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Low Country BioMass Pellet Plant Starts Up
Low Country BioMass, LLC, Ridgeland, SC, completed construction and began production in mid-November. The pellet plant is on track to finish the commissioning process and begin its 24/7 schedule by the middle of January.
With three Andritz pellet presses, the plant is converting pine residue from area sawmills into pellets bound for Europe to be used in residential heating and by utility companies to generate heat and electricity. A small percentage of the 100,000 ton annual production is sold domestically for animal bedding.
Owner Sonny Harwell and his sons Beau and Rhett handled general contracting internally. “We have a background in metals recycling, and we were very familiar with projects of this size,” Harwell says. After 30 years in the waste business and 15 in scrap metal, the family sold those interests and became involved in biomass four years ago. Harwell expects to announce expansions that will bring pellet production at the plant to 200,000 tons soon.
Ameresco Starts Up Biomass Power Plant
Following a series of performance tests, Ameresco, Inc. has received its Final Acceptance Certificate from the U.S. Dept. of Energy Savannah River Operations Office for the now operational DOE Savannah River Site (SRS) Biomass Cogeneration Facility (BCF) installed under the $795 million energy savings performance contract (ESPC) awarded to Ameresco in 2009.
The 20 MW facility is on schedule to provide the necessary process steam to the site as well as provide 30% of power for the site once fully operational in 2012. The plant produced more than 3 million kilowatt hours of energy that was used by the site during the series of performance tests.
The biomass cogeneration facility is expected to generate $944 million of energy, water, operations and maintenance savings during Ameresco’s 19-year plant performance agreement while generating up to half of the necessary energy to power the 300 square mile SRS facility. By replacing an inefficient coal powerhouse and oil-fired boilers at SRS, the new facility is designed to reduce carbon emissions annually by 100,000 tons and save an estimated 1.4 billion gallons of water a year. More than 600,000 hours of construction and operational labor has been invested into the construction of the plant.
The facility will convert 325,000 tons of fuel per year, including local forest residue and wood chips.
“This project represents a partnership between Ameresco, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Savannah River Site, South Carolina and the local Aiken community,” says Keith Derrington of Ameresco. “This partnership has resulted in the single largest performance-based renewable energy savings contract in U.S. history.”
A formal ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for the first quarter of 2012.
Rentech Backs Away From Port St. Joe
Rentech reports it has “abandoned” its biomass power project at Port St. Joe, Fla., which was to include Rentech’s gasification technology.
“We have adopted a revised project development strategy for the commercialization of our alternative energy technologies, which includes pursuing projects that are smaller and require less capital than those previously under development by us,” the company states.
The Port St. Joe Renewable Energy Center had initially been developed by Biomass Energy Holdings (BEH), a subsidiary jointly held by Bianchi Energy Services, LLC and Biomass Gas and Electric, LLC. Rentech had acquired the project entity.
Rentech planned to use its Rentech-SilvaGas biomass gasifier to provide synthesis gas to a combined-cycle power plant to produce approximately 55 MW of electric power from approximately 930 dry tons per day of woody biomass. Rentech had signed a detailed term sheet with White Construction for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work.
Sonoco Announces Biomass Power Plans
Sonoco will invest $100 million over the next three years to build a biomass boiler and make other improvements at its Hartsville, SC plant site. The $75 million biomass facility will replace two aging coal-fired boilers that have been in use at the plant for 60 years, according to Sonoco President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Sanders.
“We are extremely excited about this project,” Sanders says. “It is the single largest capital investment that Sonoco has made to our Hartsville manufacturing operations and in South Carolina.”
The new facility will create 10 permanent jobs in addition to the more than 1,600 full-time jobs Sonoco employs at its Hartsville plant. The construction project will at its peak employ 200.
Construction of the facility is expected to continue into July 2013, and the plans are to put the plant into operation by the fourth quarter of 2013. Once in operation, the new biomass facility should save Sonoco about $14 million in its annual operating costs, Sanders says.
The new boiler will be fueled primarily by woody biomass created by regional logging activity. Sonoco will purchase more than 400,000 tons annually of bio material. The plant will consume about 65 truckloads of material daily.
The boiler will produce 16 MW that will be consumed by the manufacturing complex, as well as steam that is used in the paper making process.
Sonoco’s Hartsville complex operates three paper mills that produce various grades of uncoated recycled paperboard from seven different paper machines. The state Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a rural infrastructure grant of $100,000 to assist in improving roads that will be used by trucks going to and from the new facility.
Point Bio Energy Links With Conti Group
A plant that will manufacture wood pellets at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge to be used as energy for overseas industries is one step closer to the construction phase. Point Bio Energy, LLC and the Conti Group have signed a $95 million contract for engineering, procurement and construction services to build a 400,000 metric ton per year fuel pellet plant, according to PBE Chairman and CEO William New.
