Western Bio-Energy Clean Woodchip with an EMAX Overband Magnet
Bunting Magnetics has supplied a powerful EMAX Overband Magnet to Western Bio-Energy to remove problematic ferrous metal from woodchip. The air-cooled electromagnetic Overband Magnet is removing a wide range of small and larger sized tramp metal.
www.buntingeurope.com
Bunting Magnetics is one of the world’s leading designers and manufacturers of magnetic separators, eddy current separators, metal detectors and electrostatic separators, with globally located manufacturing facilities.
Western Bio-Energy Ltd operates a sustainably resourced 15.8MWh Biomass Power Plant exporting electricity to the grid and is based in Margam, South Wales, UK. Established in 2007, the company generates power using different sources of wood. This includes brash chip (e.g. foliage), whole tree chip (complete with the canopy), RCF chip (e.g. pallets and clean recycling wood), and virgin wood chip from just the tree log.
The nature of the material and process of supply means that all sources of wood are potentially contaminated with a varying degree of ferrous metal contamination. Such metal can damage shredders, conveyors and other process plant, as well as present a fire safety issue.
After an on-site review, Bunting Magnetics supplied a model EMAX140 Electromagnetic Overband Magnet. The Overband Magnet sites inline over the head pulley of a 1.2-metre-wide conveyor handling an average of 22 tonnes per hour of wood chip.
In operation, the wood chip is conveyed into the magnetic field of the Overband Magnet, where any magnetically susceptible metal is attracted by the strong magnetic field and lifted out of the wood chip and onto a self-cleaning belt before being automatically transferred and deposited into a waste collection area. The inline position of the Overband Magnet has the self-cleaning belt running in the same direction as the conveyor, but at a higher speed. As the wood chip flows over the conveyor’s head pulley, the burden breaks enabling easier capture of smaller magnetics such as nails and screws.
The EMAX Overband Magnet is fitted with a lightweight and robust armoured belt to extend belt life. The armouring on the rubber belt is comprised of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) slats. Each slat is 100mm wide and 10mm thick, with a length to suit the model of Overband Magnet. The slats are fastened to the belt using special 304 stainless steel elevator bucket bolts and Nyloc nuts.
Once separated from the conveyed wood chip, ferrous metal falls into a waste collection area which contains a wide range of small and large tramp metal including wire, large bolts, flanges, and tools.
“The high-level separation performance of the EMAX Overband Magnet has eliminating concerns about tramp metal contamination at West Bio-Energy,” explained Ben Clemett, Bunting’s Area Sales Manager.
www.bunting-redditch.com
