School's biomass boiler runs as it should

By KRISTI ALBERTSON/Daily Inter Lake

The biomass boiler has been running at Glacier High School for a few weeks, and the school hasn't had to call the fire department once.

That's a big improvement over last year, when Kalispell firefighters went to the school several times after smoke and ash billowed from the boiler stacks.

Teachers and students were never in danger, but the smoke triggered the school's fire alarms.

But thanks to a newly installed cyclone separator, which removes particulates from the air inside the boiler, smoke shouldn't be a problem.

"That's been quite helpful," said Chuck Cassidy, Director of Transportation and Facilities for Kalispell Public Schools. "We've noticed we can't even tell [the boiler is] on when we drive by."

Michigan-based Messersmith Manufacturing installed the separator in October. The company also retrofitted the boiler to burn hog fuel - shredded and ground wood and bark fibers.

The district has yet to receive a bill for the retrofit and installation expenses, Cassidy said. It was supposed to cost less than $155,000.

That expense will be shared by the school district and a handful of partners, including CTA Architects and Swank Enterprises, the companies that designed and built Glacier High School. A $33,750 grant from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's Fuels for Schools program also will cover part of the retrofit.

The retrofit expense isn't one the school district expected to pay when it approved a biomass boiler for the new high school. The district thought it was getting a system that could burn a variety of fuels, including wood chips and hog fuel. Instead, it got a boiler designed to burn wood chips or pellets.

When the district used hog fuel instead, the boiler's augers and conveyer system failed. The breakdowns led to the boiler sitting idle for about two months during the 2007-08 heating season.

The retrofit seems to have solved the conveyer issues, Cassidy said, although there are still some kinks to be worked out.

"It's not perfect," he said. "Any time you make modifications, you have to tweak it to get it back in stride."

The biggest issue is timing the speeds of the augers and the conveyors, he said.

"It seems to be going pretty good," he said. "We've probably tried to run it 14 nights, and we've probably made it through nine without hiccups. …

"It seems to be getting better each day."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com