The plant is expected to employ 85 to 100. New says the contract sets a start date for construction during the first quarter of this year and with product shipment beginning in the second quarter 2013. New says Point Bio has a 10-year deal with a European utility.
New says he has letters of intent from local and regional wood suppliers to supply green wood to the plant for the next 10 to 20 years.
Enviva Continues Hot Pellet Pace
Enviva LP plans to build a 454,000 metric ton wood pellet manufacturing facility in Courtland, Va., which could begin operations as early as the first half of 2013. The project is contingent on the property where the plant will be located being rezoned by Southampton County and on other permitting requirements.
The announcement comes as the company continues its expansion in the Mid-Atlantic region, where it owns and operates a new 350,000 metric ton pellet plant in Ahoskie, NC and is developing a second facility in nearby Northampton County, NC that will produce 400,000 metric tons. Much of the wood pellet fuel produced at the Virginia and North Carolina facilities will be exported to Enviva’s European utility customers through the company’s Port of Chesapeake, a deep-water port terminal outside of Norfolk.
When completed, the Courtland facility would bring Enviva’s total annual production capacity to more than 1.5 million metric tons of wood pellets, making it the largest pellet producer in the U.S. Additionally, the plant would add 64 full-time jobs and approximately 80 additional jobs throughout its logging and forestry supply chain.
Enviva has also signed a contract with Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Virginia Power to supply biomass to two power facilities in southeast Virginia. In April, Dominion announced plans to convert three 63 MW coal burning peaking plants to 50 MW continuous power plants using biomass. Enviva will supply two of these plants, located in Southampton and Hopewell, Va.
ConocoPhillips, Enviva Form ECo Biomass
Enviva LP has partnered equally with ConocoPhillips to create a new company, ECo Biomass Technologies, which will bring torrefied biomass fuels to market. The company’s initial facility, scheduled to be operational in 2013, will produce wood pellets that will be sold under agreements with major utilities.
The torrefaction process involves superheating biomass to create a uniform, hydrophobic, dense, and highly efficient fuel akin to coal but with a superior environmental profile. It provides an attractive alternative for utilities seeking to reduce their carbon emissions and extend the life of existing coal burning facilities and infrastructure without significant capital investment.
“Although torrefaction is widely used in many industries, its adaptation to the renewable energy industry has yet to be proven cost-effective and scalable. Our partnership with ConocoPhillips is designed to bring this new, sustainable, renewable fuel to the power generation industry and enable our utility customers to reduce their environmental impact in a cost-competitive manner,” says John Keppler, Enviva chairman
Energy Facility Planned By Simkwii Energy
Simkwii Energy, a Native American owned company, is planning to build a biomass power facility near White Swan, Wash. The company plans to pull logging operation waste from the Yakima Nation’s forests to feed into the energy plant to produce 20 MW. Simkwii recently entered into a long-term wood waste supply agreement with the Yakama Nation to ensure it can access enough raw materials to sustain the plant.
Construction on the facility is expected to start this year and the plant should be operational in 2013. County Commissioners have started Simkwii on a process to secure up to $80 million in tax exempt bonds to help build the facility.
ReEnergy Completes Facilities Purchase
ReEnergy Holdings LLC, an Albany, NY-based renewable energy company, has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of five U.S. biomass energy production facilities in Maine and New York from Quebec-based Boralex Inc., for approximately $88 million.
The newly acquired facilities in Maine are ReEnergy Ashland (a 40 MW facility), ReEnergy Fort Fairfield (36 MW), ReEnergy Livermore Falls (40 MW) and ReEnergy Stratton (50 MW). The New York facility, ReEnergy Chateaugay, has a 20 MW generating capacity. The facilities rely principally on forest residue.
Westervelt Moves Ahead On New Pellet Plant
Westervelt Renewable Energy held a groundbreaking for a new pellet plant to built near Aliceville, Ala. at a former industrial plant site. The plant will produce 280,000 metric tons of pellets annually, which will be shipped down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to the Port of Mobile and shipped to Europe.
Westervelt’s partners in the venture are Dieffenbacher, Inc., which will design the plant and provide all major process equipment, and E.ON, a major German utility company. Pellets production is scheduled to begin in November 2012.
Coskata Reports Pre-Commercial Success
Coskata, Inc. announced it has achieved two years of successful operation at its cellulosic ethanol semi-commercial facility in Madison, Pa. The facility has amassed over 15,000 run hours of operation and successfully converted wood biomass and municipal solid waste into fuel-grade ethanol.
