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Timber & Biomass Expo Southeast April 16-17
There has been a “gate change” for Timber & Biomass Expo Southeast, the large-scale logging equipment demonstration set for April 16-17, 2010 in south Georgia. The new location is now Lowndes County. Specifically, it’s a pine plantation situated 15 miles east of Valdosta, adjacent to state route 135 and four miles south of the Naylor community (U.S. 84).
The show was previously advertised as being held in Toombs County near Vidalia, Ga., but a communications breakdown among several parties nullified that arrangement. Show sponsor Hatton-Brown Publishers subsequently approached The Langdale Co. about hosting the event and its management stepped up with the new site. Headquartered in Valdosta, Langdale, a diversified timberland and forest products company with multiple other business interests, hosted the show one other time, in 1994.
“We apologize to those exhibitors who have already selected sites, made lodging arrangements and so on and beg for their understanding as we move forward with this much-anticipated event,” said Hatton-Brown partner David (DK) Knight. “At the same time, we are very grateful to The Langdale Co. for agreeing to host the show on its timberland.”
Knight said a revised site plan has been posted on the show web site to aid potential exhibitors. Visit www.timberexpose.com.
Hatton-Brown publishes several magazines, among them Wood Bioenergy, Southern Loggin’ Times, and Timber Harvesting. Knight and others at the company feel that as the economy improves, as the forest products industry gets traction, and as new wood-to-energy projects move ahead (several have been announced for Georgia and Florida), many loggers are looking to replace aging equipment. Many want to do so before the new, higher cost Tier IV engines are mandated. “Blend in the fact that it’s been eight years since a large-scale logging equipment demo was held in south Georgia, and you’ve got a good environment for a beneficial event of this type.”
Hatton-Brown anticipates that upwards of 3,000 will attend the show, coming primarily from Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina. Admission is $20 per person, excluding spouses and children under 18 who enter free.
Biofuel Cubes Plant Moves Forward
renewaFUEL, LLC, a subsidiary of Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., announced that Cliffs’ Board of Directors has approved a plan for the construction and operation of a biomass fuel production facility at the Telkite Technology Park at Sawyer Airport near Marquette, Mich.
renewaFUEL intends to move forward with a lease agreement for the use of two large aircraft hangars, which formerly housed B-52 aircraft when the facility was part of K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base. renewaFUEL’s lease of the hangars is subject to the final approval of the Marquette County Board of Commissioners and the Federal Aviation Administration. Once begun, construction and renovation at the facility, a $19 million capital project, is expected to take nine months.
The plant is expected to employ 25 and will produce 150,000 tons per year of biofuel cubes. The cubes are a composite of sustainably collected wood and agricultural feedstocks, which will be supplied from local farmers and loggers.
The biofuel cubes—about the size of a coal briquette—are said to emit 90% less sulfur dioxide, 35% less particulate matter and 30% less acid gases than coal. In addition, the feedstocks used to create them are considered biogenic carbon—meaning they are already part of the natural carbon balance and will not add to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
Because of their size and density, the cubes can be used in most solid fuel systems with little or no modifications required.
ADAGE Picks Sites For Two Bio Plants
ADAGE is planning to build a biopower plant in northwest Florida, in Gretna, Gadsden County, and a second plant in north Florida at Jasper, Hamilton County. ADAGE is a joint venture owned by AREVA SA and Duke Energy Corp.
ADAGE has designed a 50 MW facility for both sites that will be fueled by clean wood byproducts sourced locally and deliver enough electricity to power approximately 40,000 homes over its 40-year lifetime.
ADAGE has secured the rights to a site in Gretna, is submitting the applications for the state environmental permits and hopes to begin construction before the end of 2010.
ADAGE has also secured rights to a 215 acre site in Hamilton County. The Langdale Company, based in Valdosta, Ga., a major timberlands owner and operator of several wood products facilities, is expected to supply the wood feedstock.
Rollcast Energy May Build In LaGrange, Ga.
Georgia’s Environmental Protection Div. has approved an air quality permit application for Greenway Renewable Power’s proposed $170 million biomass power plant in LaGrange, Ga. Greenway is a subsidiary of Rollcast Energy, Charlotte, NC, which has plans to build other similar plants in the Southeast.
