Judge Rules Biomass Plants Have to Obey the Law, While Usefulness is Questioned

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25085

07/25/2013 11:16 AM

A federal appeals judge has ruled that power plants that turn biomass into energy also have to obey the Clean Air Act.

It closed a loophole under which the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) exempted biomass plants from the same emission rules that all other power plants are subject to.

“Burning trees to generate electricity is dangerous, polluting, and ought to be limited to protect people and the environment,” says Kevin Bundy, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, which challenged EPA's policy. “This important decision will reduce respiratory ailments, protect forests and help ensure a healthier, more livable climate.” 

The ruling reflects recent research that finds biomass-fueled power plants emit significantly more carbon per kilowatt than fossil fuel power plants - even coal. It can take decades before that excess carbon is “re-sequestered” by subsequent plant growth, explains the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Today’s ruling upholds EPA’s authority to regulate pollution that drives climate change. The court’s decision is grounded in an understanding that the science shows that biomass fuels, including tree-burning, can make climate disruption worse,” says Ann Weeks, legal director of the Clean Air Task Force, who argued the case for petitioners, which include the Conservation Law Foundation and Natural Resource Council of Maine. “The court clearly noted that the atmosphere can’t tell the difference between fossil fuel carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide emitted by burning trees.” 

"The court's decision is particularly important for the Southeast. Now we have an opportunity for a more sensible, science-based policy, one that avoids clearcutting the region's wildlife-rich forests for energy while intensifying climate change impacts," says Frank Rambo of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented the Dogwood Alliance, Georgia ForestWatch, South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and Wild Virginia in the case. 

In the case of wood, the adverse impact is exacerbated because of the large amounts of carbon released from deep forest soils as a result of disturbances such as logging, finds research released in June by Dartmouth College. Most global atmospheric studies don't consider deep soil, which could store up to half of all carbon in forest soils. 

"Our paper suggests the carbon in mineral soil may change more rapidly, and result in increases in atmospheric CO2, as a result of disturbances such as logging," says Dartmouth Professor Andrew Friedland. "Increased reliance on wood may have the unintended effect of increasing the transfer of carbon from mineral soil to the atmosphere." 

Woody biomass including trees grown on plantations, managed natural forests and logging waste, is used for 75% of global biofuel production. 

“If we are going to start changing recommendations and tell people to leave oil and coal in the ground, and burn more wood, we first need solid science behind that recommendation,” says Friedland. “Wood still might be a green choice, but let’s know all the consequences of everything that we do—and some of these consequences are not currently being discussed or appreciated or evaluated.” 

Next-Generation Biofuel Investments in Doubt 

 

Meanwhile, Europe’s biggest oil companies, BP and  Shell, are scaling back investments in biofuels because they don't see them becoming economical to produce until at least 2020. Exxon (remember all those algae TV ads?) and Chevron gave up several years ago, when they didn't see enough profit.

Why bother with these longer term investments when they're making a killing on their core business, oil and gas?

 

Both Shell and BP, however, continue to expand in their sugarcane ethanol businesses in Brazil. Shell has 23 refineries there and BP is spending $350 million to double production.

Global investment in biofuel production was $57 million in the first quarter, the lowest since 2006 and off significantly from a peak of $7.6 billion in the last quarter of 2007, reports Bloomberg. 
 

“Progress in deploying these technologies has been slower than many had anticipated and what’s needed to keep on track with our aspirations,” Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Bloomberg. “Many potential producers have found it difficult to secure the capital they need.” 

"This is very capital intensive," Phil New, head of BP's biofuels program, told Bloomberg. "There's lots of difficult engineering. It will take time for scale-up."

Last year, BP scrapped plans for a $300 million refinery in Florida, although it just opened a $520 million wheat-to-ethanol facility in the UK with DuPont. Shell canceled plans in April for a straw-to-ethanol facility and also pulled back funding for biofuel enzymes at Codexis and an algae venture with HR BioPetroleum.

"All of these technologies are capable of working technically," Matthew Tipper, Shell's head of alternative energy, told Bloomberg. "It was purely on cost that this technology couldn't be taken forward. Fuels have to be cheap enough to burn. Otherwise no-one will buy them."

