News
Snow Monster
Don’t Call 911...It’s A Snow Melter, Not a Snow Monster
Article by Barbara Aarsteinsen, Public Works
If it works in Moscow, then it’s probably good enough for Wood Buffalo. Actually, New York, Toronto, and a host of other cities have also gone down the same path – or have been clearing the same path might be a better way of putting it.
The municipality is testing a mechanical snow melter this winter – the Trecan PD-80 to be precise – that turns the white stuff into water on the spot so that it doesn’t have to be hauled to disposal sites and left to eventually dissipate in the spring. Indeed, when this machine gets going, it can decimate 80 tons of snow an hour.
Snow melting may be new to Northern Alberta, but other cities have been using the technology for many years, says Harry Grzebinski, Manager of Road Maintenance for the Public Works Department. He saw it in action at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where he previously worked in various capacities, and was duly impressed. Besides using portable snow melters, the airport has installed 12 in-ground Trecan units along the perimeter of the apron surrounding Terminal 1.
Wood Buffalo has monitored the technology and checked out snow melters in the past, but none were considered capable of dealing with the region’s winter conditions. But when Grzebinski joined the municipality and related his experience with Trecan melters, the concept was revisited and it was decided to try out a portable 80-ton model this winter as part of a pilot project. The $400,000 unit is being rented for two to three months from Hubley, N.S.-based Trecan Combustion.
Trecan, which has been making snow melters for 35 years, has nine portable and 10 stationary models with a capacity that ranges from 20 tons of snow an hour up to 1,200 tons. The company boasts more than 500 installations worldwide.
“We still don’t know if it can fully handle our kind of snow and cold temperatures, which is why we are going to be giving it a thorough trial run,” says Grzebinski, explaining that Wood Buffalo has a lot of so-called dirty snow because of the widespread use of sand and the amount of other contaminants and debris that can end up in accumulated piles. As for the bracing weather, no explanation is needed.
“The Trecan snow melters are used in Moscow, however, so we think the odds are good that they will hold up well in Wood Buffalo.”
Needless to say, snow removal is one of the most high-profile services provided to residents – something that everybody has an opinion on. It is also one of Wood Buffalo’s biggest challenges, especially as its current snow disposal sites will soon be decommissioned. Snow melters could potentially help with the snow storage issues facing the municipality, but other aspects have to be carefully weighed, says Grzebinski.
“Ideally, the vision would be to integrate snow melting into our winter maintenance program, giving us another tool to help deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively,” he says. “But before that can happen, we will be doing a comparative analysis with conventional snow disposal and evaluating other factors such as fuel consumption, manpower, the environmental impact and the effect on our sewer system.”
That balancing act, or “operational ballet,” as Grzebinski describes it, will help ensure that in trying to reduce its “geographical footprint,” the municipality doesn’t increase its “carbon footprint.”
Road maintenance employees, on a voluntary basis, received training last week at the Public Works satellite yard at the Water Treatment Plant; next, the melter will be experimented with at the municipality’s snow disposal sites in order to work out any kinks before it hits the streets in the Lower Townsite.
At first glance, the PD-80 is rather underwhelming – a yellow hunk of machinery that almost looks like a storage container or a giant misshaped piece of Lego. But once it revs up, steam billows out in a great white cloud as a loader dumps buckets of snow into its maw. As the snow thaws, the mush bubbles and froths and then water gushes forth from its nether region. It’s brown because the snow is dirty; if the snow were white, the water would be clear.
The unprepossessing melter is suddenly a sight to behold as steam balloons out one end and water flows out another, pouring down the drain. If you come across this scene, don’t panic and call emergency services; this is how it’s supposed to work.
According to Trecan service technician David Millington, who conducted the training sessions, the operation is relatively simple as heavy machinery goes. There is a melting tank with a high-velocity burner system at the front, a fuel tank at the back and an equipment enclosure top of the fuel tank that houses a diesel engine, combustion blower and control panel.
Snow is dumped into the melting tank, which is initially primed with some water. Under pressure from the combustion blower, the burner fires downward through a tube immersed in the water and hot combustion gases are channelled up, agitating the water and creating a warm melting spray. It is the churning action more than heat than dissipates the snow, Millington emphasizes. After passing through a filter that blocks large debris, the melt water exits through an overflow drain that is typically directed into a storm drain.
“We’re doing our due diligence and weighing our options but whatever happens, I’m glad we’re doing this,” says Environmental Technician Jocelyn Gosselin, who is involved in the project. “However we decide to proceed, we have at least broken the big taboo – that snow melting can’t be done in Northern Alberta.”