“The data and operating experience cultivated at this pre-commercial scale facility has conclusively demonstrated that the Coskata technology is ready for commercial production today,” says Coskata President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Roe. “With an industry leading yield of more than 100 gallons of ethanol coming from a dry ton of wood biomass, we look forward to working with industry partners to rapidly deploy this leading conversion technology and help the country meet the Renewable Fuels Standard.”
The integrated biorefinery, which utilizes plasma gasification technology provided by Westinghouse Plasma Corp., was built to demonstrate the commercial readiness of the Coskata technology. It is the largest scale facility that has utilized syngas fermentation into ethanol technology, according to Coskata.
The technology at the Pennsylvania facility will be used at the company’s first commercial scale facility in Alabama.
Ethanol Project Gains Funding
Mascoma Corp. has signed an agreement with the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) for $80 million in DOE funding to assist in the design, construction and operation of a commercial-scale hardwood cellulosic ethanol facility in Kinross, Mich. This is in addition to $20 million in funding previously awarded by the DOE related to research and development for this project. This agreement includes a cost-sharing arrangement under which the DOE will contribute to the costs for construction of the Kinross facility, and the balance of the construction costs will be funded by Valero Energy Corp. and a grant from the State of Michigan.
The Kinross facility will use Mascoma’s proprietary CBP (consolidated bioprocessing) technology platform, which has been developed by Mascoma over the past five years, to convert hardwood pulpwood into ethanol. Construction of the Kinross facility is anticipated to start in the next three to six months and is expected to be completed by year-end 2013.
Mascoma has developed genetically-modified yeasts and other microorganisms to reduce costs and improve yields in the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. Mascoma’s first commercial application of its CBP technology is its Mascoma Grain Technology, or MGT, yeast product, which is a “drop-in” substitute for existing yeasts designed to improve the economics of corn-based ethanol production.
Mascoma earlier entered an agreement with Valero Energy Corp., the nation’s largest independent oil refiner, to develop and operate a first-of-its-kind 20 million gallon per year commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facility in Kinross. The cost to construct, commission and start up this facility is expected to be approximately $232 million, based on current external engineering estimates, and includes certain up-front infrastructure costs that will enable the expansion of the facility to 40 million gallons per year.
Frontier Renewable Resources, LLC, a subsidiary of Mascoma, and Diamond Alternative Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Valero, have formed a joint venture, Kinross Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, to develop and operate the hardwood cellulosic ethanol facility in Kinross.
Valero will provide project management to build and will operate the Kinross facility, and will hold a majority interest in the joint venture. Mascoma, through its subsidiary Frontier, will hold a minority interest.
EPA Proposes Boiler Rules
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing changes to Clean Air Act standards for boilers and certain incinerators. The proposed reconsideration would achieve extensive public health protections through significant reductions in toxic air pollutants, including mercury and soot, while increasing the rule’s flexibility and addressing compliance concerns raised by industry and labor groups, according to EPA.
The changes also reportedly will cut the cost of implementation by nearly 50% from the original 2010 proposed rule.
“With this action, EPA is applying the right standards to the right boilers,” says Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.
More than 99% of boilers in the country are either clean enough that they are not covered by these standards or will only need to conduct maintenance and tune-ups to comply, EPA states. Thus the new proposals focus on the less than 1% of boilers that emit the majority of pollution from this sector. For these high emitting boilers, typically operating at refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities, EPA is proposing more targeted emissions limits, based on currently available technologies that are in use by sources across the country.
Some of the key changes EPA is proposing include boilers at large sources of air toxics emissions, covering approximately 14,000 boilers. EPA is proposing to create additional subcategories and revise emissions limits. EPA is also proposing to provide more flexible compliance options for meeting the particle pollution and carbon monoxide limits, replace numeric emissions limits with work practice standards for certain pollutants, allow more flexibility for units burning clean gases to qualify for work practice standards and reduce some monitoring requirements. EPA estimates that the cost of implementing these standards remains about $1.5 billion less than the April 2010 proposed standards.
The proposal also covers about 187,000 boilers located at small sources of air pollutants, including commercial buildings, universities, hospitals and hotels. However, due to how little these boilers emit, 98% of area source boilers would simply be required to perform maintenance and routine tune-ups to comply with these standards.
EPA is also proposing revisions as to the types of non-hazardous secondary materials that can be burned in boilers or solid waste incinerators. Concerns have been expressed regarding the regulatory criteria for a non-hazardous secondary material to be considered a legitimate, non-waste fuel, and how to demonstrate compliance with those criteria. EPA’s proposed revisions provide clarity on what types of secondary materials are considered non-waste fuels. The proposed revisions also classify a number of secondary materials as non-wastes when used as a fuel and allow for a boiler or solid waste operator to request that EPA identify specific materials as a non-waste fuel. EPA continues to accept public comment on these standards.