Both the US and Europe are counting on biofuels to help reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. To meet climate targets, biofuels must account for 27% of transportation fuels by 2050, up from just 3% in 2012, says IEA. 

Last year, ethanol made from sugar or corn was the major source of biofuels - almost all of the 1.9 million barrels produced a day. Next-generation technologies are focused on supplies that don't compete with food, such as switch grass, corn stalks, jatropha and algae, as well as wood waste from the lumber and paper industries. 

The first commercial-scale cellulosic biofuels plants are coming online, from companies like KiOR, Abengoa Bioenergy, BlueFire Renewables, Mascoma and Fulcrum Bioenergy. The plants will boost US cellulosic biofuel output 20-fold this year. At an anticipated 9.6 million gallons of production, it falls short of government’s target of 14 million gallons.

Big oil has basically decided to let these smaller firms develop the technologies and then surely they'll step in.

Last year, the EU set limits on crop-based biofuels because of rising food prices worldwide and shifted the focus to agricultural residues like straw, and potentially algae.

Central Louisiana making gains in biomass industry

http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20130723/BUSINESS/307160021/Central-Louisiana-making-gains-biomass-industry

 Written by Jeff Matthews

Jul. 23, 2013   |   

 

Sundrop Fuels CEO Wayne Simmons (center) announces in 2011 that his company would build a $450 million biofuels plant in Rapides Station. The plant is expected to employ about 150 people and begin operation in late 2015. / Town Talk file photo

Central Louisiana appears to have struck gold, and workers don’t even have to dig for it. It’s just lying on the ground.

The area has very quickly grabbed a significant share in the emerging biomass manufacturing market, with three large plant projects announced in the past 19 months.


Local economic developers are optimistic that more activity is on the horizon.

“We’re still seeing an unusual amount of opportunity in that area,” said Jim Clinton, president and chief executive officer of Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance. “I don’t think this will be the last opportunity we see.”

All three projects are manufacturing plants that use wood products — mostly things that have been looked at as waste, such as leftover shavings or parts of the tree unsuitable for making lumber — in some way to create fuel that is more environmentally friendly than traditional fossil fuel.

Colorado-based startup Sundrop Fuels. Inc. announced in late 2011 that it is building the pilot plant for its “green gasoline” in the Rapides Station area near Boyce. The plant is expected to employ about 150 people and begin operation in late 2015.


The fuel can be used like normal transportation fuel, but instead of being refined from petroleum, it is produced in a unique gasification process using natural gas and woody biomass.


The plant is expected to produce about 60 million gallons of fuel per year. But that’s just the beginning. Sundrop is hoping its new technology takes off and the company can follow through on building as many as four more plants, each producing more than 200 million gallons of fuel per year. 

Local economic developers would love to see one of those “megaplants” going up next to the pilot plant off Interstate 49.


In April, wood pellet manufacturing giant German Pellets breathed life back into the tiny LaSalle Parish town of Urania when it announced a $300 million plant there.

The plant will be on the site of the former Louisiana Pacific and Georgia Pacific plant that closed in 2002. It is expected to create 500 jobs and come online next spring.

Wood pellets are used extensively in other parts of the world, particularly Europe, to generate electricity and heat. They are most commonly made by pressing wood shavings and sawdust into a globe or cylinder shape.

The facility in Urania is billed as the world’s largest pellet plant. It is expected to produce one million tons of pellets per year.

Most recently, Hinterland LLC announced plans to build a pellet manufacturing plant in Vidalia.


The facility at Vidalia Industrial Park is expected to cost more than $100 million and employ more than 50 people. It has access to the developing Port of Vidalia.

“I tell people wood is our oil,” said Rick Ranson, vice president of the regional development alliance in Alexandria.
 

“Biomass certainly going back several years has been identified by state and local entities as a target,” Clinton said. “Our wood base, our resources give us a position of strength in the field.”

Keeping Pace with Pellet Trade

http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/9238/keeping-pace-with-pellet-trade

The Port of Brunswick is one of many upgrading and expanding to meet Europe’s surging pellet demands. 

