December 2014
Changing Course Ontario Power Stations Ditch Coal for Pellets Page 12
Plus: How Two Saw Mills Integrated Pellets Into Operations Page 24
And:
Digesters Trend at Cellulosic Ethanol Plants Page 38
www.biomassmagazine.com
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Ontario Power Generation has completed and commissioned its newly converted, 200-MW, pellet-fired power station in Atikokan, Ontario. PHOTO: ANNA SIMET
06 EDITOR’S NOTE Partners in ProďŹ t By Tim Portz
07 INDUSTRY EVENTS 08 BUSINESS BRIEFS 46 MARKETPLACE
14 POWER 12 NEWS 13 COLUMN How Will the 2014 Elections Impact Biomass? By Bob Cleaves
14 FEATURE A Dot on the Map Proving out the concept in North America, two of Ontario Power Generation’s coal-ďŹ red power plants have converted to wood pellets. By Anna Simet
PELLETS Subscriptions Biomass Magazine is free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge of $49.95 for anyone outside the United States. To subscribe, visit www.BiomassMagazine.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to Biomass Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Back Issues & Reprints Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 701-746-8385 or service@bbiinternational. com. Advertising Biomass Magazine provides a speciďŹ c topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and high-quality print production. To ďŹ nd out more about Biomass Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 701-746-8385 or service@ bbiinternational.com. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Biomass Magazine Letters to the Managing Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to asimet@bbiinternational. com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.
4 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
22 NEWS 24 FEATURE Hand and Glove Sawmills can achieve increased operational efďŹ ciencies by investing in onsite pellet production, but numerous economic factors come into play. By Tim Portz
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38 THERMAL 30 NEWS 31 COLUMN Paving the Way to a Clean Energy Revolution By Justin Price
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BIOGAS 36 NEWS 37 COLUMN Biogas Racks Up Cellulosic RINs By Amanda Bilek
38 FEATURE Good Neighbors Often in the shadow of long-awaited, commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol production, anaerobic digesters add value and are becoming commonplace at plants. By Katie Fletcher
ADVANCED BIOFUELS & CHEMICALS 42 NEWS 43 COLUMN Biomass Producers Today, Carbon Kings Tomorrow
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Biomass Magazine: (USPS No. 5336) December 2014, Vol. 8, Issue 12. Biomass Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Office: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biomass Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58203.
44 CONTRIBUTION Mobile Cloud Computing in the Biomass Industry Enterprise Resource Planning Today software has continued its technological innovation by integrating and leveraging the power of mobile technology. By David Waechter
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DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 5
¦EDITOR’S NOTE
Partners in Profit Timing is everything. In the midst of producing the final issue of Biomass Magazine in 2014, dedicated to biomass integrations, conversions and colocations, the International Panel on Climate Change released a report urging a phase-out of fossil fuel-based energy this century. The recommendation seems so impossible that it almost takes on a darkly comedic tone. As impossible as it may sound, in some parts of the world, this transition is TIM PORTZ VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT already well underway, as Anna Simet reports & EXECUTIVE EDITOR tportz@bbiinternational.com in her page-14 feature, “A Dot on the Map.” Her story continues her ongoing coverage of the conversion of Ontario Power Generation’s Atikokan and Thunder Bay power stations. Ontario is actively phasing out coal, and if the guidance from the IPCC begins to gain traction with more governments around the world, conversions like OPG’s will serve as a model of how fossil fuel assets can be repurposed and repowered with biogenic inputs. We also look closely this month at integrations and colocations. Katie Fletcher’s page-38 feature, “Good Neighbors” finds anaerobic digestion enjoys nearly a complete market share within the emerging fleet of cellulosic ethanol production facilities. While the technology has been introduced at starch-based ethanol plants, as Fletcher reports, they are an exception, as the technology was added after plants were constructed and commissioned. For the three Midwestern commercial-scale cellulosic facilities coming on line in Kansas and Iowa, the technology was included in the earliest designs and is a critical component of the process. In my page-24 feature, “Hand and Glove,” I highlight two pellet production facilities that were deployed alongside existing sawmills. Don Wagner, Appalachian Wood Pellets general manager, helped me understand how pellet production was a natural progression for the plant’s sister company, Allegheny Wood Products. “It was just a continuation of vertical integration,” he told me. The facility enjoys a number of competitive advantages because of this strategy, and Wagner’s team is bullish about its future. Biomass-derived energy pairs well with other bioenergy generation as this issue makes clear. The open question is: Will Atikokan-like conversions become more common as we drive geologic carbon out of our energy portfolio? Our industry enjoys tremendous opportunity and continues to prove itself unique amongst renewables, for its ability to offer the same energy products, with the always-on, baseload qualities energy users require. If we’re to come close to achieving even a fraction of the audacious recommendation the IPCC has made, biomass’s biggest era must be in front of us.
EDITORIAL PRESIDENT & EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Bryan tbryan@bbiinternational.com VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT & EXECUTIVE EDITOR Tim Portz tportz@bbiinternational.com MANAGING EDITOR Anna Simet asimet@bbiinternational.com NEWS EDITOR Erin Voegele evoegele@bbiinternational.com STAFF WRITER Katie Fletcher kfletcher@bbiinternational.com COPY EDITOR Jan Tellmann jtellmann@bbiinternational.com
ART ART DIRECTOR Jaci Satterlund jsatterlund@bbiinternational.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Burslie bburslie@bbiinternational.com
PUBLISHING & SALES CHAIRMAN Mike Bryan mbryan@bbiinternational.com CEO Joe Bryan jbryan@bbiinternational.com VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Matthew Spoor mspoor@bbiinternational.com SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR John Nelson jnelson@bbiinternational.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Howard Brockhouse hbrockhouse@bbiinternational.com SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Chip Shereck cshereck@bbiinternational.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Jessica Beaudry jbeaudry@bbiinternational.com TRAFFIC & MARKETING COORDINATOR Marla DeFoe mdefoe@bbiinternational.com
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Chris Sharron, Western Oregon Wood Products Amanda Bilek, Great Plains Institute Stacy Cook, Koda Energy Ben Anderson, University of Iowa Justin Price, Evergreen Engineering Adam Sherman, Biomass Energy Resource Center
6 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
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DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 7
Business Briefs PEOPLE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPS
Active Energy Group appoints finance director to board Active Energy Group plc has announced the appointment of Brian Evans-Jones to its board as finance director. Evans-Jones is a chartered accountant and has acted as a consultant to, officer of and investor in a number of businesses in the food, manufacturing and property sectors, including Harsco Inc., Celtic Oriental, Bioditronics, Ty Nant Spring Water and Seconds Ahead.
the project, arrange for food waste feedstock, and perform maintenance service for the project. Bluesphere will be responsible for developing the project, permitting, project finance and operation for the 20-year life of the project. The company intends to work with Austep S.p.A., an Italian EPC contractor, on the project.
Canada invests $3 million in bioproducts development Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz recently announced an investment of up to $3 million in Competitive Green Bluesphere expands operations Bluesphere has signed a letter of intent Technologies to help position Canada as (LOI) to acquire seven anaerobic digestion a global leader in using green, sustainable facilities in Italy. The facilities being evaluat- agri-based technologies. Along with experts ed under the LOI have long-term purchase from industry and academia, Competitive Green Technologies will lead collaboraagreements in place with local utilities. Bluesphere has also signed a memorandum tive pilot-scale testing of purpose-grown agricultural fibers and residues in bioplastic of understanding (MOU) to develop a 5 and biocomposite products. The company MW biogas project in Israel with ESC, an is currently focusing on compounding bioIsraeli state-owned company. Under the composite resin with nonfood and nonforMOU, ESC would lease a suitable site for
est biomass crops, such as switchgrass and oat hulls, and adding value to postconsumer and postindustrial agricultural film. Virent appoints executive Virent Inc. has appointed Edgar Steenwinkel as vice president of research and development. He will lead technology development efforts of Virent’s BioForming platform in preparation of commerSteenwinkel cialization of its biofuel and biobased chemicals. Steenwinkel previously served as global business director for alternative fuels technologies at Albemarle, where he led multiple global development and commercialization efforts for catalysts and other new, innovative products for biobased transportation fuels. He has more than 20 years of experience in research and development, manufacturing and building new business groups.
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BUSINESS BRIEFS¦
Professor honored in Canada Robin Rogers has been named Canada excellence research chair in green chemistry and green chemicals at McGill University. Rogers comes to Canada from the University of Alabama, where he was Rogers Robert Ramsay chair of chemistry and director of the Center for Green Manufacturing.
will install a complete system at its Muncy, Pennsylvania, facility to demonstrate the technology and establish best practices and recommendations to reduce downtime and accidents caused by rollers and bearing shafts overheating.
Retired Covanta executive honored The American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Materials and Energy Recovery Division recently honored John Klett, a retired Andritz offers wireless heat sensor for Covanta chief operating wood pelletizers officer and chief technolAndritz Inc. and SST Wireless Inc. are ogy officer, with the Klett collaborating to produce a customized version Medal of Achievement of SST’s wireless heat sensor technology for Award. John has more than 40 years of handsdeployment on Andritz’s wood pelletizers as an on experience in power-plant operation, includOEM option. The system will include SST’s ing 30 years in the energy-from-waste (EfW) high-temperature sensors that are installed industry. He is the 15th recipient of the award, directly on to the rollers to provide real-time which was established in 1982 and recognizes monitoring of critical temperatures. Andritz distinguished and continued contributions over
a substantial period of time in the advancement of solid waste processing technology. Klett joined Covanta in 1986 and oversaw the commissioning of more than 20 EfW facilities. Forest Energy Corp. earns PFI qualification The Pellet Fuels Institute has announced the qualification of pellet fuel manufacturer Forest Energy Corp. into the PFI Standards Program, a third-party accreditation program that provides specifications for residential- and commercial-grade pellet fuel. Based in Show Low, Arizona, Forest Energy Corp. is the sixth company to qualify for the PFI Standards Program.