Biofuels Project Planned In Louisiana
Sundrop Fuels, Inc., a gasification-based drop-in advanced biofuels company, is purchasing 1,200 acres near Alexandria, La. for the construction and operation of the company’s first production facility. The Sundrop Fuels plant will reportedly use sustainable forest waste combined with hydrogen from clean-burning natural gas to produce up to 50 million gallons annually of renewable “green gasoline.”
Located in Rapides Parish a few miles outside of Alexandria, the Sundrop Fuels plant will cost $450 to $500 million to build. Louisiana also provided Sundrop Fuels with performance-based incentives for the facility, which is expected to employ 150.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced Sundrop Fuels’ site selection in a public event, saying that the state “is proud to take this leadership role by providing great careers for our people and by supplying innovative solutions for the energy innovative solutions for the energy bottleneck in our nation.”
Sundrop Fuels drop-in advanced biofuel is designed to cost as much or less than petroleum-based transportation fuels. The company will use a gasification process to convert cellulosic feedstock into synthesis gas, which will then be made into clean, affordable bio-based “green gasoline” for use in combustion engines via the nation’s existing fuels distribution infrastructure.
Significant backing for Sundrop Fuels comes from Chesapeake Energy Corp., which invested $155 million in Sundrop Fuels last summer.
Ethanol Project Seeks Liquidation
Range Fuels, Inc., a cellulosic ethanol company backed by as much as $156 million in U.S. loans and grants, is reportedly being forced by the government to liquidate its only factory after failing to produce the fuel. The closely held company shuttered its factory in Soperton, Ga. in January 2011 after not delivering on its promise to convert wood chips into ethanol.
The ethanol project reportedly received $46.3 million of a $76 million grant from the Energy Dept. and half of an $80 million loan from the Agriculture Dept.
The Soperton plant began construction in 2007 and was to initially produce 20 million gallons of the biofuel in 2008 and expand capacity to more than 100 million gallons a year by 2009. The project received more than $160 million in venture capital investments from Khosla Ventures LLC and other companies.
The plant was closed after a technical defect limited it to run at half rates and it produced cellulosic methanol, a fuel the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t consider eligible for use to meet federal biofuel targets.
AgSouth Farm Credit, servicer of the loan, will move forward with a liquidation plan in anticipation of a forerclosure sale.
German Pellets Will Build In Texas
German Pellets, the largest wood pellet manufacturer in Europe, is building its first pellet plant in the U.S. in Woodville (Tyler County), east Texas. The company intends to manufacture 500,000 metric tons of wood pellets per year.
“This high volume of raw materials makes the region attractive for us and supplements our existing sources of supply,” says Peter Leibold, CEO of German Pellets.
Following ramp-up at the new Texas plant, German Pellets anticipates increased production capacity of up to 2 million metric tons per year in the medium term.
The pellet plant is being built on an 198 acre site of a former chip mill. “One advantage of building on this site is the possibility of using the existing supply structures and infrastructures, especially with respect to raw material supply,” says Leibold.
German Pellets operates nine pellet plants in Germany.
Varn Wood Products To Build Pellet Mill
Varn Wood Products plans to build a wood pellet plant to go along with its sawmill in Hoboken, Ga. Groundbreaking is expected this spring with the opening in late 2012.
The plant will produce 80,000 tons of pellets a year from sawmill byproducts but will be expandable to 120,000 tons a year. Some of the pellets will be sold in the U.S. but most will be shipped to Europe.
EcoGen Plans Biomass Power Plant In Florida
Florida’s Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Progress Energy Florida’s (PEF) purchase of power from a proposed U.S. EcoGen Polk, LLC (EcoGen) biomass electric generating facility in Fort Meade, Fla. EcoGen plans to sell 60 MW of capacity and associated energy to PEF for approximately 29 years beginning January 1, 2014.
The company plans initially to use waste wood for fuel and in the future operate dedicated eucalyptus plantations. The company estimates it will require 400,000 to 500,000 tons of woody material per year.
EcoGen intends to begin construction in the first quarter of next year.
Biomass Fuel Load Delivered To Southern
Southern Company received its first fuel load delivery November 1 at the Nacogdoches (Texas) Generating Facility owned by its subsidiary Southern Power. The plant is expected to be the largest biomass facility in the United States as it fulfills a 20-year contract to provide electric capacity to Austin Energy.
Prime Acres Management Inc. won the right to deliver the first fuel load after being the highest bidder in an online supplier charity auction.
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