Construction could start in 2010, with the plant operational in 2012. The plant would require about 500,000 tons of wood fuel per year and produce 50 MW annually for sale to area power companies.
Huge Pellets Plant Planned For Georgia
Magnolia BioPower plans to build a $130 million biomass power complex in Brantley County, Georgia. It would turn out a million tons of wood pellets per year and generate 30 MW of electricity. Pellets would be shipped overseas from the Port of Brunswick.
Pellets production would be ramped up in phases, beginning with 300,000 tons per year. The complex at capacity could require 2.3 million green tons/year of wood fuel.
NexGen Plans Plant At Former Sawmill
NexGen Biomass says it will start up a wood pellet plant next year at the former Georgia-Pacific lumber mill south of El Dorado, Ark. Construction will start as soon as permits are secured from the Arkansas Dept. of Environmental Quality, the company said.
Grant Supports Pellet Mill Project
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski announced a $4.89 million federally funded economic recovery grant from Business Oregon to Ochoco Lumber Co. of John Day, Ore. for the construction of a wood pellet fuel facility.
The grant was made possible by the U.S. Forest Service and funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). The facility will utilize biomass harvested from private lands as well as nearby U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. The plant will produce pellets for bulk delivery to fuel pellet boilers in hospitals, schools and other commercial and government buildings in the region. The company also hopes to significantly increase production by providing fuel pellets to large industrial users such as utility companies.
The funds will help the company purchase and install a new drying system, two pellet-making machines and the infrastructure necessary for the boiling and drying processes. The company hopes to have the operation running by the end of next summer.
Pellet Mill Proposal Picks Up Steam
Houston, Texas-based Zilkha Biomass Energy is proposing to build a plant that could process up to 500,000 cubic meters of wood per year into wood pellets bound for export markets in Europe. Zilkha would like to have a plant up and running at Tumbler Ridge, BC by the end of 2010. The Peace Forest District is undertaking a review of available fiber. Standing timber affected by the pine beetle is the preferred feedstock for the plant.
Zilkha CEO Jack Holmes says the company has investigated potential sites in Quebec and Ontario, and is looking at locations along the CN rail line to Prince Rupert. Strong markets for the pellets exist in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, where they are used to replace coal in power plants, Holmes says.
“The kinds of coal being substituted is lower-quality, high-sulfur coal, or lignite coal,” he said. “We’re hopeful and optimistic the same thing will happen in North America, but it hasn’t happened yet. The European market is probably 20 years ahead of North America in renewables.”
Holmes says a power generation facility could be included with the pellet plant.
Raven Biofuels Sets Sites On Ackerman
Raven Biofuels International Corp. reports it is in the final stages of pre-construction for its planned cellulosic ethanol biorefinery in Ackerman, Miss., at the Red Hills EcoPlex ecological industrial park. The site is adjacent the Red Hills Power Plant that could supply steam and power for the biorefinery.
The feedstock to be utilized for the biorefinery will be locally sourced wood chips and wood waste. In association with GO Zone initiatives, the project plan also includes development groundwork for a cogeneration facility to be undertaken in cooperation with local utilities. The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act was passed into law in December 2005 as an initiative to rebuilding the region devastated by multiple hurricanes.
Raven Biofuels also announced it has entered into an agreement with Larson Engineering to begin engineering for the plant.
Biorefinery Demo Plant Announced
American Process Inc. (API), and a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corp. of San Antonio, Texas will set up a bio-refinery demonstration plant in Thomaston, Ga. The factory, scheduled to open in a few months, will show that wood products can feasibly and economically be transformed into fuel, according to API.
“The demonstration plant in Thomaston is an important milestone in the commercialization of cellulosic fuels technologies,” says Theodora Retsina, President of API.
Sealaska Corp. Wants To Set Example
In 2010, Sealaska Corp.’s corporate headquarters in Juneau will reportedly become the first commercial building in Alaska to convert to renewable bioenergy as it converts to a wood pellet fired boiler system. The Sealaska Plaza is currently heated by over 35,000 gallons of heating oil per year. Sealaska’s goal is to establish a green energy model that can be applied throughout Southeast Alaska.