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PowerNews UK bioenergy generation sets quarterly record Energy statistics recently UK Q2 renewable capacity (MW) released by the U.K. DepartOnshore wind 8,013 ment of Energy and Climate Change indicate bioenergy Offshore wind 4,078 generation increased subShoreline wave/tidal 7 stantially during the second Solar photovoltaics 4,101 quarter, reaching a record 5.6 Small-scale hydro 229 terawatt hours (TWh). When compared to the second quarLarge-scale hydro 1,471 ter of 2013, bioenergy generaLandfill gas 1,037 tion increased 8.8 percent. Sewage sludge digestion 200 Plant biomass, which Energy from waste 648 increased from 2.8 to 3.1 TWh, was the main contribuAnimal biomass (non-AD) 111 tor to bioenergy growth. The Anaerobic digestion 166 DECC attributed the growth Plant biomass 2,151 primarily to the increased use of biomass at the Drax Total 22,211 power station, along with the Cofiring 19 Ironbridge biomass converSOURCE: U.K. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE sion. According to the DECC, those new sources more than percent of capacity. offset the August 2013 closure of Tilbury. Overall renewable capacity from all As a result of the conversions, generation sources was 22.2 gigawatts as of the close from cofiring was less than 0.1 TWh. of the second quarter, up 13.8 percent Overall, bioenergy had a 42 percent from the previous year. When compared share of renewables generation in the to the first quarter, capacity was up 4.5 U.K. during the second quarter. Bioenpercent. ergy, however, accounted for only 19.4
Vega Biofuels breaks ground on pilot torrefaction plant In October, Vega Biofuels Inc. announced that its joint venture with Agri-Tech Producers LLC broke ground on a pilot torrefaction plant in Allendale, South Carolina. The facility is expected to be complete during the first quarter of 2015. Once operational, the plant will use a patented torrefaction technology to produce a biobased coal product from wood and plant feedstock. The company plans to sell its biocoal to electricity producers around the world. The USDA recently awarded the pilot project a $200,000 Value-Added Producer Grant. Earlier this year, Vega Biofuels announced that Agri-Tech Producers had developed a patent-pending, combined-site-remediation biomass and biocoal production process that uses the phytoremediation powers of the roots of certain trees and crops that have been planted to clean contaminated sites. A patented leaching process is then used to remove the toxins and other problematic substances from the biomass prior to torrefaction. “The $200,000 grant will help ATP-SC LLC, the joint venture entity, process the biomass of various trees and bio-crops that we will plant on sites convenient to our Allendale facility, including on some of the nearly 170 contaminated sites identified by EPA,� said Joseph James, president of ATP and Vega advisory board member.
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How Will 2014 Elections Impact Biomass? BY BOB CLEAVES
On Nov. 4, Americans voted. This election was a decisive victory for Republicans. Senate, House, gubernatorial and even state legislature races across the country saw conservatives prevail. These results were expected, surprising to political types only in the thoroughness of the wins across the board. What does this mean for biomass? It’s clear that this election signals the need to adjust our interactions with elected officials, but it’s not yet clear what shape that change will take. We will have a better sense of the new Congress’s direction after it is sworn in. The initial signs, however, indicate that there will be a lot we can work with, beginning with an emphasis on the economic benefits of biomass. We expect that renewable energy, which had been gaining momentum as a key issue among Democratic leadership, will not be as high a priority for this Congress. Rather than focusing on the environmental benefits of biomass, there will likely be a renewed interest in biomass as an energy source that employs tens of thousands of Americans in rural areas. With a Democratic president and a fully Republican Congress, many anticipate a continuation of the gridlock that has defined Washington the past few years. However, that hasn’t always been the case. President Clinton accomplished a lot, including balancing the federal budget, while working with a two-chamber Republican Congress beginning in 1994. To that end, one issue that may be possible for President Obama and Congress to work together on is tax reform—a prime opportunity to advocate for
the much-needed energy tax overhaul that could help our industry. Unaffected by this week’s elections is the fate of the tax extenders. With just a few days left in this year’s legislative calendar, the lame-duck Congress will likely take up proposals in both chambers to extend Section 45 tax credits, including credits for biomass. Many strong biomass supporters kept their seats for the 114th Congress. Rep. Ann Kuster, a Democrat from New Hampshire and a prominent supporter of biomass, was reelected. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, also a Democrat from New Hampshire, managed a victory in a close race with former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a long-time supporter of the forest products industry, also sailed to victory. Many more biomass supporters whose races were not contested will be coming back to Congress as well. Right now, the most we can do is speculate as to how things will go over the next couple of years. We do know that there will be changes, but luckily for biomass, we have a lot of appeal for officials of any political stripe. As an industry, we will continue to work with our existing proponents, and ensure that newly elected officials are aware of biomass and the need to support the many men and women who work hard to create energy from wood residues. Author: Bob Cleaves President and CEO, Biomass Power Association www.biomasspowerassociation.com bob@biomasspowerassociation.com
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 13
FOSSIL FUELLESS FORERUNNER: Previously a coal consumer, Atikokan Generating Station produces 200 MW of renewable power from regionally sourced wood pellets.
14 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
POWER¦
A Dot on the Map Ontario Power Generation’s Atikokan and Thunder Bay generating station conversions mark a turning point in Canadian power generation. STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANNA SIMET
O
n a gloomy, chilly September day, the vacant coal yard that sits alongside Ontario Power Generation’s Atikokan Generating Station resembles an empty graveyard of sorts, a relic of a once-thriving industry that will soon be laid to rest in Ontario. Idle after 28 years of operation, the coal yard and its assets are being preserved and maintained. A view from atop the main building exhibits a long, closed conveyor that stems from the old coal transfer building, a tired arm desperately grasping on to its only existing connection to the power plant. At the opposite end of the plant site, a pair of concrete pellet storage silos rival the height of the new boiler building, protecting fuel from the light rain that has begun to mist from the gray sky above. Meanwhile, the wood pellet-fueled station hums with life, populated with an enthusiastic staff that is eager to show the world the energy feat that they’ve become an important part of. Most were directly involved in the conversion work, including station manager Wray Clement, who, in his personalized hard hat, stands ready to explain the plant’s retrofits and workings, proud to tell plant visitors that he was born and raised in Atikokan. The town of about 1,300 was “shocked” when it received the word that AGS would close, according to Mayor Dennis Brown, as it meant “a huge loss to the community—about 90 full-time jobs and lots of spinoff jobs.” Brown’s soft-spoken and polite demeanor somewhat belies his papa-bear nature when it comes to his town, and he’s eager to share the story of how determined town officials and citizens brainstormed and stuck necks out to prevent the town from losing much-needed jobs, including taking temporary ownership of a bankrupt fiber mill until a new owner could be found. Excitement and pride are in the air, and rightfully so. As of midSeptember, Atikokan Generating Station became the largest woody biomass power station in North America, and not only that, but the first power plant to convert from coal to wood pellets. Having proved that it can indeed be done, OPG has turned the heads of energy producers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Plant Workings in a Nutshell Trucks deliver fuel to the facility above five days per week depending on fuel manufacturing operations. AGS’s fuel is transported from Rentech Inc.’s Atikokan pellet plant just 11 scenic and forestpacked miles away—Ontario’s renowned canoeing paradise, Quetico
Provincial Park, is just miles from both—as well as Resolute Forest Products, both of which recently finished commissioning new pellet plants. Today, a black and red Gardewine semitrailer sits in front of the AGS pellet unloading area, seemingly dwarfed into a child’s toy truck by the sheer size of the fuel storage, handling and receiving infrastructure, work that was performed by Aecon Group Inc. Trucks take about 15 minutes to self-unload onto a feeder, explains Brent Boyko, the face of OPG’s biomass business sector. Don’t let his title fool you—Boyko knows the mechanics of the plant as well as anybody, as he worked as station manager for nearly four years prior to taking on his new role of expanding OPG’s biomass endeavors. From the feeder, pellets are fed into a bucket elevator that lifts them to another transfer conveyor for movement into the storage silos, each 44 feet high and 68 feet around with a 5,000-ton capacity. In contrast to the simple-looking exterior, each is equipped with spiral chutes for fuel drop reduction, temperature monitoring systems, aeration, recirculation and inert gas injection systems, as well as explosion panels and dust control systems. While serving as pellets’ first major defense against the elements, on occasion, the silos may be skipped. “There’s a bypass system belt into the unloading system, which allows us to top-load fuel directly into the process, bypassing the silos,” Boyko explains. “This has proven valuable during the commissioning phase, because it allowed us to burn wood prior to storage silos being fully complete.” From the storage silos, a series of conveyors pull pellets into another bucket elevator that feeds a process conveyor that transports fuel into the power house. There, it enters a series of five bunkers, each with a surge capacity of 45 metric tons, replacing existing inplant, 750-metric-ton bunkers. “From there, it’s run through a feeder and calibrated to control the amount of fuel based on the power we want to generate,” Boyko says. From the feeder, pellets drop into one of five massive, cylindrical MPS-type pulverizers, which have been modified to increase velocity and reduce classification. Each pulverizer is equipped with a white canister, Clement points out, an explosion suppression system that injects sodium bicarbonate into the chamber. Pellets are ground to the consistency of saw dust, and blown into 15 purpose-built Doosan Mark III biomass burners. “At that point, the fuel is combusted and produces steam that spins a turbine, which connects to the grid and produces electricity,” Boyko says.