 

By Tim Portz | July 22, 2013

U.S. Highway 82 follows a predominantly western course, away from the port complex at Brunswick, Ga., running first slightly northwest and then doglegging to the southwest. It ambles through Glynn, Brantley and Ware counties before arriving in Waycross, Ga. This 60-mile stretch of highway traces a path through some of the densest stands of southern yellow pine in the country. Together, these three counties boast nearly .5 million forest acres, most of them privately owned and actively managed for delivery to the area’s forest products complex, including area pellet mills. East of the Port of Brunswick lies the Atlantic Ocean, and the world’s fastest-growing pellet market. Linking this incredible forest biomass resource to power generators in the United Kingdom and northern Europe, which seek a less carbon-dense fuel are port terminals like the East River Terminal at the Port of Brunswick.

In August 2011, the Georgia Ports Authority and Logistec, a Montreal-based stevedoring and terminal operations company, announced a shared investment in the East River Terminal to facilitate the rapidly growing export market for wood pellets. Commenting on the project, Curtis Foltz, GPA executive director said, “The significant expansion and installation of new infrastructure at East River Terminal will accommodate Georgia’s export for biomass fuels and create jobs throughout Georgia’s transportation, logistics and forest industries.”

Investing in this critical piece of infrastructure has proven to be wise and timely, as the demand for wood pellets has increased as predicted, contributing to the highest cargo levels the GPA has ever experienced. In April, 2.4 million tons of cargo passed through Georgia’s ports, a new record. Tonnage moving through the East River Terminal increased 14 percent over the same time frame in the previous year, reaching nearly 670,000 tons. The growth in East River’s tonnage was led by biomass fuels, validating the 2011 investments.

A critical component of the investments was a deepening of the shipping channel from 30 to 36 feet.  Expounding on the ramifications of that improvement, David Proctor, Logistec terminal manager, says, “The GPA also dredged from 30 to 36 feet, which will increase our capability of bringing in larger vessels for pellet exports. With a 30-foot-depth, you can only get maybe 15,000 or 16,000 tons of any kind of cargo into the Port of Brunswick. With the expansion and the deepening of the channel down to 36 feet, we are capable at this time of moving close to anywhere from 35,000 to 40,000 tons of wood pellets in a vessel. “There are economies of scale with the larger-size vessels, and this additional draft allows us to attract a new target market when serving the large-size utility companies overseas.”

Already a significant piece of Georgia’s forest products industry, pellet producers in the state manufacture over 1 million tons of pellets each year. Current production levels, however, pale in comparison to the nearly 3 million tons of production capacity currently planned or under construction. Virtually all of this new capacity is being developed to serve the growing European market. Georgia’s port operators are feeling the momentum, too, and Proctor notes, “We continue to prospect for new opportunities, and there are many interested parties that we are pursuing.”

As production capacity in Georgia increases, its ports are keeping pace, ensuring the critical market access necessary to maximize the opportunity that fuels growth in both the state’s forest products and port sectors.

Report details NC forestry resources

http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/9239/report-details-nc-forestry-resources/

By Staff | July 22, 2013

 

The Biofuels Center of North Carolina has completed a statewide woody biomass assessment in cooperation with Gelbert, Fullbright & Randolph Forestry Consultants and North Carolina’s seven economic development regions.
The resulting report, titled the “Statewide Woody Biomass Project,” outlines three areas of analysis for each of the seven economic development regions. First, it quantifies wood resources on a county-by-county basis, including price points, land use changes and regional competition for woody biomass. Second, the analysis determines the best location for biofuels industrial sites and assesses the infrastructure available at each site. Finally, the report refines the wood resources to support bankable data for each location.

On a statewide basis, more than half of North Carolina’s land is forested, with approximately 90 percent of its 17.6 million forested acres under private ownership.

Policy changes should not affect wood-pellet plans at port

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130722/ARTICLES/130729922

By Wayne Faulkner, Wayne.Faulkner@StarNewsOnline.com

Published: Monday, July 22, 2013 at 3:14 p.m.

