A new decanter unit installed at Nexfor‘s Inverness plant is allowing the company to recycle water and separate solid waste for use as fuel.
Nexfor says the AD0509 “Crocodile” from Westfalia Separator, designed to improve the efficiency of the plant’s emissions treatment system, provides significant cost savings to the Inverness operation as well as environmental benefits.
The system removes solids from waste water which have been emitted during the drying and pressing processes.
Murdo MacDonald, plant safety environment manager, said: “We use a lot of wood fuel, including bark from the timber we process, but now we can sell bark that we would previously have burned.”
The Crocodile replaced a decanter which regularly became clogged, particularly during variations in feed concentration. Mr MacDonald said the new unit has reduced maintenance costs as it features a higher torque capability and a two-gear system which deals automatically with fluctuations in feed concentration.