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 15
¦POWER Besides Aecon and Doosan, OPG’s other major contractor was Nordmin Engineering Ltd., which provided controls system integration services for an extensive overhaul on all control systems in the facility, replacing the old panel system that was installed in the late ‘80s when the plant was first commissioned. “One thing we did was put in a hardwire panel, so that if there’s a problem with programming, one can physically hit a stop button,” says Clement. In all, the plant takes about five hours to transition from a cold shut-down to full operations. While AGS has received the bulk of attention, OPG has another conversion project underway 130 miles east of Atikokan, one that will also utilize pellets, but not traditional white pellets.
Thunder Bay Quietly waiting in Thunder Bay next to the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority’s Mission Island Marsh is the Thun-
FROM FUEL YARD TO FOOTBALL FIELD: The old coal yard at Atikiokan Generating Station remains empty and idle, but maintained by OPG.
16 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
POWER¦
TAKING A LOAD OFF: Trucks deliver wood pellet fuel to AGS about five days per week. The storage silos designed by Aecon Inc. can collectively hold 10,000 metric tons of wood pellets.
der Bay Generating Station, another of OPG’s plants that previously burned coal and has since ceased. The plant won’t quite see the glamorous conversion and restart AGS did, but it will also make a name for itself through utilization of an innovative pellet fuel. In its prime, the 306-MW facility burned low-sulfur, Powder River Basin subbituminous coal. Braving the elements where previous fuel was piled sits a small mountain of black pellets that from a distance very much resembles coal, but upon examination of a handful can leave one guessing—something left in the oven far too long, perhaps. Project engineer Steve Carlson explains that the station, which went into service in the 1980s, burned its last load of coal in April. “In the fall of last year, we began looking at bringing advanced biomass fuel on site, and in order to do that, we had to understand the characteristics of the fuel,” he says, which included material handling
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DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 17
ADOPTING ADVANCED BIOMASS: Serving as a peaking station, the Thunder Bay Station will use steam-exploded pellets supplied by Zilkha Biomass Energy. Advanced biomass was considered for use at AGS, but at the time of conversion, a supplier who could generate the required amount of fuel could not be secured.
tests and explosivity tests. “We compared dusting capabilities to PBR coal and found that it is pretty similar—almost exactly the same—the only difference being the ignition sensitivity of the fuel,” Carlson says. All of the testing cultivated modifications to the material handling system, dust collection capabilities and fuel storage bunkers, followed by more fuel testing that resulted in temporary modifications of two pulverizers. “We were able to achieve fullblown throughput on those two pulverizers,” he says. Following those trials, last fall, OPG brought in 300 tons of advanced biomass— steam-treated pellets—from two different suppliers. “In January, when it was 40 degrees [Fahrenheit] below zero with lots of snow, we wanted to see how it would handle in cold and extreme weather. There were no problems, we just pushed them with snow plows, if you can believe that,” he says, motioning to the pile of pellets that sits in the fuel yard. “That pile has been on the property for well over a year—we’re measuring water uptake and self-heating characteristics, all in an effort to understand how it will do on the ground for an extended period of time.” As Carlson speaks, less than five miles away, a boat at the Port of Thunder Bay’s Keefer Terminal is unloading 1,200 tons of advanced wood pellets sent from Zilkha Biomass Energy. “Delivered, it has about 2 percent fines in it,” Carlson says. “We’ll use this new fuel for commissioning and capacity check tests.” He adds that on a Btu-per-pellet basis, the cost paid for the advanced biomass pellets is very similar to that the white wood pellets used at AGS. With study work and initial testing complete, OPG has deemed Thunder Bay a viable capital project, so the next objective is to minimalize additional investment in the facility. The capital budget for this conversion project is $5 million, according to Carlson, and what remains to be done includes an enhancement 18 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
MICROMANAGEMENT: A major component of Rentech Atikokan’s facility is a CBI Magnum Force Flail Debarker and Microchipping System.
CBI'S Conversion Contribution Rentech Inc., one of Atikokan Generating Station’s fuel suppliers, has completed a conversion of its own by transforming a wood processing facility previously owned by Fulghum Fibers into a 100,000-ton-per-year pellet plant. At the same time, it is also converting a similar facility in Wawa, Ontario, to produce 450,000 tons of pellets. At the front end of the conversions are atypical raw material sizing systems. The flail debarkers and chippers supplied by Continental Biomass Industries produces microchips in a single pass as a first step, rather than the traditional, two-step method of chip production followed by grinding. CBI has installed a single-line flail chipper in Atikokan, and at Wawa, a flail chipper and a standalone chipper, said Matt Skinner, stationary systems manager. “At Atikokan, we start with a 50-foot-long chain infeed conveyor that takes logs inside of the building—it sticks out about 40 feet outside the enclosed building—and conveys the logs into the two-roll flail that debarks the logs, and directly behind that is our 8400 chipper,” he explains. “We bypass one whole grinding step by going directly from the round wood coming in to debarking, chipping, and then straight to the dryer.” Start up at Atikokan was scheduled for the week of Oct. 27, and the crew at CBI was ready to make the final touches. “Everything mechanically is already set into place, but we will load the controls program and test all wiring on machines,” says CBI CEO Anders Ragnarsson. “We can’t run those big motors in our New Hampshire shop; we have to wait until their permanently wired on site.” What is done at the shop is complete equipment assembly, according to Ragnarsson. “We engineer these systems to be transportable in the largest modules possible,” he explains. “Everything is prefit and preassembled. Then we break it apart into the biggest modules we can. It keeps assembly and rigging at a minimum and we ensure everything fits—it saves time.”
AECON IS PROUD TO HAVE BEEN AN EPC CONSTRUCTOR ON THE ATIKOKAN GENERATING STATION, THE LARGEST BIOMASS-FUELED POWER PLANT IN NORTH AMERICA.
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 19
Catching up with Aecon With 280 of its employees and subcontractors on site during peak construction, Aecon Inc. made its debut into the pellet world with the design and construction of AGS’s fuel handling and storage system. The company employs 12,000-plus people and has a presence mostly in the mining, fertilizer, coal power, steel and iron ore sectors, performing a great deal of conveyor work. Besides its first pellet project, the AGS conversion marks Aecon’s first material handling and storage engineering, procurement and construction contract, according to Jason Smith, project engineer. “We took what we knew from EPC deliveries in the past and material handling work that we’ve done, and brought the two together,” he says. On main differences between other work Aecon has done, Smith says the risk around wood dust and the potential for explosions was a new factor for consideration. “While we were in the design phase, there were a couple of wood facilities in British Columbia that experienced fires and explosions, so a lot of work and attention went into preventing creation of dust, trying to minimize and extract it.” Aecon used Jenike & Johannson to define flow characteristics of the wood pellets and particles to optimize the design of the conveyors, chutes and silos, and researchers at Dalhousie University helped define the explosive parameters of the wood particles. While safety design was top of mind—for both employees and asset protection—another aspect that posed a challenge was scheduling of the project, Smith adds. “A lot of attention went into that [scheduling] so we weren’t executing civil work in the winter months—we tried to minimize that. When your temperatures reach minus 35 degrees Celsius, it becomes very costly to do construction in the winter, and it also affects the quality of work.” A final key concept of Aecon’s fuel infrastructure work at AGS was designing a very compact footprint to keep the overall capital cost competitive, according to Smith. Aecon was also awarded a traditional construction contract to complete retrofitting work in the plant, he added, which included retrofitting each of the boiler’s 15 3.5-metric-ton burners.
of the dust suppression and collection system at some transfer points, addition of belt metal and heat detectors, and addition of safety equipment inside the power house. Once fully converted, the Thunder Bay station will be used as a peaking unit and come on line when it is called upon. While the initial driver of both the Thunder Bay and the Atikokan Generating Station was a 2009 provincial law that requires all coal-fired power stations to convert or shut down, the impact of the stations’ transitions from coal to renewable fuel will likely reach far beyond the towns of Atikokan and Thunder Bay, much further than the borders of Ontario and Canada. Turning the heads and engaging the attention of utilities around North America that are mapping out their plans for the future, Ontario Power Generation has proven out a concept that undoubtedly be replicated elsewhere. Author: Anna Simet Managing Editor, Biomass Magazine asimet@bbiinternational.com 701-738-4961
CONGRATULATIONS RENTECH Thank you for allowing EAD to be part of your project team!
