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■ table of contents
www.woodbioenergymag.com
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FROM THE EDITORS Presentations Win The Day
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PRODUCT NEWS Horizontal Grinders Take The Stage
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IN THE NEWS Madden Is Endowment’s New President
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CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS Employment Opportunities
14 WOOD BIO CONFERENCE Amazing Amount Of Info Delivered 26 DRYER ISLAND Lots Of Technology To Squeeze In
Cover Photography: The sixth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo featured 28 speakers and 46 exhibitors at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta. (Hatton-Brown staff photos)
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Wood Bioenergy / April 2020
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table of contents ■
advertising index Advertiser Index is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.
Acrowood
28
425.258.3555
Air Burners
3
561.768.5963
Baker-Rullman
24
920.261.8107
Bandit Industries
2
800.952.0178
Biomass Engineering & Equipment
29
317.522.0864
Bliss Industries
11
580.765.7787
BM&M Screening Solutions
27
800.663.0323
CW Mill Equipment
16
800.743.3491
European Biomass Conference
19
+39 055 5002280
Evergreen Engineering
30
888.484.4771
Firefly AB
24
+46 8449 2500
Hallco Industries
26
800.542.5526
Hurst Boiler & Welding
9
877.774.8778
Mailing Address ■ P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Tel: 334.834.1170 ■ Fax: 334.834-4525
LundellTech
17
608.354.9380
Metal Detectors
7
541.345.7454
Publisher/Adv. Sales Manager ■ David H. Ramsey Chief Operating Officer ■ Dianne C. Sullivan
Mid-South Engineering
17
501.321.2276
Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show
13
662.325.2191
Editor-in-Chief ■ Rich Donnell Senior Editor ■ Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor ■ David Abbott Senior Associate Editor ■ Jessica Johnson Associate Editor ■ Patrick Dunning
MoistTech
16
941.727.1800
Morbark
32
800.831.0042
Polytechnik
7
+43 2672 890 0
Precision-Husky
25
205.640.5181
Sigma Thermal
31
888.676.0146
Art Director/Production Manager ■ Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coordinator ■ Patti Campbell Circulation Director ■ Rhonda Thomas Online Content/Marketing ■ Jacqlyn Kirkland
Stela Laxhuber
12
+49 8724 899 0
TSI
31
425.771.1190
U.S. Blades
19
800.862.4544
Advertising Sales
Wood Bioenergy (ISSN 1947-5306) is published six times annually by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Wood Bioenergy is free to qualified readers in the United States, including owners, managers, supervisors and other key personnel. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $50 per year, Canadian subscriptions are $60 and foreign subscription are $95 per year (U.S. funds). Subscriber Inquiries and Back Issue Orders—TOLL-FREE: 800.669.5613. Fax 888.611.4525. Subscribe or renew online: www.woodbioenergymagazine.com and click on the “Subscribe” button. When requesting change of address, please specify both old and new. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices.
Volume 12
Number 2
26 Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. Street Address ■ 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317
Publisher/Editor Emeritus ■ David (DK) Knight
North American Sales Representative Susan Windham ■ P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery AL 36102-2268 334.834.1170 ■ Fax: 334.834.4525 E-mail: windham.susan4@gmail.com International Sales Murray Brett ■ 58 Aldea De Las Cuevas, Buzon 60 Benedoleig 03759, (Alicante) Espana +34 96 640 4165 ■ Fax: +34 96 640 4048 E-mail: murray.brett.aba@abasol.net Classified Advertising Sales Bridget DeVane ■ Tel: 334.699.7837 ■ 800.669.5613 E-mail: bdevane7@hotmail.com A Hatton-Brown Publication Other Hatton-Brown Publications:
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■ from the editors
Wood Bio Conference Delivers:
State Of The Industry I
f you skim through this issue you will have a difficult time missing the nine pages of coverage it gives to the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo that was held March 10-11 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta. Despite the uncertainties in the world around us, 28 speakers and 50 exhibitor companies participated in the event, which was held for the sixth time since it began in 2010. We heard several comments that sitting in and listening to these presentations and taking in the tons of absolutely wonderful information and insight they provided served not only as a refresher course on the current and future state of the wood bioenergy industry, but was an enjoyable escape if only for a few hours from the virus crisis. Scott Bax, chief operating officer of Pinnacle Renewable Energy, had everybody’s attention with his presentation on the guidelines Pinnacle sets as it builds partnerships with other wood products operations toward the construction and operation of industrial wood pellet plants and the procurement of the wood fiber resource for those plants. If you were looking for the global picture of the wood pellet industry, William Strauss of FutureMetrics and Jose Gonzalez of AFRY each painted their version of it with insightful commentary, loads of statistics and probably very accurate forecasts. The presentations covered everything from the health of the logging industry to the implications of EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy rule, from the fact and fiction of
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advanced pellet technologies to air emission treatments, from the impact of Hurricane Michael on the biomass resource in Florida and Georgia to the keys to successful project implementation in the engineering and construction stages. There was so much information handed down that we’ve decided to separate its coverage into two parts, with half of the presentations summarized in this issue, and likewise planned for the next issue of Wood Bioenergy. If you weren’t able to attend, we think you’ll enjoy some of the highlights of what was said, and if you were there, maybe this will help to put in order what you think you may have heard during the presentation blitz.
