FROM THE EDITORS

Red Rock Sinks

With the news that Red Rock Biofuels in Lakeview, Ore. is in foreclosure after falling behind on loan payments, the biofuels segment of the wood bioenergy industry has taken another hit as yet another relatively high-profile project bites the dust. The sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant project seemed to have it all: An almost endless feedstock supply in biomass from the nearby Fremont National Forest and residuals from a sawmill, was going to use an advanced Fischer-Tropsch technology, had fuel-buy commitments from FedEx and Southwest Airlines—and $300 million in government grants, loans and investments.

Ultimately, it proved not enough, as the plant foundered on the same rocks as other failed woody biomass biofuel projects: cost overruns, re-engineering and technology issues and a lack of financing to pay for it all.

The fall of Red Rock Biofuels is yet another chapter in a U.S. biofuels saga that’s dominated by first-generation Midwest corn ethanol producers and marked by overhyped and dashed expectations in the development of next generation and advanced biofuels, and especially projects that have proposed to use woody biomass as the only or primary feedstock.

The fundamental challenge of using woody biomass material to produce biofuel is same as it ever was: accessing the cellulose and sugars locked within wood’s lignin efficiently and at as low cost as possible. For projects pursuing gasification technologies the challenge is even bigger as syngas produced through low oxygen wood roasting must be cleaned and refined. For the record, syngas refining has never been performed on an ongoing commercial scale using woody biomass to produce a liquid fuel product. (If we’re wrong, please let us know.)

In a 2015 biofuels industry report, Wood Bioenergy noted the high-profile failures in recent years of woodbased biofuel refineries that included ZeaChem at Boardman, Ore., Range Fuels at Soperton, Ga. and KiOR in Columbus, Miss.

Wood Bioenergy had a soft spot for ZeaChem, with its acetic conversion process and 30,000 acre high-tech cottonwood plantation feeding it. The company built a demo plant, but ultimately couldn’t find the financing to scale up. To get an idea of the challenge involved, Wood Bioenergy remembers walking through the ZeaChem demo facility with CEO Jim Imbler, an experienced refinery guy, who told us everything we were looking at— pipes, valves, containers, equipment, etc.—all needed to be at least 10 times bigger in order to scale up. The same challenge faces every biofuel project: to not only transform any success in the lab or demo pant into full commercial production, but also to do it profitably.

KiOR’s failure gained more publicity thanks to the involvement of billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who was going to bring the Silicon Valley tech approach to renewable fuels. He was an investor in both Range Fuels and KiOR, but it was KiOR that took a spectacular hit, losing money on every gallon ever produced, and with $2.25 million in revenues compared to $629 million in losses, according to an extensive 2014 Washington Post report.

Wood Bioenergy’s 2015 report also pointed to four promising wood-based biofuel projects then still in the works, either under construction or past the greenlight stage: Red Rock Biofuels, LanzaTech, Cool Planet Energy Systems and St1 Biofuels. Of the four, only the St1 Biofuels plant in Kajaani, Finland is currently operating as intended, producing relatively small batch industrial ethanol from sawdust procured at area sawmills. Cool Planet changed its focus to agricultural products.

The LanzaTech facility at Soperton, renamed Freedom Pines, remains in play as a potential success story, with a recent event celebrating the 10 million gallon a year capacity plant’s construction progress and expected completion, startup and commissioning later this year. The plant will be using LanzaJet’s ATJ thermochemical conversion process to produce SAF and renewable biodiesel, but will also accept some MSW and ag residue in addition to woody biomass.

In early December, the same cast of characters that populate all these events—state officials, politicians, investors, owner-operators and possibly a good barbecue caterer as well—gathered in Soperton to celebrate LanzaTech’s progress so far and raise hope for a bright future. Here’s to hoping the project finds a viable path that has eluded others so far.

February 2023 / Wood Bioenergy 3

Volume 15 Number 1

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Pellet Mills Project Finds Footing

A proposed project that will build two wood pellet facilities— one in the foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada Mountain range, in Tuolumne County, Calif., and one in the Modoc Plateau of northern California, in Lassen County—released a Notice of Preparation (NOP) of a Draft Environmental Impact Report in mid-November, which allowed a 30-day public re-

view and comment period and included four public meetings.

Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA), acting as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lead agency, released the NOP for the Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) Forest Resiliency Demonstration Project. As part of the project’s scope, the finished pellets will be shipped by rail to a port for international shipping. The preferred port location is currently being selected, and will be either the Port of Stockton, or the Levin-Richmond Terminal in Richmond, Calif.

The project is a response to the growing rate of wildfires in California, which has been exacerbated by hazardous excess fuel loads in forests, and the need to promote economic activity within California’s rural counties, according to the participants. The project would improve the resiliency of California’s forestlands by sustainably procuring and processing excess biomass into a pelletized fuel source for use in renewable energy generation overseas. The NOP broke down the project into three primary phases: feedstock, wood pellet production, and transport to market. There would be two primary feedstock types: roundwood and residuals. Roundwood would be procured through vegetation treatment activities, including prescribed thinning, occurring on public and private lands within a 100 mile radius of each production facility. Roundwood would not be suitable for use as commercial lumber due to its condition (fire damage, age), size, or economic factors. Residuals include material (bark, shavings, sawdust, wood chips) left over from the milling process, and may include forest slash or material left following timber harvesting and treatments (such as the limbs and the tops of trees), and vegetation from fire management activities performed by utilities.