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PelletNews Canfor plans 2 British Columbia pellet projects
Enviva files $100 million IPO, announces acquisition of Green Circle Bio Energy Enviva has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed $100 million initial public offering (IPO) and announced plans to acquire Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. The IPO was filed by Enviva Partners LP. While Enviva operates five pellet plants, including those in Wiggins and Amory in Mississippi; Ahoskie and Northampton in North Carolina; and Southampton, Virginia, SEC filings indicate Enviva Holdings LP, Enviva Partners’ sponsor, will retain ownership of the Southampton facility. Green Circle Bio Energy and its 650,000-tonper-year facility in Cottondale, Florida, are
22 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
being acquired by Enviva Development Holdings LLC. That facility is expected to be contributed to Enviva Partners. As such, Enviva Partners LP is expected to own the Amory, Wiggins, Ahoskie, Northampton and Cottondale facilities upon the close of the IPO. In addition to the Cottondale plant, Green Circle previously announced the proposed development of a 500,000-tonper-year plant in Mississippi. Morton Neraas, president and CEO of Green Circle, recently told Biomass Magazine that at present, it is not anticipated any changes will be made to the project due to the change in ownership.
Canfor Corp. plans to colocate pellet plants at its sawmill sites in Chetwynd and Fort St. John, British Columbia. The facilities will have a combined capacity of 175,000 metric tons of pellets per year. The pellet plants will be constructed and operated in partnership with Pacific Bioenergy Corp. A long-term agreement is in place with a power utility customer for the sale of pellets produced at the plants. The total investment of $58 million will include electrical self-generation capacity of 3 MW from a combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plant located at the Chetwynd site. The CHP system is supported through BC Hydro's Power Smart Load Displacement Program. Feedstock for the plants will come primarily from the associated sawmill at each site, though some additional material will come from other Canfor mills and the open market, said Corinne Stavness, director of public affairs and responsibility at Canadian Forest Products Ltd. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter with the plants scheduled to commence production during the third and fourth quarters of next year.
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THE SUM OF ITS PARTS: Malheur Lumber's pellet facility is just one component of an interdependent system that relies on forest stewardship contracts, sawmill operations and pellet production to stay viable. This carefully planned model kept an important employer in John Day, Oregon, in business, and shored up a string of jobs that reach all the way back to the surrounding forests. PHOTO: MALHEUR PELLET MILL
24 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
PELLET¦
Hand and Glove
Appalachian Wood Pellets and Malheur Pellet Mill grew out of existing sawmill operations that learned to leverage a colocation strategy for maximum operational benefits. BY TIM PORTZ
U
pon examination, stark differences between Malheur Pellet Mill and Appalachian Wood Pellets become apparent. Malheur Pellet Mill is situated in north central Oregon and draws on the area’s inventories of ponderosa pine, much of it harvested during stewardship activities on federal lands, while Appalachian Wood Pellets sits in a broad swath of privately owned, mixed hardwoods in northeastern West Virginia. Appalachian Wood Pellets markets its finished products to independent and chain retailers and must compete in a crowded marketplace. Malheur Pellet Mill is anchored by a handful of institutional customers it services with bulk delivery and has filled orders from Asian customers when opportunities presented themselves. As different as these two operations are, they share a commonality that largely defines how each came to be and advance as businesses. Malheur Pellet Mill and Appalachian Wood Pellets both grew out of existing sawmill operations, depend upon them to operate, and are an integral component of larger forest products operations. The Great Recession of 2008 hit the forest products industry hard. Housing starts plummeted, and demand for dimensional lumber went with it. These market conditions were felt acutely in John Day, Oregon, and Malheur Lumber Company. The facility, long dependent on timber sales from the U.S. Forest Service, was struggling to stay afloat in 2012, as the economy continued to sputter and timber sales from the federal government withered.
Recognizing that allowing the area’s only sawmill to fold would have a devastating effect on the local economy and virtually end any forest management that was occurring in the area, a unique coalition of loggers, business owners and conservationists successfully lobbied for a 10-year forest stewardship contract for the Malheur National Forest, making the economics of timber harvests from these stands work. The stewardship contract generates specific task orders for a particular section of the stand, and Iron Triangle LLC, the logging company that holds the contract, begins the work of sustainably managing the stand. While some of the felled trees are “sound and round,” many are not, and this presented a challenge for Malheur Lumber Company’s management team. “We were not so sure we were going to be able to make lumber [out of it] but we had a beautiful facility and we wanted to keep people working in our community,” says Bruce Daucsavage, president of Malheur Pellet Mill’s parent company, Ochoco Lumber Company. Colocating pellet production capabilities alongside the existing sawmill operation provided an outlet for the trees and materials that were required to be removed by the stewardship contract but weren’t good candidates for conversion into dimensional lumber. The pellet facility and the requisite infrastructure cost over $6 million. The Ochoco team pulled together some American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds, state bonds, USDA monies and its own cash to get the facility built. “We involved a lot of folks in this little project,” Daucsavage recalls. “Local leaders in the community,
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 25
¦PELLET
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GUARANTEEING FRESH FEEDSTOCK: The two concrete silos next to Appalachian Wood Pellet’s facility hold about three days’ worth of feedstock. The inbound feedstock is protected from the elements and converted into wood pellets before the material has a chance to degrade, yielding a high-quality, high-Btu pellet. PHOTO: APPALACHIAN WOOD PELLETS
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our judges, our commissioners. The state of Oregon has been absolutely fantastic. It goes on and on. I looked under as many rocks as I could to find grants, low-interest loans, and of course, our own cash, and here we sit today, still trying to expand the facility.” Well-steeped in operating sawmills, the team counted on an easy deployment of onsite pellet production. “We were naive, too. We thought ‘we can make the best lumber in the world from the best trees in the world. Making pellets, this has got to be easy.’ We were fooled. We made an assumption that pellets were a very simple product that were easy to make. They’re not. You’ve got to be on it constantly.”
Appalachian Trail A sagging economy also catalyzed the development of Appalachian Wood Pellets, but for different reasons. “At the time, the byproducts markets appeared to be at risk,” says Appalachian Wood Pellets general manager Don Wagner. “The paper industry did not appear to be strong and had gone through some very hard times. So that was
a big part of it, controlling our own destiny relative to the byproducts from the mill.” While Appalachian Wood Pellets is colocated with the Allegheny Wood Products Kingwood facility, it is very much folded into the larger Allegheny Wood Products organization. With an annual throughput of over 170 million board feet, the company is a major player in the dimensional hardwood market, selling most of its inventory to OEMs who use it to build an array of consumer products. Allegheny Wood Products’ journey into pellet production was the next evolution of a business model it has been pursuing for decades. “It was the continuation of vertical integration,” says Wagner. “When John Crites started his company 40 years ago, he was sawing green lumber. He would sell that to companies that would kiln dry it. They were getting the value-added marketplace rewards, and he recognized there was an opportunity there, so he started putting in kilns and drying his own material.” When Appalachian Wood Pellets was brought online in 2008, the Kingwood facility was not operating at its maximum
PELLET¦ capacity and unable to satisfy the fiber requirements of the newly commissioned pellet mill. Additional feedstock was trucked in from other Allegheny Wood Products facilities. As housing markets rebounded, Kingwood was able to begin operating at capacity, generating the requisite feedstock for the pellet plant. Fiber from other facilities is still trucked in, though only to meet species-specific blend ratios. Wagner and his team leveraged the fabrication and machining expertise they already had on staff to get the pellet facility built and commissioned. “Obviously, any time you commission a facility like this you run into issues,” he says. “The biggest issue that you have is not whether the Andritz mill will do what it is supposed to do, but you run into issues with material handling, when something is bridging or not carrying the design capacity from the manufacturer, whether it is an auger or a drag chain or whatever. We had those standard issues starting the new facility, challenges that needed to be overcome, but from the time that we bumped the first motor, 12 days later we went to seven days a week, 24 hours a day [production], and we’ve never looked back.” Wagner’s and Appalachian Wood Pellets’ feedstock situation is enviable. “We do not buy raw materials from any outside source,” says Wagner. “I’ve had people say, ‘Boy I wish I had your scenario. You never want for raw materials.’ I tell them, ‘What you don’t understand is that works two ways. Not only do I get all of the raw materials I need right when I need them, but when I don’t need them, I can turn them off.” This competitive advantage is made possible by the colocation strategy executed by Allegheny Wood Products and Appalachian Wood Pellets. “From an operations point of view, they are absolutely tied together as one,” Wagner comments.
marketing of consumer products,” he says. “I have a very good relationship with all of our customers nationwide.” Leveraging that base of experience, Wagner has worked to win business from a handful of national big box chains. “That part of my business plan was challenged by the ownership of the company because of limited experience and horror stories they had heard about dealing with the big box retailers—and nobody likes what is happen-
ing in the marketplace as far as the big box retailers taking a larger share out of the retail pie—but its reality. I had to convince them of that.” “What I’ve had to deal with my whole life is ‘Where are the consumer dollars spent?’ And every year, more and more consumer dollars are spent at those retailers, which are getting better and better at getting those consumer dollars. Someone who comes into this industry with the attitude that
To Market To Market Wagner’s role at Appalachian Wood Pellets is finding customers for the plant’s finished product. “I’ve got 35 years of DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 27
¦PELLET ‘I’m not going to deal with them because they are hard to deal with,’ is going to lose.” Charged with moving significantly less volume while being removed from large population centers, Daucsavage and his team have worked to grow their customer base organically within the community. “We like to keep our pellets as close to home as we can,” he says. “The schools, for example. There are two schools in our region, two hospitals, community centers and the airport, which, for heating, has replaced its bunker fuel systems with pellet burners. Now they’re heating their facilities with our pellets, so we deliver in bulk. For the community as a whole, this thing has turned out to be fantastic.”