A worker piles wood pellets at a holding facility at the Georgia Ports Authority in Brunswick, Ga., in 2011. Courtesy photo

 

Energy policy changes across the Atlantic could affect how long the boom in the U.S. wood pellet industry will last, forestry experts and industry opponents say.

But the company that plans to invest millions into building a pellet-exporting facility at the Port of Wilmington says those changes were long anticipated and have provided certainty for the industry to continue rapid growth.

The United Kingdom, where North Carolina's pellets will be shipped, is changing some of its rules that favor use of pellets in place of coal. It is cutting out subsidies for new power plants that would burn pellets while eventually ending them for plants that are converting from coal to pellets, according to news reports. 

The U.K.'s decisions "give certainty to the major utilities there so they can make good investments in converting existing coal-fired plants to biomass (wood products) plants," Enviva Chairman and CEO John Keppler said Monday.

"We have some pretty aggressive plans under way" for the Port of Wilmington and elsewhere in North Carolina, he said.

Enviva has two pellet-producing facilities in North Carolina, at Ahoskie and Northhampton, and has identified several sites in the state for a possible third facility, Keppler said.

Enviva plans to build two concrete storage domes, rail and truck unloading stations and a ship loader/dock-conveyer system at Wilmington. Enviva is not involved in pellet-exporting plans at the Port of Morehead City, which have been scaled back. The cutback is unrelated to European environmental policies, said Laura Blair, spokeswoman for the N.C. State Ports Authority.

U.S. production of pellets is expected to increase from 3 million tons in 2009 to 10 million by 2015, according to a study by Daniel Saloni of the Department of Forest Biomaterials at N.C. State University. 

There are or will be six Atlantic ports handling wood pellets between Norfolk and Brunswick, Ga., according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, an environmental advocacy organization based in Charlottesville, Va.

Pascagoula, Miss., is joining the push, planning to spend $30 million to accommodate future pellet exports.

Viable business?

But some question the limits of the wood-pellet export boom.

Opponents of the industry are arguing that burning wood pellets to produce energy not only doesn't make environmental sense but that it eventually won't make economic sense, either.

In addition to the U.K.'s new biomass subsidy policy, Europe is looking at whether it will require stricter requirements that the wood it receives from the United States is third-party-certified as sustainable, according to Dennis Hazel, associate professor and extension specialist for the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at N.C. State University.

One of the largest certifying groups is the Forest Stewardship Council, which originated from the Rain Forest Alliance, Hazel said.

"If your forest is certified, every product" that comes from it is certified, including pellets, he said Monday.

Problem is, there is little third-party-certified land in North Carolina, Hazel said.

If Europe decides to require strict certification, it may cloud the long-term viability of the pellet industry in the state, he said.

Lack of certification by either independent or industry groups is not to say the state's forests are managed badly.

The U.S. Forestry Service thinks "we do forestry pretty well in the Southeast. Most of our land is adequately regenerated" after trees are cut, Hazel said. That means that most cutting, even clear-cutting, allows the forests to come back. That, in turn, shrinks the relative carbon footprint of using North Carolina pellets for power production, he said.

But the forest watchdog group Dogwood Alliance says using the state's forests to produce pellets for power production is far from the European goal to be carbon neutral – producing no more carbon dioxide than is absorbed by regenerated forests.

The alliance's executor director, Danna Smith, said burning pellets for electricity may actually increase carbon emissions compared to coal. 

But she also argued that pellet companies are limited in their ability to make money from selling to the United Kingdom.

"It is not a long-term strategy for (the companies)," Smith said. "This is not going to be a long-term development opportunity.

"The justification for this (pellet) market is emission reductions. When you burn a tree that is, say, 20 years old, all that carbon is going into the atmosphere. If that tree had not been logged it would have been storing that carbon plus absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere."

In other words, the forests just can't regenerate fast enough to make the harvesting-burning process carbon neutral, she added.

But the pellet-burning process is never going to be carbon neutral, Hazel said. It, however, can be relatively beneficial.

In the short term, burning pellets may be less advantageous than burning coal. But in the long term it looks good compared to coal, because the forests have time to regenerate, he said.

Regardless of the arguments, Keppler is confident in his company's and the pellet industry's course of high investment and growth.

