http://msbusiness.com/blog/2013/08/06/county-takes-out-usda-loan-to-buy-lans-for-wood-pellet-plant/
by Associated Press
Published: August 6,2013
LUCEDALE — George County supervisors have signed off on $1.3 million
in U.S. Department of Agriculture loans to pay for land where a new wood
pellet plant will go.
The Mississippi Press reports that the USDA rural development
loans will be used to purchase the property that will expand the George
County Industrial Park.
Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. announced in June that the $115-million plant will produce up to 500,000 tons of pellets per year.
Wood pellets are shipped overseas to European utilities plants to use
as biomass energy that complies with their stricter sustainability
guidelines. The pellets are made from a mix of soft and hard woods.
George County secured a $1 million loan with no interest and a
$283,000 loan with 1 percent interest.
They are both five-year notes.
“It took almost 10 months to get here,” Community development and
communications director Ken Flanagan told supervisors yesterday. “With
any luck, this fall we’ll get everyone together for a groundbreaking.”
The money will mostly be used to purchase the land, he said, and lease payments from the company will pay the note.
Any money left over from the loans will be used for road work.
Flanagan said the county will also be responsible for upgrading
wastewater lines, and upgrading drinking water and process water to the
site, among other infrastructure work.
That work will be funded through additional loans and grants that will be announced later, Flanagan said.
County leaders have said the mill will create 126 new full-time jobs
in George County and others at the Port of Pascagoula in Jackson County.
The facility is expected to be operational by spring 2015.
Green Circle is wholly owned by the JCE Group, a privately owned
international investment company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Showing posts with label Green Circle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Circle. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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
Published: July 9, 2013
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.”
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.”
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
The US surpassed Canada as the largest wood pellet exporter in the world
http://www.teatronaturale.com/article/3908.html
by S. C.
Pellet exports from the two primary
pellet-producing regions on the North American continent, the U.S. South
and British Columbia, have continued to grow, reaching a new record
high of 760,000 tons in the 2Q/12, according to data from the pellet
industry and customs statistics complied by the North American Wood
Fiber Review.
Total Canadian exports to Europe in the 2Q rose 14 percent from the 1Q/12, with reports of BC pellet plants running at full capacity thanks to European demand. Pellet plants in Eastern Canada also continued small but frequent shipments over the Atlantic.
In the U.S. South, pellet export volumes rose 13 percent in the 2Q/12 from the previous quarter, in spite of some temporary slowdowns at Green Circle Bio Energy in Florida and Georgia Biomass, Georgia due to fires at a US port and at a pellet consumer in the United Kingdom. Shipments from Enviva’s new port facility in Virginia, additional volume from Fram Renewables, and new volumes from Low Country Biomass in South Carolina have all contributed to the growth in exports over the past 15 months, so that the US has now surpassed Canada to become the world’s largest exporter in 2012.
Three companies announced plans for constructing pellet plants in the state of Georgia in the 3Q/12. With six other pellet export plants already under construction and scheduled to begin operating in regions as widespread as Virginia to Texas, it is possible an additional 4.2 million tons of wood pellets will be crossing to Europe in 2015. This can be compared to an estimated 1.5 million tons likely to be exported from this region in 2012 as reported by the North American Wood Fiber Review.
Exports from both Eastern and Western Canada are also on schedule to grow, though not at the explosive rate being witnessed in the U.S. South. Several new Canadian pellet facilities, such as Holbrook Forest Products in Roddickton, Newfoundland, have expressed their intentions to export pellets, but have yet to do so for various reasons, including inadequate export dock facilities.
Total Canadian exports to Europe in the 2Q rose 14 percent from the 1Q/12, with reports of BC pellet plants running at full capacity thanks to European demand. Pellet plants in Eastern Canada also continued small but frequent shipments over the Atlantic.
In the U.S. South, pellet export volumes rose 13 percent in the 2Q/12 from the previous quarter, in spite of some temporary slowdowns at Green Circle Bio Energy in Florida and Georgia Biomass, Georgia due to fires at a US port and at a pellet consumer in the United Kingdom. Shipments from Enviva’s new port facility in Virginia, additional volume from Fram Renewables, and new volumes from Low Country Biomass in South Carolina have all contributed to the growth in exports over the past 15 months, so that the US has now surpassed Canada to become the world’s largest exporter in 2012.
Three companies announced plans for constructing pellet plants in the state of Georgia in the 3Q/12. With six other pellet export plants already under construction and scheduled to begin operating in regions as widespread as Virginia to Texas, it is possible an additional 4.2 million tons of wood pellets will be crossing to Europe in 2015. This can be compared to an estimated 1.5 million tons likely to be exported from this region in 2012 as reported by the North American Wood Fiber Review.
Exports from both Eastern and Western Canada are also on schedule to grow, though not at the explosive rate being witnessed in the U.S. South. Several new Canadian pellet facilities, such as Holbrook Forest Products in Roddickton, Newfoundland, have expressed their intentions to export pellets, but have yet to do so for various reasons, including inadequate export dock facilities.
by S. C.
16 October 2012 Teatro Naturale International n. 10 Year 4
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