Results Are In Both Appalachian Wood Pellets and Malheur Pellet Mill are less than a decade old, and both are already achieving the operational and financial goals they’ve set for themselves. “We look at things in a different way than most companies do, because we are a partnership,” says Daucsavage. “The most important thing to our company is cash flow without a doubt. For the last couple of years, we have cash flowed and that’s fantastic. The bottom line is certainly important, but cash flow, is the most important thing. It works beautifully within the ownership structure that we have in place.” “The financial results have exceeded our expectation,” offers Wagner. “A couple of cold winters have helped that. When we made
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the decision to go, it was a very bad market, but the market has swung. We have been able to exceed the production numbers that we expected.” For Daucsavage, the economic success of the pellet production investment is complemented by the operational efficiencies gained and how it is supported by the stewardship contract. “We’re able to generate a revenue source and keep people employed in rural Oregon to keep those communities viable. At the same time, we’re improving forest health. It’s such a win-win.” For Wagner, who enjoys easier access to a more diverse market, the outlook and long-term prognosis is easier to diagnose. “This market is going to continue to expand,” he says. “We are always looking at opportunities. We’ve got an infinite amount of raw material available. We just have to look at the strategic opportunity afforded by our market basket of raw materials. We are very bullish on the pellet market, and we are looking to expand. We have demand that far exceeds our production capacity right now.” Author: Tim Portz Executive Editor, Biomass Magazine tportz@bbiinternational.com 701-738-4969
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ThermalNews Ensyn supplies hospitals with cellulosic heating fuel
Number of households by primary space heating fuel 2014-'15 forecast (millions) Percent change Natural gas
58.83
0.7
Heating oil
6.33
-3.3
Propane
5.56
-3.2
Electricity
47.49
3.1
2.75
4.7
Wood SOURCE: U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINSTRATION
EIA releases winter fuels outlook The U.S. EIA has released its short-term energy and winter fuels outlook, which predicts that homeowners will enjoy overall lower heating expenditures this winter. Prices, however, for natural gas are expected to be up 6 percent, with electricity prices in the Midwest expected to be 4 percent higher. Electricity prices in the Northeast are predicted to be up 2 percent. Lower prices will be paid for propane and heating oil, and users can expect to see bills 27 and 15 percent lower, respectively. The report indicates that while there are no readily available sources for estimating wood consumption or prices at the regional or national level, as of 2013, 2.5 million U.S. households use wood as a primary heating fuel, a 38 percent increase since 2004. About 8 percent of households use wood as a secondary source of heat, making wood second only to electricity as a supplemental heating fuel. New England’s wood home heating percentage is nearly twice the national rate at 20 percent, or 1.1 million homes, according to the report, and is mainly used in rural households.
Ensyn Corp. recently celebrated commissioning a renewable heating system at Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire. The hospital’s heating system was converted from traditional petroleum fuels to Ensyn’s cellulosic renewable fuel oil (RFO). Ensyn is supplying Memorial under a fiveyear, renewable contract that provides the delivery of 300,000 gallons of RFO per year. Ensyn is producing RFO for Memorial at its 3 MMgy facility in Ontario, Canada. The fuel is liquid fuel produced from nonfood solid biomass including forest and mill residues. It directly displaces petroleum fuels in heating operations and is also a renewable feedstock for refineries for the production of gasoline and diesel. The company has also signed a contract with Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, New Hampshire, to supply RFO. That contract provides for the delivery of approximately 250,000 gallons of fuel per year for a renewable term of seven years. Deliveries are expected to begin in April.
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THERMAL¦
Paving the Way to a Clean Energy Revolution BY JUSTIN PRICE
As I read through copious news releases, articles and general information about the biomass industry, I reflect on my personal experiences and lessons I’ve learned growing up in the wood products industry. What I find most compelling is the continued impact the use of steam has had on our industry and society. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution began in England, spreading to Europe and then to North America. Our lives drastically changed forever when James Watt developed an engine that used steam to pump water out of mines. Later developments added the circular motion onto the engine, and with the invention of these circular gears, factories could begin to utilize the steam engine. Thus, powered by steam, the Industrial Revolution was born. I believe combined heat and power (CHP) and colocation played a major role in the Industrial Revolution. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the small town of Pollock, Louisiana, which was once home to the largest sawmill in the U.S. and possibly the world, during the late 1800s. This sawmill used steam engines to power the band saws, head rigs, edgers and other equipment. During this time, sawmills revolutionized the use of their waste products—sawdust, bark and chips—to make steam in the boiler. As a result, we have been utilizing CHP for quite some time. When I think about CHP, what comes to mind is the use of steam as an efficient approach to generate power and thermal energy from a fuel source. Of course, during the Industrial Revolution, the steam was directly used in the process as the power, whereas today, we may use the steam to turn a turbine that produces electricity that can be supplied as renewable energy, or heat for district heating or for use in other parts of the manufacturing process.
In my lifetime, I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in projects within industries that have used these same ideas for generating steam, which leads me to think about the future. We’ve all read about steam used in district heating and power generation for the grid. In my vision of the future, there will be some mix of this, along with the emergence of new industries not yet defined. New products such as biochar, liquid fuels, and chemicals all made from some form of biomass will be aided directly in their process by the use of steam or by colocation to the generation of steam. Many of these processes, like the steam engine, have been developing slowly over a period of years and progressing through expensive and limited devices. Like steam power, they will reach the point of practical application, perhaps triggering a new revolution of clean renewable products and forms of energy. I’m excited about the future of biomass energy and its potential for widespread use. I believe the use of renewable resources can meet a large percentage of the total U.S. electrical needs, while drastically reducing the electrical sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and water use. But in order for this vision to become reality, we must all play a role in discussing biomass openly and honestly with the public, explaining critical components such as sustainability practices in harvesting biomass. We even need to look outside the borders of the U.S. to learn from other countries and how they have successfully implemented renewable policies and equipment. Author: Justin Price Principal, Evergreen Engineering jprice@eeeug.com 541-484-4771
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 31
¦THERMAL DEPARTMENT
PELLET PRIDE: Jay Smrekar and Ray Burpo of the U.S. Forest Service stand in front of a 29.9-ton Schuld/Bushnell bin that holds around a two-year supply of premium Marth Wood Pellets that are delivered in bulk for heat to the Walker Ranger District office.
Test to Tradition
With double the events from last year, National Bioenergy Day is evolving into an annual tradition. STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATIE FLETCHER
S
eeing is believing. This adage was the driving force behind facilitation of National Bioenergy Day, which just celebrated its second year with a series of nationwide events held on and around Oct. 22. Last year, Bob Cleaves, president of the Biomass Power Association, said the goal was to bring audiences to biomass facilities to witness firsthand what goes on. Building on the inaugural's momentum, the BPA saw participation nearly double this year to around 50 coordinated events in 22 U.S. states and Canada. The events provided opportunities for those attending to equip themselves with factual information about bioenergy. Cleaves considers the day an important vehicle for bioenergy proponents to rally together to dispel the many myths about bioenergy that persist. If nothing else, an awareness of local bioenergy use can be accomplished. “Many events show people there is bioenergy being used in their area and they may not even know about it,” says Jay Smrekar, civil engineer with the U.S. Forest Service. Events featured displays and demonstrations of biomass-to-electricity, thermal heat generated from wood, wood pellet manufacturing and forestry. National Bioenergy Day serves as a means to unite all aspects of the bioenergy supply chain, including foresters, landowners, manufacturers, power producers and consumers. Although the event is national in scope, the focus is on the local level. Or, as Cleave puts it, “The role bioenergy plays in communities.” 32 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
One such local event was held at the newly constructed U.S. Forest Service Chippewa National Forest Ranger Station in Walker, Minnesota, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified (LEED) facility. As part of the construction for the LEED federal government certification program, the USFS installed a WoodMaster Commercial Series-CS80 pellet boiler. This bioenergy installation has an output of 272,000 Btu per hour and will serve as the facility’s primary source of heat during the cold Minnesota winters. The pellet boiler is fully integrated with a propane boiler that will run when the facility needs to be heated in the morning and cooled in the afternoon. The pellets feeding the system arrive in bulk from Marth Wood Shavings Supply Inc. They produce an average of 8,000 Btu per pound with less than 5 percent average moisture and 0.5 percent average ash content. They are automatically fed into the pellet boiler from a 29.9-ton Schuld/Bushnell storage bin located just outside the facility. Visitors to the Walker Bioenergy Day event had the opportunity to tour the LEED facility and visit with the boiler manufacturer, pellet producer and representatives from the USFS about the boiler application. “Our hope is, as people look at these different installations, they will begin a discussion about how they can use bioenergy themselves,” Smrekar says. This thermal application event was joined by other bioenergy celebrations across the nation. SunWood Biomass hosted an event at the
THERMAL¦
BEHIND THE SCENES: Burpo and Smrekar show tour guests a WoodMaster CS80 pellet boiler that produces about 272,000 Btu per year.