Nothing, he reiterated, has changed in Enviva's ambitious plans for the Port of Wilmington.

Georgia Biomass outlook is strong

http://www.theblacksheartimes.com/articles/2013/07/20/opinion/doc51e586eabc61e257532059.txt

World’s largest fuel pellet plant sees a bright future for renewable energy production here

By Robert M. Williams, Jr.

Published:Wednesday, July 17, 2013 4:06 AM EDT

The news came in early 2010 that Southeast Georgia would be home to the world’s largest producer of wood pellets for fuel to power Europe’s energy generating plants.

That our job-hungry area would be a focus for the renewable energy movement brought a flurry of welcome publicity. Then-Governor Sonny Perdue came for the groundbreaking of the $175 million Georgia Biomass plant later that year and, by mid-2011, the first of hundreds of truckloads of pine timber began rolling through the gates each week. Employing more than 80 people and indirectly creating hundreds more jobs, the Georgia Biomass plant has been a natural fit. This new industry needed our abundance of pine trees as a raw material, rail lines to ship the fuel pellets out and a nearby port at Savannah to send them on their way to Europe where the United Kingdom is leading the way on promoting the use of renewable energy sources.

The operation has not been without one or two hiccups. A wood dust explosion a year ago shut down production temporarily but, fortunately, injured no one. Today, Plant Manager Brad Mayhew is proud to say Georgia Biomass has not had a single lost-time injury on the job since opening over two years ago. The firm felt another kind of blow a few months ago, however, when RWE, one of Europe’s five leading electric and gas companies, and the owner of Georgia Biomass, announced they would not continue their focus on utilizing wood pellet technology, leading to fears the plant could be sold, or worse, shut down. Doomsayers around the area were quickly saying: “We knew it was too good to be true.”

But wait.

Georgia Biomass officials hosted a sit-down this week, to set the record straight for area political leaders and the press.

With demand far outstripping supply and Georgia Biomass’ entire production capability already sold through mid-2015, don’t expect this plant to go anywhere anytime soon.

“Last year, Georgia exported about a million tons of wood pellets,” said Georgia Biomass CEO James Roecker. “We did about 60% of that. By 2020, the Southeast will be shipping 6-7 million tons of pellets.”

In other words, there’s still lots of money to be made turning our tall pine trees into tiny pellets and Georgia Biomass plans to lead the way.

“This company is not currently up for sale by RWE, but we’ve had about 20 companies make inquiries if they ever do,” added Roecker.

All of this is good news for area businesses. Forest products have been a mainstay of this region’s economy for more than a century and Georgia Biomass has only further emphasized the impact of timber on so many of us.

Think about this. Last year Georgia Biomass purchased 54,000 truckloads of pine timber. Those trees came from within a 75-mile radius and put more than $40 million into the pockets of landowners, timber dealers, etc. The multiplier effect of gas purchases, trucks, tires and more means the impact of this plant represents hundreds of millions of dollars to this region.

The staggering number of trees consumed by this one plant often leads to the inevitable question: “How long can we continue to provide pine trees to meet this demand?”

The answer: As long as needed.

“Georgia is growing 20 million tons of trees more than are being harvested every year,” explains Georgia Biomass procurement forester Barry Parrish. “We’re only tapping 20 percent of the excess growth. There’s five million extra tons being grown just within our 75-mile radius.”

Eighty-five employees at GB are drawing paychecks. Hundreds, probably thousands, more are impacted by this new industry.

The sweet scent of pine chips lingers in the air around the Georgia Biomass plant.

And it smells like money.

• Robert M. Williams, Jr. is Editor & Publisher of The Times. Email: rwilliams@theblack­sheartimes.com.

Sundrop Fuels selects contractor for inaugural plant

http://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/9189/sundrop-fuels-selects-contractor-for-inaugural-plant

By Sun Drop Fuels Inc. | July 12, 2013

Sundrop Fuels Inc., a privately-held advanced biofuels company, announced that it has engaged international engineering and construction firm IHI E&C International Corporation, a U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based IHI Corporation, as contractor of choice for its inaugural facility near Alexandria, La.

