One less pellet mill today

stronger said:

Dateline 2:10 am, Saturday August 7,2009 . Explosion are Strong, Maine pellet mill. 92,000 pound kiln moved 4 feet by blast. Luckily no one hurt. Two walls of the building blown out, most windows also blown out. Explosion heard three miles away.

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Wow!

On a somewhat brighter note, New England Wood Pellets just announced plans to construct of a new pellet plant in Deposit, NY. It will be sited at the current Norboard particleboard plant in Deposit.

Here's another article about he fire with pictures:

http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/?p=2836

Strong Pellet Mill Fire

Don't they make Maine's Choice? That's a shame; not a good way to start a business. Sounds like they were extremely lucky no one was hurt.

Must have been like a grain silo explosion??? I follow posts of guys making their own pellets and looking for ways to dry the raw materials as well as the pellets. This should make them think twice about ways to dry them!

Grain dust is highly explosive as I am sure dust from grinding wood will be just as bad.

Pellet mills must have steep (and ever increasing) insurance rates... This type of thing is way too common.

This sucks, I hope they can get back on their feet soon.

this is the second one this year in maine to burn up... ashland plant burned up this spring.. they made Northeast wood pellets.. I think we have an arsonist on our hands, getting paid off by citgo and irving.....

agreed with BTU, Im sitting here wondering if this will affect the supply of pellets, and therefore, the price.......

BTU - hows the okanagan supply looking.. are you guys having any $ increases?

heres the pic of said mill

rona said:

Grain dust is highly explosive as I am sure dust from grinding wood will be just as bad.

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Yep anything that can suspend in air in a fine powder can ignite. Now consider the source of a spark, Woodhog or cutting equipment. It really doesn't take much to start the combustion process.
I would suspect the dust collection was started up and something as seemingly harmless as a bolt or allen wrench left near a pipe and started bouncing down the pipe throwing sparks along the way...
It's very common, It happens where I work at least once a month. But thankfully the spark detection and suppression equipment in the piping does it's job.

the big hole you see in the right hand building used to be a cinderblock wall. it blew out in a big chunc from the explosion.

summit said:

the big hole you see in the right hand building used to be a cinderblock wall. it blew out in a big chunc from the explosion.

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"I think we should put in a window.....right here..."

The company I used to work for had a Cellulose Powder processing plant (called Floc). The process and plant was designed for occasional "puffs" which were dust explosions. Basically everything had explosion dampers that blew open when a rapid combustion event occurred. It rattled some windows when an event occured, but they were usually back up to production very quickly. The insurance company wanted fire sprinkler heads in the ducts, but the operations folks opposed them as it took far longer to dry out everything after being doused with water than it did to deal with a "dry " event. Ralston Purina ended up buying the plant and moving it (now you know whats in dog food !).

On my way back from fishing last night I took a detour and drove by the mill. It doesn't look like anything has happened since the blast and the place looks like a pretty big mess. The local paper reported something like 8 million in damages....makes you wonder if they'll restart. I was hoping to try these pellets this year but it looks like that might not happen.