A Carter Holt Harvey particleboard factory in the Gympie region of Queensland, Australia, will install a multi-million dollar air cleaning system that will reduce its dryer particulate emissions to below 50 grams per cubic meter, which the company says will bring the factory up to 2013 environmental standards.
In July, the Gympie factory, which processes high-resin pine, will begin building a wet electrostatic precipitator beside its plant to replace the steam stack. The precipitator will capture emissions, which will be reduced to a plume of moisture, factory manager Kobus Engelbrecht told the Gympie Times, a local newspaper. The new technology will ensure the particleboard plant meets the industry emissions' benchmark, Engelbrecht says.
The new air filtering system will be operational in October.
The 40-year-old factory is part of the Australasian forest products company that manufacturers wood products, pulp, paper and packaging. Its headquarters are in Auckland, New Zealand and it employs 10,500 people.
Carter Holt Harvey is proceeding with the project despite the slowdown in construction and building approvals in Queensland, and the negative affects of cheaper imports on manufacturing businesses, Engelbrecht says.
The company’s project manager worked with the Queensland department of environment and heritage protection to obtain the project approvals and ensure the particleboard plant meets the industry benchmark on emissions. The factory has also applied for a permit to use particular types of building waste from the project as a fiber source for the manufacture of particleboard.
A filtration standard from ASHRAE, revised in January, combines two standards aiming to improve the technical accuracy of filter testing. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 52.2-2012, Method of Testing General Ventilation Air-Cleaning Devices for Removal Efficiency by Particle Size, establishes a test procedure for evaluating the performance of air-cleaning devices as a function of particle size. The update incorporates the requirements of Standard 52.1, Gravimetric and Dust Spot Procedures for Testing Air Cleaning Devices Used in General Ventilation for Removing Particulate Matter, ASHRAE said.