The combined commercial and demonstration plant will annually produce about 60 million gallons of finished gasoline from natural gas while providing the platform for Sundrop Fuels to prove its proprietary gasification technology for making renewable “green gasoline” from woody biomass.

The success of Sundrop Fuels’ integrated commercial and demonstration plant will put in motion the company’s plan to build a series of renewable gasoline “megaplants,” each producing more than 200 million gallons of drop-in cellulosic biofuel annually. Sundrop Fuels expects to eventually have four such facilities in operation, representing a combined production capacity of more than one billion gallons – a significant percentage of the total cellulosic advanced biofuels goal set by the nation’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

“With IHI E&C’s talent and resources, Sundrop Fuels looks forward to formally breaking ground on the final stepping-stone toward becoming a major producer of affordable, drop-in biofuel,” said Sundrop Fuels CEO Wayne Simmons. “It has extensive experience and a long history of successful project execution in plants with similar configurations and process units.”

”We are very excited to be involved in this gas to gasoline commercial project that utilizes proven technologies for the conversion of natural gas, first to methanol, and then to gasoline,” said Glyn Rodgers, IHI E&C President.

Located one mile west of Alexandria in Boyce, Louisiana, Sundrop Fuels has begun site preparation on the combined commercial and demonstration plant, which will occupy approximately 100 of the 1,213 acres that the company purchased in February. Formal construction is scheduled to begin late this year, with operations expected to begin at the end of 2015.

Once powerful logging region getting back to its roots with biomass fuel source

http://www.sunherald.com/2013/07/09/4785036/once-powerful-logging-region-getting.html

Published: July 9, 2013

By Mike Lacy — The Journal of South Mississippi Business

 

South Mississippi has found itself on the edge of an industrial opportunity that could literally light a fire in its the economic engine and put it on the world stage for decades. Wood pellet manufacturing appears to be a nice fit for a region long known as a logging powerhouse. Proponets promise infrastructure renewal, employment opportunities, tangential small business growth and a clear conscious that comes from creating a long-term, self-sustaining, eco-friendly fuel for the world.

Trouble is, a lot of other people want a piece of the action, and some neighboring states may already be ahead in its plans to capitalize. In wood pellet manufacturing, companies take forest junk that doesn’t meet milling specifications and make it into what could be the next big not-really-so alternative fuel source.

“Other Southern states — Louisiana, Georgia and Florida — are on board and building wood pellets and ports to handle them,” said Ken Flanagan, community development director for the George County Board of Supervisors. “They are moving very quickly. Georgia may be a little ahead of the curve. It’s very obvious to us that this is a competitive business market. Our sister states are getting into this game.” But, he said that South Mississippi is “definitely on the forefront” of the battle.

“You’re going to hear about wood pellets for years to come.”

In late June, Green Circle Bio Energy, Inc., announced plans to build a $115 million wood pellet manufacturing plant in George County’s Industrial Park, which it says will create 126 full-time jobs and produce about 500,000 metric tons of pellets to be shipped to European markets. Construction of the plant on a 120-acre site is expected to begin this fall.

It was the second plant in five months to announce plans to build in the George County Industrial Park and one of four wood pellet producers to have considered George County as home for their plants. Gulf Coast Renewable Energy announced plans in March to build a 320,000 metric ton-plant that would create 40 jobs and 288 indirect jobs. But, so far, plans have not yet materialized.

Green Circle’s arrival has also spurred infrastructure development for the George County Industrial Park as well as the Port of Pascagoula to support the industry.

In April, the state House of Representatives and Senate authorized a borrowing bill that included $10 million for the Port of Pascagoula. The port will put the $10 million toward the development of a specialized facility to support the state’s wood-pellet industry.

Port Director Mark McAndrews said at the time of the announcement that the center will be built in a terminal in its Bayou Casotte east harbor and will have a conveyor system, storage silos and a ship loader for receiving and shipping wood pellets.

The total cost will be $28 million to $30 million. The port and the terminal’s operating partner will pay the balance after the state’s $10 million, McAndrews said.