Waitsfield, Vermont, Washington County Courthouse, where a 1 million-Btu wood pellet boiler system, consisting of three boilers with 1,300 gallon heat storage, heat the 45,000-square-foot building and domestic hot water loads. Greenwood Clean Energy opened the doors of its Development and Innovation Center in Redwood, Washington, during the week of Bioenergy Day, inviting local residents and lawmakers to learn more about the bioenergy industry and Greenwood wood boilers. The company held another event in Burdett, New York, which was accompanied by other events across the state over the week in celebration of Bioenergy Day. A tour of SUNY-ESF's wood pellet-fired, combined-heat-and-power system, which is among the first in the nation, was part of the state’s activities on Oct. 22, as was a discussion of the state’s $27 million Renewable Heat NY Program. Oct. 23, the New York Forestry Resource Center offered a tour to see a wood pellet boiler, a residential highefficiency/low-emissions cordwood boiler in action, and a screening of Community Biomass Energy Film in Rensselaer, which was followed by a residential pellet heating open house in Ithaca on Oct. 25. The series of New York events concluded with the U.S. Army and ReEnergy Holdings LLC participating in a renewable energy project signing ceremony to commemorate the largest renewable energy project in the U.S. Army history at Fort Drum.
Mt. Poso Cogeneration Co. and its partners DTE Energy Services and Macpherson Energy Corporation hosted an open house for Kern County workforce development organizations and students to showcase job opportunities in the energy field. The 44-MW Mt. Poso plant was completely converted to run on biomass fuel, sourced from construction waste, tree trimming and agricultural resources, instead of coal. Murray State University in Kentucky hosted representatives from statewide agencies in the energy sector to observe Bioenergy Day. Sessions included a discussion of energy strategies, as well as the official lighting of Murray State’s bioburners and an announcement of a state wood energy grant. The bioburners use the animal manure from the University of Kentucky Ag Equine Program to heat the arena. A number of other events were hosted across all regions of the country, celebrating locally the national effort to spread information about nature’s energy source. “The more awareness there is about bioenergy, the more use there will be. The more use, the better the markets are, and the better the markets, the more manufacturers and suppliers and the more innovation,” Smrekar says. “In the end, there will be more environmental benefits for everybody.” Author: : Katie Fletcher Staff Writer, Biomass Magazine 701-738-4920 kfletcher@bbiinternational.com
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 33
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BiogasNews Biogas-based feedstocks that can generate D3 RINs Biogas from: Landfills Municipal wastewater treatment facility digesters Agriculture digesters Separated MSW digesters Waste digesters SOURCE: GENSCAPE
Cellulosic RIN generation takes off Biogas production could contribute 67.5 million D3 cellulosic biofuel identification numbers (RINs) to the U.S. renewable fuel standard (RFS) volume obligations in 2014, says Genscape in a recent white paper. Cellulosic ethanol production could contribute up to 9 million RINs if active plants achieve full capacity in the last four months of the year. If full capacities are reached in 2015, the report predicts biogas facilities could generate additional 162 million D3 RINs next year, with cellulosic ethanol facilities generating an additional 91 million D3 RINs. Cellulosic biogas has the potential for rapid expansion, says the report. Citing information released by the the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, Genscape estimates the current production of transportation-specific liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas for this year would amount to 40 million ethanol-equivalent gallons per year from 38 facilities, and the coalition’s members have committed to increasing that capacity to 141 million ethanolequivalent gallons by the end of the year.
36 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
Republic Services opens 2 new landfill gas projects in California Republic Services Inc. has announced the development of two new landfill gas-to-energy (LGTE) projects at its Forward and Vasco Road Landfills, both located in the Bay Area of California. The combined projects will generate 8.6 MW of energy for the local electric grid, or enough energy to power more than 5,100 area homes annually. Nationwide, Republic Services operates 72 LGTE projects. These projects harness enough electricity to meet the needs of 192,000 homes, or gas to heat another 201,000 homes. “Republic Services is to be applauded for having the foresight to help advance both the Vasco Road Landfill and Forward Landfill projects to help meet their economic and sustainability goals through the measurable financial and energy benefits these initiatives provide,” said Michael Bakas, senior vice president of Ameresco. “In order to bring these projects to fruition, Ameresco partnered once again with Silicon Valley Power, a very progressive utility determined to provide the residents and local business community with clean energy at affordable prices.”
BIOGASÂŚ
Biogas Racks Up Cellulosic RINs BY AMANDA BILEK
In July, when the U.S. EPA published a final rule that expanded cellulosic fuel pathways to include renewable compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) derived from various sources of biogas, a surge of cellulosic fuel credits from biogas was widely anticipated. After two months of reporting, speculation proved correct. August and September saw record volumes of cellulosic renewable information numbers (RINs). These high volumes were not generated from liquid fuels like ethanol or renewable gasoline, but from renewable CNG and LNG. In August, the EPA reported 3.5 million cellulosic RINs from renewable CNG and LNG. In September, cellulosic RINs from renewable CNG and LNG surged to 7.5 million. This column went to press before October volumes were reported, but I expect to see similar volumes. Only 77,000 cellulosic RINs were generated during the first seven months of this year. For the entire calendar year of 2013, only 423,000 cellulosic RINs were generated. Expanding the cellulosic fuel pathways to include renewable CNG and LNG from biogas generated from landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, or agricultural digesters that process manure, crop residues or green waste is helping meet the volumetric targets for the renewable fuel standard (RFS). This comes at a time when the very first commercialscale cellulosic ethanol facilities are beginning to come on line; thus, we will be seeing higher and higher volumes of cellulosic fuel reported each month. In order to keep the positive momentum, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diversify our fuel supply with cleaner sources, the RFS must remain intact. The generation of 7.5 million cellulosic RINs in September sounds impressive, but how does that
translate into fuel? The amount of renewable CNG and LNG from 7.5 million cellulosic RINs is enough to run 471 garbage trucks for an entire year. The equivalent of 471 garbage trucks would be burning renewable fuel instead of conventional diesel, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve local air quality. Based on internal analysis conducted by the Great Plains Institute, the full potential for renewable CNG and LNG is roughly 30 billion gallons of fuel annually. We are only scratching the surface on accessing biogas’ potential as a source of transportation fuel. By reaching 10 percent of the full potential, we could run approximately 190,000 garbage trucks and an additional 50,000 heavy-duty vehicles on renewable CNG and LNG each year. This would exceed the needs of the current garbage truck fleet in the U.S. The recovery of biogas from organic materials in landfills, wastewater treatment facilities, and agricultural operations is nothing new. It has been happening for decades, even centuries. However, the RFS is providing a premium market for biogas that can be cleaned and compressed to be used as a transportation fuel. Renewable CNG and LNG can help to provide a renewable fuel source for the heavy-duty vehicle market, where there are not as many renewable options. These are exciting developments for the biogas industry, and they will have positive impacts for our environment, communities and economy. Author: Amanda Bilek Government Affairs Manager, Great Plains Institute 612-278-7118 abilek@gpisd.net
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 37
¦BIOGAS
AD AT ABENGOA: Abengoa’s cellulosic ethanol plant is located in Hugoton, Kansas, an area with limited water resources. The cellulosic technology recycles treated wastewater to the process to conserve overall water use.
38 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
BIOGAS¦
Good Neighbors Lately, cellulosic ethanol plant startups have basked in the bioenergy limelight. While less celebrated, anaerobic digesters are adding value to operations and seem to be trending in blueprints. BY KATIE FLETCHER
W
hen ethanol plants can provide excess sugar to neighboring anaerobic digesters (AD) and get something as good as cake out of the transaction, residing in the same neighborhood simply makes sense. Colocating these bioenergy sources seems to be trending amongst both traditional and cellulosic ethanol plants. Early U.S. commercial-scale corn ethanol plants left AD out of initial design because the concept wasn’t mature, but nowadays, digesters are used to streamline the production process by converting waste streams inherent to the ethanol production process into renewable energy. Ever since AD colocation has become a viable and valuable option, digesters have been making their way onto blueprints and into upgrade plans of ethanol plants. “Anaerobic digestion has been fine-tuned and modified over the millennia, and it’s a shame to not take full advantage of that,” says Evan Chrapko, CEO of Himark Biogas. Nontraditional ethanol plants are approaching AD as not optional, but rather, a necessity. “Bioenergy technologies, such as cellulosic ethanol and anaerobic digestion, are being colocated to minimize external energy consumption and reduce emissions, making the overall solution more sustainable,” says Chris Standlee, executive vice president global affairs with Abengoa Bioenergy. Abengoa’s cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kansas, is joined by Poet-DSM and DuPont in a series of cellulosic ethanol plants that came on line this year, incorporating digesters at ground-level construction. Iogen is another player working on AD in the cellulosic space. “It’s natural it would be part of the project investment,” says Pat Foody, executive vice president of advanced biofuels with Iogen Corp. In fact, Foody believes the only time to decide to add AD to a cellulosic ethanol plant is at conception because of the need to determine where the soluble residues are going to go before construction. “I think there is a huge amount of integration that occurs,” Foody says. “The natural thing is the AD is integrated into the design at the onset. I personally couldn’t see that a bolt-on would really work commercially, it’s so integrated.” Some traditional, commercial-scale plants have been successful in implementing AD down the road, while others have not. Western Plains Energy LLC’s 50-MMgy corn ethanol plant in Oakley, Kansas, implemented a Himark AD system onsite. The roughly $40
million installation consists of four digesters and a tertiary lagoon replacing natural gas used to heat the plant’s boilers. Another Himark project is Growing Power Hairy Hill LP, which is the first integrated biorefinery in Canada. In September, Calgren Renewable Fuels’ 55-MMgy ethanol plant installed a DVO-designed digester built by Andgar in Pixley, California.
