With 90,000 t/y, Tschopp Holzindustrie was already by far the largest pellet producer in Switzerland before the latest investments. Now, with an additional 6.5 t press and a new sawmill in the background, the Swiss can produce over 150,000 t/y. "If everything goes like clockwork, even up to 170,000 t/y are possible," reports Daniel Tschopp, who runs the family business together with his brother Ronald.
Scheduled flexibility
The fact that this step had been planned for a long time is shown not least by the belt dryer implemented by Swiss Combi. Installed in a hall, the plant, which was built in 2015, had an evaporation capacity of 4.4 t/h (at 90 ° C flow temperature) until recently, resulting in an annual capacity of over 40,000 t.
However, the Swiss company has designed the dryer in such a way that the capacity can be doubled by extending it at a later date without having to replace the drive and conveyor elements. "This maximum flexibility was already a central concern for us when it was built almost ten years ago," recalls Daniel Tschopp.
Extended dryer
In order to meet the sound requirements, acoustic measures were already taken in 2015. These include sound insulation systems in the supply and exhaust air as well as the careful selection of exhaust fans and sandwich panels in the area of the intake of the ambient air. In the extended dryer section, Swiss Combi follows the same sound insulation concept.
For the extension, the dryer was separated, the discharge module was moved, an intermediate part was inserted and a 96.7 m belt was pulled in. This results in an increase in the drying area from 153 to 255 m2 and a massive increase in performance: the plant can now extract 11.8 t of water from 26.6 t of moist material (50 % water content) every hour. The energy source in Buttisholz is the 90 ° C hot waste heat from the combined heat and power plant, with Swiss Combi putting the heat requirement at a nominal 12.3 MW. From Daniel Tschopp's point of view, the expansion of the dryer went extremely well: "What we planned ten years ago together with Swiss Combi has now been put into practice. The entire restructuring went smoothly and the promised key performance indicators were achieved. That's exactly how it should be."