Sealaska studies show there are ample underutilized wood biomass resources available in Southeast Alaska to support regional biomass energy needs, according to Sealaska President and CEO Chris McNeil, Jr. “Sealaska has been working at the national policy level to encourage the development of renewable energy,” says McNeil. “Sealaska should be a leader of renewable energy in the homeland of our tribal member shareholders.”
Wood Products Group Says BCAP Could Hurt
Composite Panel Assn., composed of medium density fiberboard and particleboard producers and industry allies, continues to meet with regulators and petition Congress for changes to the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to exempt raw material used by the composite panel industry. U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently approved $514.5 million in BCAP subsidies that could divert the U.S. wood fiber supply from its current use in “higher value” composite wood products to being used as fuel, according to CPA, which views this as a threat to members of CPA and to all industries that rely on composite panel products.
As proposed by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency, BCAP’s goal is to foster the diversification of America’s fuel supply by subsidizing “renewable biomass” alternatives to traditional fossil fuels. But CPA’s concern is that BCAP’s list of eligible materials includes residual wood already being used in homes, furniture, cabinets, doors, flooring and other consumer and construction products. “The misdirected federal approach will not accomplish BCAP’s objective but instead will damage both the economy and the environment,” CPA states.
“The magnitude of the 2010 BCAP subsidy is enough to wipe out the entire feedstock of U.S. composite panel manufacturers (estimated at $400 million in 2010) in one swift, misdirected federal intervention,” CPA states.
CPA says OMB is still reviewing the list of raw materials eligible for the subsidy, and is lobbying hard for the BCAP regulation to be amended so as not to include the raw materials needed by composite panel producers, including chips and sawdust.
CPA says the original intention of the 2008 Farm Bill was for emphasis on renewable biomass that included materials that “would not otherwise be used for higher-valued products,” and thus BCAP’s recent inclusion of wood used for higher value products such as those produced by CPA members is contrary to the original directive. CPA says renewable biomass is supposed to include unused an under-utilized wood and agriculture scraps resulting from farming and timber activities.
As part of the 2008 federal Farm Bill, the BCAP aims to support and develop biomass crop production for bioenergy by assisting agricultural and forestland owners and operators in the collection, harvesting, storage and transportation (CHST) of biomass with matching payments up to $45/ton for the sale and delivery of eligible material to Biomass Conversion Facilities (BCF) certified under the program.
The BCAP process begins with a facility qualifying as a certified BCF by using eligible biomass material to produce heat, power or advanced biofuels on-site, or creating bio-based energy products that may be sold or transferred to other operations.
Forestland owners and biomass producers such as loggers and others who harvest and haul biomass to certified BCFs must also apply and be approved for the program before any qualifying shipments or sales or matching payments can be made.
Extensive information about BCAP is available on-line through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s FSA web site at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov.
Pellet Fuels Institute Announces Standards
With more than 2 million tons of pellets warming American homes during heating season, the Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) saw a need to provide a system to grade and standardize fuels produced by nearly 100 pellet mills throughout North America. Consequently PFI has recently passed new, more stringent fuel standards requirements, along with a quality assurance program that will help homeowners match the pellet fuel they purchase with their appliance. This program will also provide consumers with more consistent and accurate information about the fuel they buy.
Pellet mills participating in the standards program will be labeling their bags with a PFI standards program label indicating the following:
1. Their mill is a registered participant in the standards program.
2. The grade of fuel contained in the bag, ash content, BTUs, type of material and if it contains any additives.
3. These labels ensure that the fuel has been tested in accordance with the PFI fuel standards specifications by an independent testing laboratory that has registered with PFI.
Ontario Launches Wood Opportunities
Ontario is searching for innovative ways to use logs, branches and other wood in Crown forests for manufacturing or other commercial purposes in an effort to spur investment and job creation. Proposals are being accepted for the use of about 11 million cubic meters of wood. This competitive process is open to anyone, including existing and new forest companies.
Proposals must be submitted by March 4, 2010. This wood supply competitive process is the second stage of the ministry’s Staged Competition for Crown Wood Supply in Ontario. It includes about one third of the existing wood supply identified in Forest Management Plans.
Contact Michael Gravelle at the Ontario Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, 212-584-5483.