Sharing the Stage On the cellulosic side, AD integration has always been the intent. Although the applications are just now beginning or nearing biogas production, they are expected to add value to their respective operations. Poet-DSM’s Project Liberty in Emmetsburg, Iowa, is said to have the nation’s largest digester, which, to date, has received little coverage as it shares the stage with one of the country’s first cellulosic ethanol facilities that is in its final stage of commissioning. “The AD is a known technology, but this unit is very large and has many different subprocesses,” says Rod Pierson, vice president of operations at Poet. “The Poet Research team had done a great job of developing expertise that will benefit in the start of the unit.” DuPont’s digester, collocated with its cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa, is smaller than Project Liberty’s. “Our anaerobic digester is a relatively small component of our cellulosic ethanol plant, simply meant to treat recycled water, not a major project or source of energy in its own right,” says Wendy Rosen, global public affairs lead with DuPont Industrial Biosciences. Due to the operation’s infancy, the company has little other public information to share at this time. Abengoa decided AD was worth integrating with its cellulosic ethanol facility after contracting with an independent laboratory to conduct bench-scale studies of pilot-plant-generated wastewater to determine the effectiveness of both anaerobic and aerobic digestion. “These studies concluded that anaerobic digestion would be most suitable to produce the treated wastewater quality required by the cellulosic ethanol process,” Standlee says. Abengoa’s cellulosic facility is located where water resources are limited, so conserving overall water use is important. “The long-term viability of the facility depends on minimizing water use and discharge,” Standlee says.
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 39
¦BIOGAS Nontraditional Nuances Whether traditional or nontraditional, digesters are implemented for similar reasons, although the drive to implement AD at cellulosic plants seems to be stronger. Some of the byproduct from starch plants can be processed into DDGs for sale into feed markets. Cellulosic ethanol plants do not have this option, however, the materials that remain after distillation at a cellulosic plant can be fed into a digester. Abengoa’s 5.5 million-gallon digester’s primary influent streams derive from pretreatment steam condensation and stillage evaporator condensate. “Individual influent process streams are mixed and pH adjusted before entering the AD,” Standlee says. Abengoa’s AD effluent is temperature adjusted and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is digested further in an aerobic digester. Aerobic digester effluent is then filtered and sterilized with UV light before returning to the enzymatic process. Waste sludge from both the AD and aerobic re-
40 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
actors is combined. Once the AD microbes digest the influent BOD and produce biogas, the biogas is dehydrated, compressed and routed to a multifuel boiler. This boiler drives a turbine connected to a power generator at the plant supplying approximately 25 MMBtu per hour from the produced steam. The digester saves the facility money by recovering some of the energy from the wastewater contaminants, and the biogas will save an estimated $750,000 a year, according to Standlee. Project Liberty’s digester, developed by Netherland-based Paques, is modeled after a small-scale AD operation at Poet’s pilot plant in Scotland, South Dakota. The 1 million-gallon digester tank is fed a liquid stream from the whole stillage that contains residual organic materials. “The organic material is fed into the reactor where the methanogens convert the organic material to methane (biogas), the biogas is then purified so it can be used to displace natural gas,” Pierson says. “Seed granular metho-
genic sludge will be transferred into the reactors in November, and organics will begin to be fed shortly after with an extended ramp-up for the sludge to acclimate to the feedstock.” The biogas is used to fuel existing boilers and dryers. The steam that is not used at Project Liberty is sent to Poet’s adjacent starch plant to displace natural gas use.
Traditional Distinctions Corn ethanol plants also use digesters as a way to replace energy sources with biogas, but feedstocks differ. Traditional plants require some feedstock outside of the ethanol production process. “The main challenge and the first thing you need to address is the quantity and quality of the waste that you have available to feed the thing,” Chrapko says. Corn plants can source feedstocks from various waste sources. “The large number of dairies in our area led us to consider using biogas as a substitute for natural gas,” says Lyle Schlyer, president of Calgren Renewable Fuels. “Food waste from local plants will be taken at a later date.” Andgar Corp.’s installation of DVO’s digester design will take in 55,000 gallons of waste per day into a 73-foot by 175-foot by 16-foot digester. This digester design is different from upright continuous mixed tanks. DVO’s digester is a patented, twostage mixed plug flow process in a concrete vessel partly below grade. Eric Dvorak, business development and design engineer with DVO, says it functions like a garden hose. “Similar to a garden hose, you put the water in on one end, it has to travel all the way down to the other end and finally come out, so it’s a set distance that material has to travel and if you put it in at a set rate you’re going to have a set retention time,” he says. The liquid height in the digester vessel is about 14 feet, but the top of the digester is about 16 feet. The two feet of air space across the entire digester is where the biogas collects and will come out a tube as it gets sent to the ethanol plant, Dvorak says. The biogas will offset 7,000 MMBtu of natural gas per month helping fuel a duct burner, which resides between the discharge of the turbine and the inlet of the steam generator. The electricity and steam
BIOGAS¦ cogeneration unit will be fueled partially with waste from Four J Farm Dairy, the closest source of manure. “They also have plenty of farm land upon which to use the nutrient-rich liquid from the digester,” Schlyer says. Calgren is also separating the fiber from the digester and trucking it back to Four J Farm Dairy, where it likely will be used primarily as cattle bedding material. Excess fiber can be sold as a fertilizer or a peat moss replacement, Dvorak says. DVO has this byproduct, “Magic Dirt,” currently being sold through Walmart stores. This integrated strategy of receiving waste from the dairy farm and looping it back as fertilizer or other byproducts is something Himark is also working on. The company’s patented, integrated biorefinery design is used at its 10.5-MMgy Growing Power Hairy Hill project. Besides producing ethanol from high-starch wheat, DDGs are fed to cattle at the nearby feedlot in exchange for manure, which is fed to the digester to produce electricity and steam for the plant. The digester is also fed large amounts of residential organic waste from the Alberta area. GPHH will additionally produce 30,000 tons of premium biobased fertilizer per year. Trevor Nickel, general manager with Himark, says it was a no-brainer to combine AD and ethanol production, but actual implementation was less so. “It was apparent fairly early on that the thermal energy generated when you have an energy production facility, like a digester, doesn’t have a home it makes a lot of sense to use that in an ethanol plant,” Nickel says. “Not only could you find a home for that thermal energy, you could find a home for the distiller’s grains.”
Foody and his colleagues at Iogen are looking for ways to generate RINs from both the biogas and cellulosic ethanol. Iogen includes AD in all of its initial designs, and is taking it one step further by working with sources of biogas from cellulosic plants and other sources to provide the market with an alternative to compressed natural gas for RIN generation. “We have been looking at increasing the yield of RINs from biomass and the first and most basic way to get RINs is to make ethanol,” Foody says. Iogen is evaluating converting methane into hydrogen, and then transferring that hydrogen to a refinery to add to the finished fuel to generate RINs and Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits. “What’s unique about this process is all the pieces are demonstrated, there is no additional process technology— it’s really an approach for routing biogas into a qualifying application,” Foody says. “All the parts are already demonstrated, it’s just the contracting path and the EPA approval that has not yet taken place.”
AD technology has developed over the millennia, and both traditional and nontraditional ethanol plants have been taking advantage of the opportunities biogas can add to operations. Whether moving digesters and ethanol plants into the same neighborhood is a good idea boils down to economics. Many are proving it’s a decision worth making. “I think that every ethanol plant out there deserves or needs to have one of these biogas plants,” Chrapko says. “If not only from an environmental point of view, but definitely from an economic point of view.” Author: Katie Fletcher Staff Writer, Biomass Magazine 701-738-4920 kfletcher@bbiinternational.com
One Step Further Another reason operations are colocating digesters is the high value for renewable identification numbers (RINs). One of the reasons Himark’s AD operation was added at WPE’s ethanol plant was derived from a business decision based on the company’s projections that the D5 RIN value would be extremely high. Whether or not that ends up being the case, it will not affect the technology and other benefits in efficiencies, Chrapko says. DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 41
AdvancedBiofuelNews MOVING FORWARD: Cool Planet Energy Systems has been awarded a USDA loan guarantee for its Louisiana facility, shown in this rendering. PHOTO: COOL PLANET ENERGY SYSTEMS
Cool Planet awarded USDA loan guarantee The USDA has awarded a $91 million loan guarantee to Cool Planet Energy Systems to help finance the company’s advanced biofuel facility, which is under development in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. The award was made under the Biorefinery Assistance Program, which was established by the 2008 Farm Bill. Cool Planet broke ground on the Louisiana biorefinery in February 2013. Company spokesman Wesley Bolsen said the site work is currently being completed. Construction on the biorefinery is expected to begin by the end of the year. Bolsen said the facility is scheduled to be operational by late 2015 or early 2016. Once complete, the facility, located at the Port of Alexandria, will have the capacity to produce between 8 MMgy and
10 MMgy of reformate, a drop-in ingredient in gasoline and jet fuel that can be added during the regular refinery process. The USDA noted that reformate enhances the energy content of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Pine chips will be the feedstock source for the plant. The company, however, can use almost any type of cellulosic material. According to the USDA, it reached an agreement with Silicon Valley Bank to provide the $91 million loan guarantee to Cool Planet. In addition to the USDA’s contribution, the company has attracted private investments from numerous companies, including Google Ventures, BP, ConocoPhillips, GE, Exelon and NRG Energy. Cool Planet will contribute $50 million in equity to the project.