When Green Circle was in negotiations with George County, it was also in negotiations with the Port of Pascagoula. “The port authority wanted to make sure we were on the same page as they were,” Flanagan added. “They have to act independently, but it was a good, open relationship.

“For us, keeping this inside Mississippi is very important,” he said. “If we produce it in Mississippi, we want to ship it out from Mississippi.”

The product

Wood pellets are a refined biomass fuel. By “pelletizing” residual forest waste, sawdust and used wood pallets, millions of tons of waste can be put to work for the economy while enhancing the environment. The process utilizes parts of trees that do not meet sawmill specs — like the trucks or the tops.

Biomass energy proponents say wood pellet energy is carbon neutral, largely because regrowth of vegetation was believed to recapture and store the carbon that is emitted to the air. But some environmental groups have questioned the simplistic claim arguing that it depends on how the fuel is harvested, from what forest types and what kinds of forest management are applied.

Wood pellets pose no soil or water contamination risks. The Mississippi Biomass Council also states that a typical wood pellet plant will produce 70K tons of pellets per year, enough to supply one 250 MW generating plant with 5 percent of its fuel as co-fired biomass.

Basically, the wood is processed, ground into a paste and squeezed into pellets. In doing so, the moisture content is reduced from 50 to 60 percent down to about 5 percent, making it dense, stable for long-term storage and easily shippable. There are no additives.

Why now?

Wood pellet manufacturing has been around for years, but what’s driving the market right now is a mandate to reduce carbon emissions from power plants in Europe by 2020. When mixed with traditional coal, wood pellets can burn at the same heat and rate, but with a reduced carbon emission.

But while Green Circle is the latest news, Enviva Pellets has been operating an industrial plant in Wiggins since 2010, replacing Piney Wood Pellets, which produced more for residential use.

Enviva owns one other plant in Amory (Monroe County) and a third plant is operated by New Biomass Energy in Quitmann.

Enviva Wiggins is a 150,000-ton wood pellet manufacturing plant. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Elizabeth Woodworth, director marketing communications for Enviva, said the Wiggins site was the “right opportunity” and the “right combination.”

“It is a good business environment, has incredible forest resources that are robust and healthy for us and it’s also located near a deep-water port,” she said.

Enviva Pellets exports through the Port of Mobile and has no immediate plans to change.

Why here?

According to a study commissioned by the Mississippi Development Authority, forestland dominates the Mississippi landscape, covering about 65 percent of the state. This coverage provides an excellent woody biomass supply to support the bioenergy and biochemical industries. It is estimated that about 6.5 million dry tons of unutilized pulpwood and woody biomass residues are available for new bioenergy and biochemical development in Mississippi. In addition, annual timber growth exceeds harvests in the state by a ratio of 1:13:1, meaning that 1.3 units of timber are added to the state’s stocks for each unit harvested each year.

“This immediately struck me that here is an emerging energy market — there’s no better way to say it,” Flanagan said. “It will never be like coal or oil, but in the recycling energy market, wood pellets do not have a rival.”

Europe makes wood pellets as well, but its “wood basket” — the area of harvesting wood within a 50- to 70-mile radius — is not as big as it is in the certain areas of the United States. In choosing a potential site, manufacturers consider how many years one can harvest, replant and harvest again.

Green Circle President and CEO Morten Neraas said it was important in the process to have more trees growing than what are being taken.

“But you’ve got to have more than wood,” Flanagan said. “You don’t want to be too far away from the Coast.” And he said the combination of rail and highway transportation to the Port of Pascagoula put George County in a good position. Is it good for Mississippi?

Nash Nunnery with the MDA said it has been estimated that nearly 100 new jobs are created by a typical pellet plant, including plant operators and workers, loggers, landowners and truckers. Each plant requires delivery of up to 6,000 truckloads of wood biomass equating to around 2,500 truckloads of wood pellets to customers each year.

The latest figures from a 2010 report from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security found that biomass industry-related jobs, not just those involving the wood pellet industry, directly or indirectly employed nearly 187,000 Mississippians.

Woodworth said in addition to direct and in-direct jobs created, it also adds an incentive for forest owners to keep their forests intact “rather than using it for agriculture — or worse — developing into strip malls.”