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■ in the news U.S. Endowment Goes With Pete Madden
levels, and industry,” Madden says. Madden will work out of the Endowment’s headquarters and plans U.S. Endowment to relocate his for Forestry and family to Communities anGreenville, SC. nounced that Pete The EndowMadden has joined ment was estabthe staff as Presilished in Septemdent. ber 2006 at the “Our Board and request of the staff are excited to governments of share with our partthe U.S. and ners and collaboraCanada in accortors that Pete will be dance with terms Pete Madden is set to lead the U.S. of the 2006 Softcoming aboard,” Endowment for Forestry and Comsays Endowment wood Lumber munities. President and CEO Agreement. Carlton Owen. “This decision is the culmination of more than two years Enviva Updates Pellet of thoughtful and deliberate succesPlant Developments sion planning to ensure that the Endowment continues to advance its Enviva, the world’s largest produal mission of keeping working ducer of industrial wood pellets, reports that its plant in Hamlet, NC forests as forests and advancing continues to ramp up production, family-wage jobs in forest-rich, and Enviva expects it to reach its rural communities.” full production capacity of Madden joins the Endowment 600,000 metric tons per year by with more than 30 years of experithe end of 2020. ence in the forest sector. He has held Enviva’s previously announced roles in land management, procureprojects to increase the production ment, supply chain and logistics, capacity of its wood pellet producand renewable energy within welltion plants in Northampton, NC known and respected industry playand Southampton, Va. by 400,000 ers including Westvaco, Georgia-PaMTPY are progressing and the cific and Plum Creek. Most recently, projects have received the neceshe led Drax Biomass, Inc. as presisary permits. Enviva expects to dent and CEO. He holds a Bachelor commence the expanded producof Arts degree from Marlboro Coltion ramp for the Northampton lege in Vermont and both a Master plant and the Southampton plant in of Science in Forestry and an the second and third quarters of M.B.A. from the University of New 2020, respectively. Hampshire. The company also reports it is inEndowment Board Chairman vesting incremental capital and Mark Emmerson, who is Chairman awaiting permits to increase producof California-based Sierra Pacific tion capacity of the wood pellet proIndustries, notes, “We are fortunate duction plant in Greenwood, SC to to have had consistent, stable, and 600,000 MTPY. visionary leadership since the EnEnviva has ordered equipment dowment’s creation in 2006 and are and initial foundations are being happy to report that Carlton Owen completed at the newly announced will continue as CEO for an exwood pellet plant under construction tended period.” at Lucedale, Miss. The first of two “I have watched the Endowment large concrete wood pellet storage emerge as one of the most progresdomes is being constructed at the sive and impactful players in the Pascagoula terminal. greater forest sector bridging acadeThe company expects to make a mia, conservation, government at all
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final investment decision early this year as to the development of a wood pellet production plant in Epes, Ala. And Enviva continues to evaluate additional sites for wood pellet production plants in Alabama and Mississippi, the production of which would be exported through the Pascagoula terminal. Enviva says its strategy is to fully contract the wood pellet production from its plants under long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts. The company’s current production capacity is matched with a portfolio of firm and contingent off-take contracts that has a total weighted-average remaining term of 11.4 years and a total product sales backlog of $10.6 billion as of February 1, 2020. Assuming all volumes under the firm and contingent off-take contracts which its expects to have the opportunity to acquire were included, the total weighted-average remaining term and product sales backlog would increase to 13.8 years and $19.6 