EPA Decision Could Stifle Biofuel Projects
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) postponed its decision whether to allow for the blending of up to 15% ethanol in conventional gasoline. Increasing the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline is critical to both ensuring that the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is a successful policy and that there is a market for advanced biofuel technologies, according to Renewable Fuels Assn. President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “This delay threatens to paralyze the continued evolution of America’s ethanol industry. As EPA itself indicated, the scientific data to date has demonstrated no ill-effects of increased ethanol use in any vehicle currently on the road. Moreover, this delay will chill investment in advanced biofuel technologies at a critical time in their development and commercialization,” he says.
RFS says EPA should immediately approve intermediate ethanol blends, such as E12, providing some breathing room for the industry while EPA finishes its testing on E15.
Port Of Sacramento Welcomes Pellet Plant
The West Sacramento (Calif.) Planning Commission has approved a conditional-use permit for Enligna US to develop a wood pellet manufacturing plant, according to reports. The plant would produce 170,000 tons of wood pellets annually.
Enligna also will operate a cogeneration power plant at the Port of West Sacramento, producing electricity for its own manufacturing operations, with excess power being sold back to the grid or to other port tenants.
The project will use waste wood from orchards in the region.The wood pellet facility will replace a fertilizer-importing operation that is leaving the port in March.
Enligna expects to start production by the end of 2010 followed within months by the cogeneration operation.
Biomass Feedstock Enters Equation
Progress Energy Carolinas reports that by the end of 2017 the company intends to permanently shut down all of its remaining North Carolina coal-fired power plants that do not have flue-gas desulfurization controls (scrubbers), including 11 coal-fired units totaling nearly 1,500 MW at four sites in the state.
The company’s Cape Fear and Weatherspoon, NC plants have a total of five coal units (most built in the 1950s). The company plans to retire the units between 2013 and 2017. Due to the sites’ existing infrastructure and proximity to renewable fuel sources such as wood waste, the company is evaluating the possibility of converting a portion of the total capacity (50 to 150 MW) to use biomass.
Groupe Savoie Receives Funding
New Brunswick province is investing $7 million in Groupe Savoie to allow the hardwood processing company to add a wood pellet and briquette manufacturing plant to its operations in northern New Brunswick. The funding will allow Groupe Savoie, a family-run business, to purchase and install equipment.
The company’s existing operations will supply the sawdust, shavings, bark and chips needed to manufacture the wood pellets and briquettes.
Bioenergy Can Meet Global Demand
A position paper by World Bioenergy Assn. (WBA) based on a report by the Dept. of Energy and Technology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) shows that the global potential to produce biomass for energy in a sustainable way is sufficient to meet global energy demand.
The estimated potential for bioenergy production is 1135-1548 EJ (ExaJoule) in 2050, based on different scientific studies. The global energy consumption is 490 EJ today, and could reach well over 1 000 EJ in 2050, according to IEA projections.
There is a lack of awareness of the enormous potential of bioenergy worldwide both among politicians, media and the public, says Kent Nyström, President of WPA.
According to the report, the largest potential for bioenergy comes from biomass production on surplus agricultural lands and degraded lands. The current use of biomass for energy is only 50 EJ, around 10% of global energy consumption. Bioenergy crops are grown on 25 million hectares, which is only 0.19% of the world’s total land area and 0.5% of the total agricultural land. The position paper and the report can be downloaded from: www.worldbioenergy.org/content/news-and-comments-wba.
Xcel Energy To Convert Remaining Coal Unit
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) has approved Xcel Energy’s application to install biomass gasification technology at its Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland, Wis. When completed, the project will convert the plant’s remaining coal-fired unit to biomass gasification technology, allowing it to use 100% biomass in all three boilers and making it the largest biomass plant in the Midwest. Currently, two of the three operating units at Bay Front use biomass as their primary fuel to generate electricity.
The project, estimated at $58.1 million, will require additional biomass receiving and handling facilities at the plant, an external gasifier, minor modifications to the plant’s remaining coal-fired boiler and an enhanced air quality control system. The total generation output of the plant is not expected to change significantly as a result of the project.
In 2008, Xcel Energy installed NOx (nitrogen oxides) emission control equipment on the two boilers that primarily burn wood, allowing both to continue to operate into the foreseeable future. When evaluating various alternatives for the remaining boiler, which primarily burns coal, it was determined that expanding Bay Front as a biomass resource was preferred over incurring significant increases in coal costs, and also environmental compliance costs relating to the Clean Air Interstate Rule and regulations on mercury emissions.