EPA improves pathway petition process for the RFS The U.S. EPA has taken action to improve and streamline the pathway petition process under the renewable fuels standard (RFS). In March, the agency said it would take approximately six months to improve the petition process for new biofuel pathways. That process is now complete. Improvements include a new website that features new tools and information resources, such as the Pathway Screening Tool, which provides biofuel producers with a way to receive tailored information from the EPA before they start preparing their petitions. A secure online portal has also been developed
42 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
to allow petitions to be submitted electronically. The EPA is expected to continue to prioritize petitions for cellulosic pathways, particularly for near-term projects. “We believe we have revised our website to provide more detailed information in a way that is easier for petitioners to understand. We hope they will use the new tools and information to develop high quality petitions so that the review process can be as efficient as possible,” said an EPA spokeswoman.
ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦
Biomass Producers Today, Carbon Kings Tomorrow BY MATT CARR
On Dec. 1, the U.S. EPA will close down the comment period for its proposed Clean Power Plan, the most significant environmental policy proposal in a generation. To control carbon dioxide (CO2), the agency places a significant emphasis on burying emissions underground (carbon capture and sequestration or CCS), but I believe it should equally encourage the beneficial reuse of carbon dioxide emissions (carbon capture and utilization, or CCU). Just about every biomass company has CO2 emissions in its portfolio, whether producing CO2 in fermentation processes or consuming it by growing a crop. While the EPA’s new rule is mostly focused on coal plants, emissions are emissions, and the biomass industry could find a challenge in future regulations. To ensure that the EPA is casting a wide net in approaches to reduce emissions, the Algae Biomass Organization and its members spent the past several months making the case for reusing CO2 emissions to manufacture valuable products. The mission: convince the EPA to explicitly endorse CCU technologies. Regardless of the outcome from the EPA, the breadth of support we found has convinced me that the carbon kings of the future won't be the fossil fuel extractors of the past, they will be the innovators who build value from the waste gas streams the world is so desperate to dispose of. To spark interest on this topic amongst the public, ABO started a White House “We the People” petition to encourage CCU. We were pleased to see support for CCU from 45 states and 215 cities, a true reflection of this idea’s geographical, ideological and demographic appeal. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., Congressional Algae Caucus co-chair, wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy asking her to clarify that using CCU technologies would be an option afforded states working to comply with Clean Power Plan rules. Peters noted that clarifying CCU’s role
in emission reduction plans would stimulate further investment and innovation: "Such affirmative recognition would provide states and sources of private capital with the confidence to invest in this promising CO2 solution while helping to create a market for CO2 that reduces the cost of compliance." In a sign of growing awareness on Capitol Hill, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., visited ABO platinum member BioProcess Algae in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, to learn how algae can be used to convert waste CO2 into valuable products at cost-competitive prices. According to the Los Angeles Times, Manchin was excited to see firsthand a technology that could be adopted by coal plants in his home state. “As he left BioProcess Algae’s facilities, he turned and said, ‘This is what it's all about.’ " You might say support for CCU needs to be stronger. I would agree, and we won't stop promoting the approach, regardless of how the EPA ultimately drafts its Clean Power Plan. If you are looking to take advantage of CCU technologies, or have a carbon-consuming approach of your own, I urge you to check out the alliance forming at www.recyclecarbon.org. The reasonable idea that we can profitably reduce, reuse and recycle carbon could form the basis of a powerful political alliance that would help create a robust market for CO2 that reduces emissions, creates jobs and increases our domestic energy and food security. Author: Matt Carr Executive Director, Algae Biomass Organization www.algaebiomass.org 877-531-5512
DECEMBER 2014 | BIOMASS MAGAZINE 43
ÂŚADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS CONTRIBUTION
Mobile Cloud Computing in the Biomass Industry Mobile supply chain management integrates software applications with mobile devices to allow users to wirelessly operate at any location. BY DAVID WAECHTER
T
ACCESS ON-THE-GO: Mobile technology has enabled ERP solutions to take another step toward real-time data management.
44 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
o understand the biomass-to-energy supply chain, first divide it into two parts: suppliers and end users. End users in the biomass energy sector include pellet manufacturers, fuel producers, biogas producers, and combined heat-and-power facilities. Suppliers are also diverse, and include loggers, farmers, land clearing companies, sawmills, furniture mills, demolition companies, feed mills and many others. The supply chain only grows more complex from there, with a myriad of opportunities for success and failure. Factors may include: weather, transportation, contractors, employees, biomass specification data, storage management, sustainability, public opinion, public policy, regulatory enforcement and more. Mind-bogglingly, every single one of the above factors may affect one another and also has its own interconnected and consequential subcategories. Putting all of these factors into perspective is a great challenge, especially when one is trying to accomplish this on paper, in their mind, or on a spreadsheet. Large companies often have internal IT development teams that set up and manage data systems for their internal use. Numerous versions of generalized and industry-specific Enterprise Resource Planning Software have been developed, which may assist managers with understanding their supply chains more clearly. ERP software was a great leap forward in supply chain management because it was able to collect, store and manage the vast array of data points in any given supply chain. What’s more, ERP software made it possible to make better decisions based on real and meaningful analysis. No more would managers have to base all of their decisions on unqualified or bad data and information. As ERP solutions gained in popularity, industry-specific solutions began to appear and the biomass energy sector can now benefit from this. A second leap in information technology for business operations was made recently with the advent of cloud computing. Cloud computing enabled ERP solutions to be deployed without the need for organizations to purchase costly
ADVANCED BIOFUELS AND CHEMICALS¦ servers or other computing and network infrastructure, because the software could be implemented as a virtual Software as a Service (SaaS) anywhere using the Internet. Other improvements came into being along with the cloud. Updates to the software no longer required additional copies or licenses. Users could be added easily on the fly, and a per-user or group-of-users licensing model could be offered. Since licensing was on a per-user basis, companies no longer had to pay high costs for software capacity they never used. Another benefit of the cloud was databases and functionality were shared within each user organization on a “need-to-know” basis, so when someone in the user community entered data or made a modification, each approved user could see it in near real time. A true community of users was emerging and costs of implementation were lowered. Today, ERP software has taken a third great leap forward by integrating and leveraging the power of mobile technology. According to the Pew Research Center, as of January, 58 percent of American adults had a smartphone, and 42 percent of American adults owned a tablet computer. The amazing part of this statistic is that each one of these individuals in carrying a highly sophisticated sensory device capable of video, photos, voice and text communication, Internet access, weather reports, and a host of applications ready to deploy. Mobile computing is a truly disruptive force, and we are all aware of just how disruptive it is. Mobile supply chain management integrates software applications with mobile devices (e.g. cell phones, personal digital assistants, pocket personal computers, personal computers) to give users the flexibility to operate in a wireless computing environment at any location. This enables users to take advantage of information systems linking business processes among different functions within the company and between companies at remote locations. Mobile has enabled ERP solutions to take another step toward real-time data management. Imagine being able to communicate di-
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rectly with your supplier, the delivery truck, monitor progress on work orders, receive a photo or video of a remote job site, or instant document review not only on your desk, but across the organization based upon a “need-to-know” basis. The possibilities grow each day, and you will want an ERP solution provider who not only understands how to grow with your industry, but since biomass is a niche industry, it would behoove organizations to rely upon software solution providers who have built solutions especially for the sector. When selecting an ERP solution, no one size fits all. Factors such as cost, user friendliness and deployment models are all important. Most importantly, find an ERP solution that is specifically designed for the biomass industry. Make certain you understand what side of the supply chain equation the ERP solution is made for—producers or conversion facilities. In the case of biomass, there is a number with varying costs and user friendliness, as well as differing models for deployment (cloud-based or enterprise solutions). Make sure to understand security and do not jump to conclusions. Is having all of your data stored on server in the closet more secure than a datacenter with 24/7 security patrols and redundant power supplies? As you begin to review these options, predefine your selection criteria, and do your research. Consider your business model, its weakest links and what knowledge would strengthen them. Review your risk management approach to determine what functions are important or unimportant. The additional time it takes to perform a thorough due diligence effort is well worth the investment. It will pay dividends for many years to come, and ensure your satisfaction with a solid ERP solution for your entire supply chain team. Author: : David Waechter President, Verdanté BioEnergy Services dwaechter@verdantebioenergy.com 828-394-1246
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Toll Free: 800.322.6653 • Fax: 740.374.5908 info@molemaster.com
Hot S prings, AR - Car y, N C - Millinocke t , ME
BIOMASS POLLUTION CONTROL
UltraCat Catalyst Filter
Outlet
Low Temperature NOx Removal PM to less than 0.01 lbs/MMBtu t 0OF TZTUFN GPS 1. /0x, SO2, HCl, dioxins, mercury or any combination t -PX UFNQ /0x control by catalyst-embedded ďŹ lters eliminates costly SCR t *OUFHSBUFE ESZ TPSCFOU JOKFDUJPO SFNPWFT 402, HCl, mercury
Particulate captured on the surface; does not penetrate the surface wall
CLEAN AIR
Meets Boiler & CISWI MACT Regulations
Nano-catalyst embedded in the filter walls destroys NOx, dioxins
Polluted Gas
Air Flow
Inlet gas composition –Particulate PM, Sorbents for SO2, HCl, Hg, dioxins, NOx + injected ammonia
Ph: 801.294.5422 kevin.moss@tri-mer.com
www.tri-mer.com Since 1960 Factory and Headquarters: Owosso, Michigan
PROMOTING
INNOVATION
Over 40 yrs experience
Š2014 Tri-Mer Corp.
46 BIOMASS MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2014
www.molemaster.com
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