billion, respectively. In addition to the approximately 3,000,000 metric tons per year of long-term off-take contracts with Japanese counterparties previously announced, Enviva has executed two additional agreements with Japanese counterparties totaling approximately 420,000 MTPY of additional volumes, including a 20year, take-or-pay off-take contract as the sole source supplier for Ichihara Yawatafuto Biomass Power GK, a new biomass power plant project company owned by Equis Bioenergy and sponsored by Equis Group. Sales under this contract are expected to commence in 2023 with annual deliveries of 270,000 MTPY of wood pellets. Also, an 18-year, take-or-pay offtake contract executed with a major Japanese trading house to supply a new biomass power plant could commence in 2023 with annual deliveries of 150,000 MTPY of wood pellets. Enviva’s previously announced 17-year, take-or-pay off-take contract as the sole-source supplier for Suzukawa Energy Center Ltd. is
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now firm. Deliveries of 340,000 MTPY of wood pellets under the contract are expected to commence in 2022. Suzukawa’s existing power plant, which was designed to fire both coal and biomass, is expected to be converted into a dedicated biomass-fired power plant by April 2022. Global efforts continue to push for firm commitments to phase out coal, limit the impact of climate change, and cut greenhouse gas emissions to achieve “net-zero” by 2050. These commitments and the corresponding policies and action plans underpin the continued strong growth expected in global demand for industrial grade wood pellets, which Enviva anticipates will result in additional long-term off-take contracts. Enviva notes several market developments, including: l In December 2019, the European Commission announced the European Green Deal that aims to decarbonize all parts of the European Union’s (EU) economy and transform the EU into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The European Green Deal proposes to reduce GHG emissions by at least 50 to 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels), which is in line with the level leading climate scientists believe is required to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. The European Commission expects to formally propose a new European Climate Law in March 2020 to enshrine the 2050 climate neutral target into legislation. l In December 2019, the Upper House of the Dutch Parliament passed the law to implement the government’s previously announced goal to phase out the use of coal for power generation by 2030 following the law’s passage by the Lower House in July 2019. This development could provide further impetus for the use of biomass to replace coal in the Netherlands beyond the period of existing co-firing incentives. In addition, the Dutch government has committed to a new incentive program for renewable energy, the Stimula-
tion of Sustainable Energy Transition, or SDE++, and has confirmed that biomass-based heat technologies are eligible to participate. l The German government continues to progress the implementation of the Commission on Growth, Structural Economic Change and
Employment’s (Coal Commission) recommendations. The laws regarding the gradual coal phase-out and the shutdown of coal-fired power generation assets are currently being discussed within Germany’s Federal Government. Meanwhile, many German cities and communities, in-
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■ in the news
cluding Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich, have set regional coal phase-out target dates ranging from 2022 to 2030, well ahead of the national target of 2038. Those developments should drive substantial demand for biomass in Germany. l In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party won a decisive victory in the December 2019 election and committed to continue to pursue net-zero carbon emissions across the UK’s economy by 2050 and to fund the development of carbon capture and storage. These policies could support additional largescale industrial biomass usage, particularly biomass used in conjunction with CCS.
