Biosolids Truck Loading System for Georgia Pacific Foley, FL

General Description

Georgia-Pacific is based in Atlanta, GA and one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of paper products, building products and related chemicals. While a significant amount of water flows through their mills, only about 12-percent is consumed during the pulp and papermaking process.

Most water is recycled, treated thoroughly to remove contaminants and usually returned to the body of water it came from. Georgia‐Pacific treats its wastewater discharges in compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards and state laws. In some cases, the water they put back into nature is cleaner than when it came into their facilities.

At the Foley Cellulose Mill, Georgia-Pacific collaborated with the nearby city of Perry to use reclaimed wastewater to help cool their equipment. The Foley Cellulose Mill re-uses an average of 315,000 gallons per day of reclaimed water from the city. That adds up to about 115 million gallons of water annually that the mill doesn’t take from other freshwater sources. The biosolids removed from the wastewater stream are dewatered by centrifuges and then transported to truck loadout using KWS shaftless screw conveyors.

Design Parameters

1. Product Type: Dewatered Biosolids
2. Material Density: 50 to 68 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
3. Capacity: 130 Cubic Feet per Hour
4. Duty: 7 Days a Week, 24 Hours per Day

KWS Advantages

The upgrades at the GP Foley Cellulose Mill were a design-build effort between Tetra-Tech and Wharton-Smith. KWS Environmental was selected by the team as the conveyor supplier based on engineering capabilities, prior project successes and overall quality. KWS offered improvements to simplify the load out process and create a redundant design. The KWS engineering team worked with the engineer and contractor to coordinate the design and location of conveyor supports.

A licensed professional engineer from KWS Environmental provided site training for equipment startup. The KWS engineer even extended their stay when upstream complications delayed the equipment getting power during startup. KWS is committed to doing whatever it takes to satisfy our Customers.

Special Features

KWS designed the load out system to be symmetrical with duplicate conveyors. Biosolids can be loaded into trucks in two different truck bays. As one truck is loaded, another truck can be positioned in the other truck bay and ready for loading. The system is redundant and operates without interruption.

KWS Environmental designed the shaftless conveyor system with abrasion-resistant spirals and UHMW liners to handle the sticky, sluggish biosolids. All the exterior components of the conveyors and supports were constructed from 304 stainless steel to prevent corrosion.

Trucks are evenly loaded with biosolids using electrically-operated slide gates. The gates open and close as required to evenly fill trucks for maximum usage. The gate actuator electronics are all self-contained in a protected housing.

KWS Environmental supplied the controls for the load out system, including controls to sense when a truck was in place to accept dewatered biosolids. The control panel included lights for conveyor fault or running, buttons for conveyor start or stop, hand/off/auto switches for each conveyor along with open or closed lights for the gates, and an open/close switch for the gates.

The structural supports provided by KWS included sway bracing. The calculations were stamped by a professional engineer licensed to practice in the state of Florida.