In addition to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by switching from coal to biomass in the remaining unit, the project will drastically reduce other air emissions, including nitrogen oxides by more than 60% and sulfur dioxides and particulate matter by more than 80%, according to Xcel Energy.
The primary source of biomass at Bay Front is expected to be the lower quality, unused materials that are currently left in area forests following traditional harvests. Initial investigations conducted by Xcel Energy show more than ample supplies of this lower quality biomass within the area.
Engineering, design and construction work is expected to begin in 2010 and the unit could be operational in late 2012.
BlueFire Building Miss. Ethanol Plant
A California-based ethanol company reports it has received permission from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to use a $40 million grant to construct an ethanol plant in Fulton, Miss.
Irvine-based BlueFire Ethanol Fuel Inc. plans to locate on a site on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway where it would turn wood chips into ethanol. The plant still has to earn approval from the state Dept. of Environmental Quality.
BlueFire would produce 18 million gallons of ethanol annually at the plant.
The company had planned to build the plant in its native California and use the DOE grant there but became discouraged with a tax increase that added about $1 million to the cost and a public approval process that allowed challenges to slow the progress.
Sawmills, Landowners Explore Biomass
NorthWestern Energy and the Montana Community Development Corp. (MCDC) are partnering with eight Montana sawmills and public and private landowners to help develop community-based biomass power in Montana.
The joint effort includes every player in the chain of biomass power production including owners of existing forest products facilities, public and private landowners and a regional power purchaser. “Bringing all the essential players to the table is what makes this partnership so unique,” says Rosalie Cates, President of MCDC.
Individual sawmills have previously worked on separate plans to produce and provide NorthWestern Energy with biomass generated power by constructing wood-fired plants at various locations in the state. However, each mill encountered significant cost and technical issues when it came to delivering the power to the grid.
NorthWestern wants to help bridge that gap. “We know that biomass power can be good for forests, and good for Montana’s timber industry,” says John Fitzpatrick, NorthWestern’s Executive Director – Government Affairs. “This feasibility study will lead to the development of a comprehensive business plan that addresses our goal of adding a significant amount of biomass resources to our portfolio.”
“If this project moves forward it will help address the environmental impact of pine beetle blight, provide a local economic development impact, and help diversify electric supply for our customers,” adds Bob Rowe, NorthWestern Energy President and CEO.
The partnership’s feasibility study includes analysis of the biomass supplies available on private and public land, potential biomass generation facilities, operational requirements and preliminary impacts of the biomass production on local economies and the environment. Each of the eight mill sites will be assessed, so that NorthWestern and the sawmill businesses can identify and address issues such as connectivity to power lines, cost efficiencies, and technical problems. The end result of the process will be a statewide plan that could enable all parties to finalize investment plans and begin plant construction.
The participating mills are Eagle Stud Mill (Hall), Plum Creek Timber (Columbia Falls), RY Timber (Townsend and Livingston), Pyramid Mountain Lumber (Seeley Lake), Sun Mountain Lumber (Deer Lodge), Tricon Timber (St Regis), and FH Stoltze Land & Lumber (Columbia Falls)
All of the state’s major forestland owners are participating in the partnership including the U.S. Forest Service, Montana Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation, Plum Creek Timber, The Nature Conservancy, Stimson Lumber Co. and the Blackfoot Challenge.
The Biomass Energy Feasibility Study is partially funded by a grant from The Montana Dept. of Commerce in the amount of $125,000, authorized by The Montana Reinvestment Act. The US Endowment for Forestry and Communities provided a grant of $50,000 to support MCDC’s work with biomass energy in Montana.
Green Circle Eyes Second Pellet Plant
Green Circle Bio Energy Inc., which operates a large pellet plant in Cottondale, Fla., plans to begin building a second plant this spring.
The company intends to choose a site for the new plant in Mississippi or Alabama. The facility will modeled on the original plant and will have a 500,000 ton production capacity for wood pellets used as a coal alternative in Europe. It also will require 75 employees, just like the current plant.
Green Circle chose to pick its second location outside of Florida to diversify access to raw materials for the pellets.
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