She said her company “goes through the supply chain” to obtain the raw material — sometimes through sawmills and sometimes on private forestland.

“It (the industrial process) helps promote bio diversity and value to the forest owner,” she said. “Maybe that will help him decide to keep his forest a forest. Over history, we’ve seen direct a correlation.”

Pricing

Woodworth said that wood pellet relative cost is one of the lowest, second only to onshore wind sources.

“But because wood pellets uses current utility infrastructure, it saves the utility on capital costs to retrofit,” she said.

But while Europe is the company’s primary business partner, she hopes that domestic acceptance of biomass fuel sources and, in turn, domestic business will increase.

“In Europe, it’s not a political matter. It’s a given,” Woodworth said. “Here, it’s divisive. I’d love to see biomass take off. It’s good for the environment and it’s part of the puzzle to use.

“When we talk about the impact of Enviva, we don’t focus on the fact that it’s a new green economy,” Woodworth said. “We’re connected to managing jobs and getting the forest industry back on its feet.

“We’re excited to be in the South Mississippi business region,” she said. “ The area has high quality labor in manufacturing. “And what’s cool about Wiggins, is that this facility is part of a global energy future.”

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/07/09/4785036/once-powerful-logging-region-getting.html#storylink=cpy

RWE npower closes Tilbury biomass power station

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/05/rwe-npower-tilbury-biomass-power-station

The blow to the UK's renewables industry was welcome news to some green campaigners who argue biomass is unsustainable

Fiona Harvey and Natalie Starkey
The Guardian, Friday 5 July 2013 08.11 EDT 

 

The closure of the Tilbury biomass power station will result in the likely loss of 220 jobs. Photograph: Alamy

 

RWE npower is halting operations at its Tilbury biomass power station, with the likely loss of 220 jobs, in a blow to Britain's renewable power industry.

But some green campaigners welcomed the closure, which will take effect from the end of October, as they argue biomass use on a large scale is environmentally unsustainable.

The closure will also raise further concerns over the ability to "keep the lights on" as an increasing number of ageing power stations are taken out of service.

The German electricity generator blamed a lack of investment capacity and the difficulty in converting the plant – the world's biggest biomass power station, with a planned capacity of 750MW – to use wood, waste oil and other organic materials in place of coal.

Biomass investors have also been rattled by the government's planned changes in subsidies for biomass and other renewable forms of energy. Drax, Britain's biggest coal-fired power station, last year shelved plans for two new biomass power stations.

Tilbury has a complex history that closely reflects the developments in energy and environment policy over the past decade.

Originally a coal-fired plant, it fell foul of EU regulations intended to cut airborne pollutants such as sulphur, and was intended in 2008 to be gradually run down, with a closure date of 2015.

But in 2010, the station was given a new lease of life as RWE announced its intention to experiment with biomass, sourced from sustainable forests, energy crops and waste.

Last year, RWE applied for environmental permits that would have kept the plant open as the world's biggest biomass burner. The investment required would run to the low hundreds of millions of pounds, less than building a new power station but a sum that would require considerable confidence in the future of biomass, as coal is now at its lower price for years.

Now, the company has decided it has other investment priorities.

However, RWE is open to selling the power station to another operator, if a buyer can be found. The company is only mothballing the plant, not dismantling it.

Roger Miesen, chief technical officer at RWE Generation, said: "It is with regret that we are announcing the decision to halt the Tilbury biomass project. This decision has not been taken lightly. Tilbury remains a good site for future power generation. RWE still believes that biomass has a role to play in future power generation and will continue to progress options at strategic sites."

The closure has reopened debate over the future of biomass power generation in Britain.

The government supports biomass, as a low-carbon form of power generation compared with fossil fuels – the trees and plants used as fuel take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, so if they are regrown under environmentally sound conditions, burning them results in a net carbon saving as it displaces coal and gas.

However, that is not the whole story, according to many green campaigners. They point to problems with sourcing sufficient quantities of biomass, much of which has to be imported, and say that without strict regulations, growing trees and crops for biomass can lead to deforestation in developing countries. There are also concerns about the effects of the soot that comes from burning the organic fuel.