Published: Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 20:52 PM.
Local, state and regional leaders have been diligently working for the
past several months to develop, on a major scale, wood pellet production
to be exported from the eastern parts of North Carolina to at first the
United Kingdom and eventually other parts of Europe.
These wood pellets would be used at first to produce electricity for British consumers. The impact to North Carolina from this production would be significant. The renewable wood fiber, or biomass as the Europeans refer to it, would come from the forests of North Carolina’s tidal plains. The production would involve North Carolinian loggers, truckers as well as wood pellet producing factories. The product would travel on North Carolinian rails to be exported from the North Carolina ports at both Morehead City and Wilmington. The demand for the product will continue as the need for clean energy will always be present. While the production of wood pellets will not cure all of our economic woes, it will nevertheless have a great positive economic impact to our region.
The wood pellets themselves are small and resemble poultry or rabbit feed. The wood pellets are formed out of macerated wood fiber that is heated and compressed into small cylindrical pellets. The pellets themselves typically require no artificial or added binders as it uses the natural lignin. Lignin is the natural glue that holds the cellulose in a tree together and is present in the wood already. It reconstitutes itself in the manufacturing process to hold the fiber material together in pellet form. The resulting pellets are desiccated and burn very cleanly creating very little ash. These pellets are easily transportable in rail cars, trucks and ships and can use automated machines for loading and discharging. Moreover, at the furnaces, augers and other types of stokers feed the fuel into the combustion chamber itself via programmed devices to burn the product most efficiently. The pellets can be burnt directly by the end user as is common in homes with small fire stoves used for heat. In addition, these pellets can be used on a large scale at electrical power generation stations where they are most often pulverized for best combustion to create steam to drive turbines that produce electricity.
Several industrial nations and the European community adopted measures in the 1997 Kyoto Protocols to reduce emissions as well as carbon footprint. Wood pellets used as fuel are considered carbon neutral, burn cleanly and are a renewable source of energy. The British are interested in having the wood pellets produced in Eastern North Carolina as it would be close to ports and not require much energy to transport as the wood fiber material should be collected no more than 80 miles from the ports. Moreover, as per the Kyoto Protocols, the potential clients are satisfied that the renewable wood fiber that makes up the bio-fuel could be collected without a detrimental impact to the environment. Dr. Clay Altizer of North Carolina Forest Service assured an audience at a recent October Wood Pellet information meeting at Morehead City that there is more than enough renewable wood material growing in privately held lands to more than meet the demand for the product. He reviewed charts of possible demand for the wood fiber that showed that the growth rate exceeded the potential harvest rate. The project’s main advocate Thomas W. “Tom” Bradshaw, the executive director of the N.C. State Ports Authority, explained at the same hearing that our state has two ports with existing rail connections that are capable of berthing ships for this product. Thus our state is in an advantageous position to profit from this opportunity.
Dr. Altizer went on to explain that much of the wood fiber that can be used to produce the pellets can be collected from the slash cutting of wooded lots that is now generally left to decay in the field. Dr. Altizer estimates that for approximately every ton of pellets produced requires two tons of cut green wood. Moreover, trees not well suited for cut lumber products or paper pulp can be readily turned into pellets thus maximizing the wood fiber yield from the cut lots. The wood material would be collected from the lots and transported via truck to local facilities that would produce the pellets. The pellets in turn would be discharged into covered hoppers and transported via rail to one of the two designated ports. The ports would store the fuel in large silos awaiting transfer to outbound ships.
The scale of the wood pellet undertaking is sizable. To meet the increased demand, additional wood pellet plants will have to be constructed. Port improvements and dredging will have to be made to facilitate docking of ships, storage of the material and automated loading of ships of this product. A fleet of approximately 75 covered rail cars will have to be procured to move the material from the plants located in the forests to the ports. Tom Bradshaw estimates anywhere from 8,500 to 17,500 of loaded 91 metric ton rail cars per year would make their way to the ports. He estimates five to six wood pellet trains a week averaging about a third to about half mile long to make it to the port at Morehead. Presently, according to the June 2012 Maritime Study, only three trains a week make it to Morehead via the North Carolina Railroad trackage through New Bern. North Carolina’s Eastern Region President John Chaffee welcomes the prospects of the plan’s potential positive economic impact. He is also monitoring the impact that the three-fold increase of rail traffic to downtown New Bern will have and supports a rail bypass concept around New Bern as well as proposed changes to rail routes around Morehead’s downtown.
