Wood – the new biofuel       Efficient Solutions In Demand [cont]

SWITZERLAND - Recycling waste wood into energy . . .

The whole plant burns about 260,000 tonnes of waste wood annually. Tegra runs a fleet of trucks and trailers to transport wood-chips, bark and sawdust from different locations to the plant. 800 tonnes or 2100 cubic metres of waste wood are processed every day in three shifts between 5.00 o'clock in the morning and 11.00 o'clock at night.

To fuel their first boiler Tegra bought a Cat 962H wheel loader. Recently they bought a Cat M322D MH material handler and a waste wood grinder for processing low quality logs, pallets and unpainted construction timber.

With all three boilers being online and 2100 cubic metres of fuel being processed every day, it was soon time to get a second wheel loader.

Supplied by local dealer, Avesco, the Cat 966H loader is equipped with a giant 12 cubic metres wood-chip bucket. For safety reasons, Tegra developed a camera-system for the wheel loader. What looks like a submarine periscope on the canopy, is a pole with two cameras on top. If the driver shifts backwards the small screen in the cab shows everything that is happening behind the loader. As soon as the machine rolls forward the screen switches to front view.

The main purpose of the wheel loaders is to blend and stockpile wood-chips, bark and sawdust. But they are also used for fuelling the boilers by dumping blended material onto the feeder hoppers.

Capiton: Tegra’s logistics coordinator Klaus Aulbach checks the vast “fuel” storage area, where waste logs are piled up with the Cat M322D MH

[cont] .