Washington Hit With Big Lawsuits Following the late 2019 release of a plan to conserve marbled murrelet habitat on state-owned timberland, the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) has been hit by three lawsuits, two claiming that DNR is abandoning its mandate to maximize timber sale revenue for state schools and another claiming the state didn’t go far enough in protecting murrelet habitat. A small seabird that spends much of its time over salt water and nests in older age class coastal trees, the murrelet is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and the DNR was required to produce a murrelet conservation plan. The plan released by the state lowers timber harvest levels for 10 years, and sets an average harvest target of 465MMBF, which is 85MMBF less than the previous decade’s target that wasn’t ultimately met. Upon creation of statehood in 1889, Washington was given more than 3 million acres, and the state constitution says they should be managed to fund schools and other public institutions. Washington DNR manages these and additional lands, mostly Depression-era tax foreclosures, that fund additional services such as fire protection and
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public libraries. Yet the DNR also has to follow state and federal environmental laws. Skagit County, which relies heavily on revenues from state lands, was the first to file suit, claiming the DNR wasn’t following its constitutional mandate for maximizing school revenue. Another suit was filed by a group of timber-dependent counties and school and fire districts that make the same claim, but also that the DNR didn’t prioritize beneficiaries, used old data for its plan and failed to consider other plans that would have had less impact on school revenues. A separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups claims the plan doesn’t do enough to protect the murrelet and the state needs to find a new mechanism to fund schools.
Drax Can See End Of Coal Operations Almost 50 years of coal-fired electricity generation at Drax Power Station in the UK is expected to come to an end in March 2021, marking a major milestone in the company’s world-leading ambition to become carbon negative by 2030. It means the country’s largest power station will stop using coal well ahead of the government’s 2025 deadline, making an even bigger contribution to the UK’s efforts to achieve net zero. The decision to stop using coal at Drax comes after a comprehensive review of its operations. Drax does not expect to use coal after March 2021, but will ensure its two remaining coal units remain available until September 2022 in line with its existing capacity market agreements. Over the last decade four of the power station’s six generating units have been converted to use sustainable biomass, delivering carbon savings of more than 80% compared to when they used coal. This has transformed Drax to become the UK’s largest renewable power generator and the biggest decarbon-
isation project in Europe. Stopping using coal at Drax will lead to a reduction in the workforce at the North Yorkshire power station. Trades Unions and employee representatives will be consulted over the coming months and support is being provided to those affected. Drax is talking to the government, trades unions and industrial businesses across the North about joining with Drax in establishing a new Zero Carbon Skills Taskforce to help people in the region gain the skills and expertise required to seize new job opportunities as the UK moves towards a net zero economy. Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire first started generating electricity using coal in the 1970s. Once the second half of the power station was built in the 1980s, it became the largest power station in the UK with the capacity to generate electricity for 6 million households.
Weyerhaeuser Sells Montana Timberland Weyerhaeuser is selling 630,000 acres of timberland in Montana to a private timberland investment company for $145 million in cash. “The sale of our Montana acreage is part of our ongoing effort to strategically optimize our timberland portfolio,” comments Devin Stockfish, president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser. “The transaction includes a diverse mix of softwood species and an existing 110,000 acre conservation easement which preserves public access in perpetuity.” The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020. The company’s three manufacturing facilities in Montana are not affected by this announcement. “Our manufacturing operations in Montana continue to deliver strong results,” Devin adds. “Our people have done an outstanding job driving improvement in safety and operational excellence over the past several years, and they also do terrific work to support the communi-
Wood Bioenergy / April 2020
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ties where we operate.” In November Weyerhaeuser completed the sale of 555,000 acres of timberland in northern Michigan.
Pinnacle Expansion Is Moving Quickly Pinnacle Renewable Energy announced the attendance of company representatives at the Christening and Launching Ceremony of S1130, a Handy class vessel of almost 40,000 DWT. Pinnacle will be chartering this vessel from NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers, a leading Japanese ocean carrier, on a long-term charter to carry the company’s sustainable industrial wood pellets from Canada to Japan. The ceremony was held at the Shikoku Dockyard in Takamatsu City, Japan. The vessel was named M/V New Pinnacle by Rob McCurdy, CEO of Pinnacle Renewable
Energy. The charter is an important element in Pinnacle’s approach to logistics as the company continues to participate in the trend of BC based businesses expanding in Asian markets. Pinnacle has signed three contracts with customers in Japan in the past six months, underscoring both Japan’s strong commitment to decarbonization and the strength of Pinnacle’s competitive position in this market. “The logistics model we are using will provide both ourselves and our customers the widest possible delivery flexibility at the lowest possible cost, and further opens the significant Japanese market to Pinnacle,” says Vaughan Bassett, Senior Vice President for Sales and Logistics. “We very much look forward to servicing our Japanese customers with this brand new Japanese built vessel.”