The wood pellet proposal would have a positive impact to employment within the region. Bradshaw’s presentation estimated that upwards of 588 direct and indirect jobs could be realized if this plan comes to fruition. While the ports and the pellet facilities would not contribute a direct increase in great numbers of employment, there will be a large positive regional impact nonetheless when the entire operation is considered. Each rail car would require more than three truck loads of raw material. Tens of thousands of tons of slash cuttings and other renewable wood fiber material would have to be collected and loaded by loggers. Thus more loggers, equipment and trucks from all parts of the region would be needed. The increase in truck fleets and truck mileage would result in more business for fueling stations and demand for truck-part suppliers and service providers such as tires and general truck repair and maintenance. The added rail cars would require maintenance. New trains would require crews as well as motive power. Local rail carriers should expect increased profits for their services. There would certainly be more sales of heavy equipment to sustain the pellet production. All of these added profits and wages would trickle down the economy resulting in more patronage of local restaurants and merchants. The increased employment in the forested areas would also positively impact those areas housing markets. Chaffee also stated improved farm/forest income is important in preserving rural landscapes that are most compatible with the training missions of our military installations – preserving undeveloped lands under the flight paths of military aircraft.
N.C. State Board of Transportation Member Hugh Overholt from New Bern has opined that now is the time to execute plans and quit studying proposals. Director Bradshaw adopted this wood pellet concept from the Maritime Study and has assembled the necessary pieces to execute that solution. Our neighbors in Carteret recently adopted a resolution that states “The Town of Morehead City supports the efforts of the North Carolina State Ports Authority to maintain and expand a dynamic port and its efforts to increase the positive economic benefits for eastern North Carolina and its efforts to do so in an environmentally sustainable fashion.” Moreover, the North Carolina State Ports Authority has recently approved a $5 million appropriation for the design of the Morehead City facility which they want to see operational by January 2014. Now is the time to take heed of the same advice George Washington gave to Virginia Governor Benjamin Harrison, “A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.” I believe that it is likely that these combined forces will make this project a reality and a boon for all of us within our state, our region and our county.
Don Black, Hugh Overholt, John Chaffee, the N.C. Department of Forestry and the staff of Tom Bradshaw
These wood pellets would be used at first to produce electricity for British consumers. The impact to North Carolina from this production would be significant. The renewable wood fiber, or biomass as the Europeans refer to it, would come from the forests of North Carolina’s tidal plains. The production would involve North Carolinian loggers, truckers as well as wood pellet producing factories. The product would travel on North Carolinian rails to be exported from the North Carolina ports at both Morehead City and Wilmington. The demand for the product will continue as the need for clean energy will always be present. While the production of wood pellets will not cure all of our economic woes, it will nevertheless have a great positive economic impact to our region.
The wood pellets themselves are small and resemble poultry or rabbit feed. The wood pellets are formed out of macerated wood fiber that is heated and compressed into small cylindrical pellets. The pellets themselves typically require no artificial or added binders as it uses the natural lignin. Lignin is the natural glue that holds the cellulose in a tree together and is present in the wood already. It reconstitutes itself in the manufacturing process to hold the fiber material together in pellet form. The resulting pellets are desiccated and burn very cleanly creating very little ash. These pellets are easily transportable in rail cars, trucks and ships and can use automated machines for loading and discharging. Moreover, at the furnaces, augers and other types of stokers feed the fuel into the combustion chamber itself via programmed devices to burn the product most efficiently. The pellets can be burnt directly by the end user as is common in homes with small fire stoves used for heat. In addition, these pellets can be used on a large scale at electrical power generation stations where they are most often pulverized for best combustion to create steam to drive turbines that produce electricity.
Several industrial nations and the European community adopted measures in the 1997 Kyoto Protocols to reduce emissions as well as carbon footprint. Wood pellets used as fuel are considered carbon neutral, burn cleanly and are a renewable source of energy. The British are interested in having the wood pellets produced in Eastern North Carolina as it would be close to ports and not require much energy to transport as the wood fiber material should be collected no more than 80 miles from the ports. Moreover, as per the Kyoto Protocols, the potential clients are satisfied that the renewable wood fiber that makes up the bio-fuel could be collected without a detrimental impact to the environment. Dr. Clay Altizer of North Carolina Forest Service assured an audience at a recent October Wood Pellet information meeting at Morehead City that there is more than enough renewable wood material growing in privately held lands to more than meet the demand for the product. He reviewed charts of possible demand for the wood fiber that showed that the growth rate exceeded the potential harvest rate. The project’s main advocate Thomas W. “Tom” Bradshaw, the executive director of the N.C. State Ports Authority, explained at the same hearing that our state has two ports with existing rail connections that are capable of berthing ships for this product. Thus our state is in an advantageous position to profit from this opportunity.