The NOP emphasizes that forest material may come from pubic or private lands, and noted that in October 2019, GSFA executed a 20year Master Stewardship Agreement (MSA) with the U.S. Forest Service (FS) to provide for the mutual benefits and interests of GSFA and the USFA in achieving resilient forests within U.S. FS Region 5, which includes all of the 18 national forests located in California. The MSA would allow FSFA to undertake forest thinning and fuel reduction activities identified in individual Supplemental Project Agreements.

The NOP describes the anticipated wood pellet production process, from chipping through drying to pellet production, resulting in planned capacities of 300,000 tons per year at the Tuolumne site and 700,000 tons at the Lassen site. The Tuolumne site was previously used as a bark facility by Sierra Pacific Industries. The Lassen site is a portion of a larger property that included a mill site (which is not part of the proposed project site) and an area used by the mill operators to load rail cars.

Finished pellets would be loaded onto rail cars for transport to a purpose built export terminal at a deepwater port determination, where they’ll be stored in domes or silos.

GSFA is preparing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to determine if the project may have a significant effect on the environment, including air quality, forestry resources, greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous materials, etc.

The Golden State Natural Resources web site states: “Our forests and the communities that reside among them are at risk. From 2018 to 2021 over an estimated 9 million acres of land were burned in wildfires. These fires spread harmful smoke across the state, damaged forestland and wildfire habitats, and devastated communities with loss of life and property. The 2021 Dixie Fire, the second largest in state history, decimated the town of Greenville in Plumas County, burned over 960,000 acres

6 Wood Bioenergy / February 2023

of land, and demolished 1,329 homes and structures, while also upending the lives of thousands forced to evacuate. Reducing the potential for catastrophic wildfires such as these is crucial.

“Over the years California’s forests have grown in density due to fire suppression and limited management, containing higher amounts of high hazard fuels and excessive biomass that, along with the extended drought and the bark beetle infestation, can lead to greater fire risk. While 80 trees per acre (basal area) is generally cited as the ideal for forest health, some areas of California’s forests are experiencing 200 to over 500 trees per acre. We must act now to preserve California’s forests and Golden State Natural Resources stands ready to be part of the solution.”

Golden State Natural Resources was unveiled in 2018 as a public benefit, non-profit corporation. The web site shows Greg Norton as President/CEO, a position he previously held with Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC).

Long-Running SAF Project Has Life

LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels technology company and producer, joined government officials, industry leaders, and in-vestors in midDecember to celebrate a major construction milestone at the LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels facility in Soperton, Ga.

LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels is building an ethanol-based alcohol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant. Construction will be completed in 2023, according to the company. The plant will produce 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel per year from ethanol, using a range of sustainable, low carbon intensity ethanol, including from waste-based feedstocks. LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels reports it will approximately double the amount of current SAF production in the U.S.

“Building a new industry and scaling new technology is exciting while at the same time challenging. We’ve enjoyed the privilege of partnering with incredible public and private sector leaders to support our work on this journey,” comments Jimmy Samartzis, LanzaJet CEO. “Today, we celebrate the power of

February 2023 / Wood Bioenergy 7

partnership to tackle climate change—the greatest challenge of our generation. Fabrication and construction of our novel process technology that converts ethanol into drop-in, replacement sustainable aviation fuel is completed, and installation has begun at site. This is a significant milestone on our journey and also for the development of the SAF industry.”

LanzaJet was joined at the event by its shareholders International Airlines Group (IAG), LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co, Shell, and Suncor Energy, investors including Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy, and All Nippon Airways (ANA), plus government representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) as well as representatives from the State of Georgia and local and county officials.

“This is a significant milestone in the commercial production of SAF and we will be taking delivery of 7,500 tonnes annually from this facility once construction is completed next year,” comments Luis Gallego, CEO, International Airlines Group (IAG). “IAG was the first European airline group that pledged to use 10% SAF by 2030 and has committed $865 million in purchases and investments to date. This innovative project has benefitted from strong support from the U.S. government, which is leading the way in supporting investment in low carbon technologies. With the right policy support to incentivize further investment, there’s an opportunity for both the UK and EU to be true leaders on the sustainable aviation fuel agenda.”

In 2012 LanzaTech purchased the bankrupt Range Fuels facility in Soperton at auction for $5.1 million. Range built the biomass gasification plant with the intention of making ethanol from wood chips, but the firm was unable to produce the biofuel.

Clutter Was Leading Forestlands Expert

Dr. Michael Lee Clutter, who served as Dean of the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources from 2007Dr. Michael Clutter 2015, and was a noted expert in his field, died on December 24. He was 63.

Born in Durham, NC, Clutter grew up in Athens and attended Clarke Central High School, where he graduated with honors in 1977, was captain of the soccer team, and lead trumpeter for the school’s band. He pursued his undergraduate education at Ohio University, playing collegiate soccer, and later at Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry resources in 1981. Returning to his hometown, Clutter received a master’s degree in 1982 and a doctoral degree in 1991, both from Warnell.

Clutter was considered an authority on the economics of the forestry industry, including finance, budgeting, timberland management and timber supply and sizing trends. Early in his career he held various management positions with two leading forest products companies, Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Union Camp Corp. in Savannah. Joining Warnell’s faculty in 2001, he was later named the Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of Forest Finance and received the Warnell School’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Assuming the role of Dean on August 15, 2007, Clutter was determined to keep students at the forefront of his scholarship and research, continuing to teach forestry courses until his departure in Janu-