There has been an explosion at “NewFuels” RSEZ SIA wood pellet production plant, Latvia. Detailed technical investigations are underway and it is too premature to speculate as to the causes. The explosion took place between the furnace and the dryer at 12.00 noon local time on Monday 21st January 2013.
The supplier of the drying equipment, Vandenbroek International B.V. were on site implementing various modifications in order to improve the systems’ performance as a precursor to the expansion of the plant planned by the “NewFuels” RSEZ SIA management. The explosion happened during the implementation of these modifications. The damage sustained is significant enough to have stopped the operation of the plant and the initial assessment is that the plant will be closed for the next few months.
The Chairman Graham Bell said, “In a fast growing industry such as the wood pellet business, difficult times such as these provide a good opportunity for good equipment manufacturers to show the support levels we can all anticipate in the future. We shall publish a weekly on-line diary of progress and support levels for our customers and suppliers for our clients and hope to be back in production in the near future. We are proud of our plant, staff and quality and will be happy to provide anyone who is interested with details of our experiences. We would like to thank our customers for the kind messages of support received in what is a difficult time for the company. We expect to bounce-back from these short term difficulties stronger than ever as this incident will not deter us from implementing our ambitious investment and expansion plans. We remain committed to having our world class pellet plant operational in the near future”.
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