is being extended in height from 35m to 85m to allow the plume to dilute and disperse further. This will benefit the local community as plume grounding currently occurring about 62 days of the year will be reduced to just seven.