Pinnacle operates eight industrial wood pellet production facilities in Western Canada and one in Alabama, with two additional facilities under construction in Alberta and Alabama. The company also owns a port terminal in Prince Rupert, BC Pinnacle has entered into long-term take-or-pay contracts with utilities in the U.K., Europe and Asia that represent an average of 108% of its production capacity through 2026. During the fourth quarter, Pinnacle entered into a long-term, take-orpay contract with Mitsui for 100,000 MTPA commencing in 2023. This is the ninth contract signed with customers in Japan since the beginning of fiscal 2018 demonstrating the company’s successful advancement of the strategy for sales growth into Japan. Pinnacle reported on several projects, including a new industrial wood pellet production facility in
April 2020 / Wood Bioenergy
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the Southeast United States, at Demopolis, Ala., in close proximity to Pinnacle’s Aliceville facility. The new facility will be located adjacent an existing large sawmill in Demopolis. The Demopolis and Aliceville facilities will operate under a single partnership with Pinnacle, The Westervelt Company and Two Rivers Lumber Company, LLC, each holding a 70%, 20% and 10% interest, respectively. Anticipated capital costs to construct the Demopolis facility are expected to be US $99 million. Commissioning the Demopolis facility with initial industrial wood pellet production is expected in the second quarter of 2021. With the addition of the Demopolis facility Pinnacle will have more than 44% of its run-rate production capacity outside of the BC fiber basket. Plans to install a chipper and additional pelleter at the Smithers facility have been finalized for a capital cost of $6 million. The upgrade will decrease costs and increase production run-rate output by approximately 15,000 MTPA. The project is expected to begin in Q1 2020, with completion expected in Q3 2020. Construction at the High Level facility progressed in Q4 2019 and is now in a planned suspension due to winter weather conditions until spring 2020 when warmer temperatures will allow for efficient construction to continue. An additional capital requirement of $6 million is expected, bringing the total capital cost to $60 million. Tolko Industries, a partner with Pinnacle in the project, has indicated that additional fiber will be available due to forest fire log processing, providing a strong supply of fiber for commissioning. As a result, management is confident that this will enable the facility to produce at the upper end of the 170,000 MTPA to 200,000 MTPA range. The facility is expected to be completed as planned in the fourth quarter of 2020. The upgrades at the Williams Lake and Meadowbank facilities are progressing on schedule and are expected to be completed and begin commissioning in Q1 2020 and Q3 2020, respectively. The upgrades will allow the two facilities, to process a broader array of available fiber sources and achieve a series of safety and environmental advancements. This investment will enhance the operating flexibility of the facilities and position Pinnacle to adapt to cyclical changes in wood fiber supply within the BC interior. Further, the equipment, technology and infrastructure improvements will result in an increase of 80,000 MTPA in combined overall production capacity. At the Aliceville facility, the second phase of the planned capital improvement plan is expected to commence in Q2 2020 and will focus on further improvements to fiber flow and processing in order to drive cost effective increases in production capacity. Ongoing work with fiber suppliers to optimize fiber mix and production levels have steadily increased through 2019. The Entwistle rebuild has been completed, the furnace and dryer have been restarted, and commissioning of the new equipment is in process. Restoration of the facility is expected at a total estimated capital cost of $14.
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Wood Bioenergy / April 2020
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Wood Bio Conference
Information Blitz By Rich Donnell and Dan Shell ATLANTA, Ga. wenty-eight speakers, 46 equipment exhibitor companies, and three university exhibitors participated in the sixth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo held March 10-11 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center. Attendance, including speakers, exhibitor personnel, producers, consultants and academia, hit 200. The event, hosted by Wood Bioenergy magazine and Georgia Research Institute, featured a diverse range of presentations, including talks from Scott Bax, chief operating officer of Pinnacle Renewable Energy; John Keppler, chairman and CEO of Enviva; Jose Gonzalez, senior principal with AFRY; and Bill Strauss, president of FutureMetrics.
