Date: February 27, 2018
Location: Chesapeake, VA (USA)
Address: 1000 Enviva Way, 23323
Type: Conveyor Fire
Fuel: Wood Pellets
Industry: Wood Pellet Biomass Storage (Wood Products)
Equipment: Storage Domes, Conveyor System
Company: Enviva Partners, LP
Previous Incidents: None Recorded
Loss: No Injuries
Capital Cost: 43,000 Tons of Product Lost
Status: Open
Confirmation: Unconfirmed
Company Description:
According to the company website, Enviva was founded in 2004 with the goal of developing a cleaner energy alternative to fossil fuels. They aim to offer electric utilities a fuel to replace coal, enabling power generation without interruption while still reducing total greenhouse gas emissions.
Enviva has since become the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, owning and operating seven plants in the southeastern United States which produce over 3 million metric tons of wood pellets annually. They primarily export pellets to power plants in the United Kingdom and Europe which were previously coal-fueled, enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint.
The company conducts its activities through two entities: Enviva Partners, LP, a publicly-traded master limited partnership, and Enviva Development Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned private company.
Enviva acquired a deepwater terminal at the Port of Chesapeake, Virginia, in January 2011. The Port is owned by Enviva Partners, LP, and can host a wide variety of vessels, up to a 40-foot draft. The Port receives, stores, and loads wood pellets for export and serves as the shipment point for woody biomass fuels manufactured at Enviva’s mid-Atlantic facilities.
The Chesapeake facility has two wood pellet storage domes, each with a capacity of 45,000 metric tonnes. The domes have systems for continuously monitoring and controlling temperature as well as fire detection and suppression.
Description of Conveyor System Fire:
On February 28, 2018, WTKR reported that fire crews had been fighting a fire in Chesapeake, VA, which broke out the previous night.
Firefighters responded to alarms at 10:55 pm Tuesday, February 27. They found heavy fire on a complex conveyor system that extended into control rooms at the top of the 200-foot storage domes at Enviva’s Port of Chesapeake.
At one point, almost 60 firefighters were working at the scene, with personnel from Portsmouth Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, Navy Regional Mid-Atlantic Fire and Emergency Services, and Chesapeake Fire Department attending. The blaze was challenging because of the building’s height. According to 13 News Now the height of the structure prompted a second alarm.
There are two 45,000 tonne-capacity storage domes at the facility. A video of the firefighting operation was posted on YouTube, towards the end of which an official can be heard to say that they “can’t see any fire on tower two,” but they can “see light smoke coming from the back side.”
Officials said there was no threat to the community and traffic disruption was kept to a minimum. No injuries were reported.
According to a piece on Enviva’s own website dated April 9, 43,000 tons of inventory (wood pellets) “were a total loss”. They say they believe the fire started in equipment near the top of one of the concrete storage domes and then spread to inventory in the domes. A purpose-built nitrogen fire suppression system in the domes was deployed to disperse liquid nitrogen, which limited the combustibility of the inventory.
They added that, since the incident, onsite personnel and fire-control experts had slowly removed the product from the domes. They had encountered residual hot spots in the inventory during that process, which were deluged with water to reduce the risk of combustion as the material came in contact with oxygen in the air.
Enviva also commented that the most significant physical damage was limited to the conveyors and handling equipment required for loading and storing the product in the domes. Neither the truck receiving assets upstream of the domes nor the conveyors and shiploader downstream of the domes were affected. The domes appear to have retained their structural integrity.
In an article in Biomass Magazine on 3 May, the chairman and CEO of Enviva was reported as saying they were continuing “the process of restoring the Chesapeake terminal from the recent fire incident.” The company commented that the fire had been quickly controlled “due to the efforts of onsite personnel and the terminal’s fire suppression and mitigation processes, with assistance from local fire departments and other first responders.” The terminal was expected to return to full operation by June 30, 2018.
An establishment search showed that Enviva Port Of Chesapeake had an OSHA inspection in March 2018, but it does not appear to be connected with combustible dust.
Sources:
WTKR
13 News Now
YouTube (Enviva fire)
Biomass Magazine
Business Wire
OSHA (inspection of Enviva Port Of Chesapeake)
