BREST, 30 June (BelTA) – A plant designed to make wood pellets was commissioned in Gantsevichi, Brest Oblast on 30 June, BelTA has learned.
The new manufacturing division was established at a site formerly occupied by a timber sawing line. That line had been moved to a woodworking shop. The building was reconstructed and a pellet line was installed there. The new enterprise is expected to make up to 20,000 tonnes of fuel pellets per annum. The enterprise is supposed to reach the designed output capacity by mid-autumn.
Belarusian First Deputy Forestry Minister Valentin Shatravko said: “There is an interagency commission on promoting wood pellet manufacturing. Representatives of state forestry enterprises and private companies participate in its work. Seven pellet plants were commissioned in 2020. There are plans to commission six plants in 2021. Later on we intend to continue building such plants primarily where raw materials are available. So, we make sawn timber and get saw dust and wood shavings as a byproduct. Respectively it is necessary to make pellets out of them for the sake of comprehensive timber conversion.”
The Gantsevichi forestry enterprise will make wood pellets out of its own raw materials. The local timber sawing shop alone generates about 600 m3 of wood shavings and roughly 400 m3 of saw dust. Using raw materials of neighboring forestry enterprises is a possibility.
First Deputy Chairman of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee Valentin Zaichuk mentioned the importance of setting up such enterprises in small towns. “Large enterprises require considerable financial resources and workforce. Small enterprises create jobs, people get an opportunity to work in decent conditions and earn good salaries. It is also important that many of these enterprises use locally available raw materials,” the deputy head of the Brest Oblast administration said.
The Gantsevichi-based wood pellet plant is the second pellet plant in Brest Oblast. The first one was commissioned in spring 2020. The construction of another pellet plant is nearing completion in the Kobrin experimental forestry enterprise. “A similar enterprise will be built in Baranovichi. The equipment has already been paid for. The design documents have been submitted for expert evaluation. Construction is supposed to begin this year,” said Director General of the Brest State Forestry Industrial Group Aleksei Prokopov.