Dr. Altizer went on to explain that much of the wood fiber that can be used to produce the pellets can be collected from the slash cutting of wooded lots that is now generally left to decay in the field. Dr. Altizer estimates that for approximately every ton of pellets produced requires two tons of cut green wood. Moreover, trees not well suited for cut lumber products or paper pulp can be readily turned into pellets thus maximizing the wood fiber yield from the cut lots. The wood material would be collected from the lots and transported via truck to local facilities that would produce the pellets. The pellets in turn would be discharged into covered hoppers and transported via rail to one of the two designated ports. The ports would store the fuel in large silos awaiting transfer to outbound ships.
The scale of the wood pellet undertaking is sizable. To meet the increased demand, additional wood pellet plants will have to be constructed. Port improvements and dredging will have to be made to facilitate docking of ships, storage of the material and automated loading of ships of this product. A fleet of approximately 75 covered rail cars will have to be procured to move the material from the plants located in the forests to the ports. Tom Bradshaw estimates anywhere from 8,500 to 17,500 of loaded 91 metric ton rail cars per year would make their way to the ports. He estimates five to six wood pellet trains a week averaging about a third to about half mile long to make it to the port at Morehead. Presently, according to the June 2012 Maritime Study, only three trains a week make it to Morehead via the North Carolina Railroad trackage through New Bern. North Carolina’s Eastern Region President John Chaffee welcomes the prospects of the plan’s potential positive economic impact. He is also monitoring the impact that the three-fold increase of rail traffic to downtown New Bern will have and supports a rail bypass concept around New Bern as well as proposed changes to rail routes around Morehead’s downtown.
The wood pellet proposal would have a positive impact to employment within the region. Bradshaw’s presentation estimated that upwards of 588 direct and indirect jobs could be realized if this plan comes to fruition. While the ports and the pellet facilities would not contribute a direct increase in great numbers of employment, there will be a large positive regional impact nonetheless when the entire operation is considered. Each rail car would require more than three truck loads of raw material. Tens of thousands of tons of slash cuttings and other renewable wood fiber material would have to be collected and loaded by loggers. Thus more loggers, equipment and trucks from all parts of the region would be needed. The increase in truck fleets and truck mileage would result in more business for fueling stations and demand for truck-part suppliers and service providers such as tires and general truck repair and maintenance. The added rail cars would require maintenance. New trains would require crews as well as motive power. Local rail carriers should expect increased profits for their services. There would certainly be more sales of heavy equipment to sustain the pellet production. All of these added profits and wages would trickle down the economy resulting in more patronage of local restaurants and merchants. The increased employment in the forested areas would also positively impact those areas housing markets. Chaffee also stated improved farm/forest income is important in preserving rural landscapes that are most compatible with the training missions of our military installations – preserving undeveloped lands under the flight paths of military aircraft.
N.C. State Board of Transportation Member Hugh Overholt from New Bern has opined that now is the time to execute plans and quit studying proposals. Director Bradshaw adopted this wood pellet concept from the Maritime Study and has assembled the necessary pieces to execute that solution. Our neighbors in Carteret recently adopted a resolution that states “The Town of Morehead City supports the efforts of the North Carolina State Ports Authority to maintain and expand a dynamic port and its efforts to increase the positive economic benefits for eastern North Carolina and its efforts to do so in an environmentally sustainable fashion.” Moreover, the North Carolina State Ports Authority has recently approved a $5 million appropriation for the design of the Morehead City facility which they want to see operational by January 2014. Now is the time to take heed of the same advice George Washington gave to Virginia Governor Benjamin Harrison, “A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.” I believe that it is likely that these combined forces will make this project a reality and a boon for all of us within our state, our region and our county.
Don Black, Hugh Overholt, John Chaffee, the N.C. Department of Forestry and the staff of Tom Bradshaw
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