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Working Together In his talk Partnering for Growth, Bax provided an overview of Pinnacle’s aggressive expansion into industrial wood pellets, noting its nine existing pellet production facilities in North America, and two others under construction—one in High Level, Alberta, Canada and
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the other in Demopolis, Ala. in the Southeast U.S. Several of these are partnership arrangements with wood products companies, including the new plant in Alberta with Tolko Industries and the new one in Demopolis with Westervelt and Two Rivers Lumber. Pinnacle, Westervelt and Two Scott Bax Rivers have a similar arrangement for an existing plant in Aliceville, Ala. Bax said upon the completion of the two new plants, Pinnacle will have an annual production capacity of 2.83 million metric tons. Bax focused on Pinnacle’s approach to its partnerships, citing common goals, honesty and transparency, clear expectations, room to grow, “owning safety,” and the importance of leveraging each other’s strengths. And along with wood products companies, partnership also includes logistics firms, equipment suppliers, engineering and construction groups, fiber
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wood bio conference ■
haulage companies and end-use customers. Referring to the Westervelt and Two Rivers partnership, Bax said all the parties share a strong common value of safety. Pinnacle entered that partnership in 2018 at the existing Aliceville pellet mill, which is in the middle of a $10 million capital expenditure program. The new Demopolis mill will produce 360,000 MTPA with production commissioning expected in the second quarter of 2021. The majority of the wood fiber will be delivered from the adjacent Two Rivers sawmill. Westervelt’s new sawmill under construction at Thomasville, Ala. will also provide fiber. The partnership with Tolko on the new 200,000 MTPY facility at High Level represents an expanded relationship, stemming from the two companies’ partnership at the Lavington, BC pellet mill that started production in late 2015 with a production capacity of 300,000 MTPA. “Discussions with strategic partners, existing and new, are ongoing,” Bax added.
Climate Crisis Enviva Chairman and CEO Keppler provided a video presentation entitled How Renewable Wood Energy Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis. “As climate change and global warming become more urgent, leaders around the globe are exploring ways to solve the challenge of delivering secure, affordable and sustainable energy,” Keppler John Keppler said, adding, “We need solutions available today, not decades from now, like sustainable wood bioenergy. The last time I spoke at this conference, the topic wasn’t different, but the data that we have and the progress we have made since that time is pretty remarkable.” Keppler noted that the debate over climate change and, more specifically, the role of forests comes down to “purists” and “pragmatists.” Keppler cited a purist quote from a biogeochemist, William Schlesinger: “Cutting trees for fuel is antithetical to the important role that forests play as a sink for CO2 that might otherwise accumulate in the atmosphere.” Keppler also cited a pragmatist quote from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change & Land: “A sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest CO2 stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.” He said purists and pragmatists share the same goal—to limit increase in global mean temperature to
1.5°C, increase carbon storage and reliance on renewables, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and facilitate overall better energy efficiency and stability—but have very different views on how to get there. Delving into the purist approach, Keppler said they represent a narrow, radical viewpoint on the future of energy, promote that society does not need forest products and hold the belief that forests should continue to grow and store carbon indefinitely, never being harvested. They prefer a mix of wind, solar and battery renewable energy, but Keppler said to attain 100% electricity with this combination, assuming the best case scenario on a cost based approach, causes the cost of electricity to become exorbitant. “It’s a false promise,” Keppler said. He said the purist opposition to forest products such as dimension lumber and mass timber becomes an endorsement of steel and concrete and other carbon intensive building materials. And their basic argument for lack of harvesting or no forest management leads to, for example, the current state of affairs in forest fire-prone states such as Arizona, Colorado Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana, whose forests are now net carbon emitters. Keppler noted that renewable energy with biomass began with a strong belief and vision, but that in the past 10 years it has accumulated the data that endorses it as a viable and vibrant industry. “Ten years ago, we said given the opportunity to displace coal on a very cost effective solution, biomass can be part of the all-in [solution], with wind, solar and batteries, with combined heat and power.” Today in markets Enviva serves, such as Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK, “We’ve been able to reduce coal consumption by more than 60% just through 2018. Biomass didn’t do it alone, but as the adoption rates of wind and solar get even higher, the costs of intermittency become more challenging, and therefore the ability for biomass to provide 3, 8, 12, 15% on a baseload basis but as much as 100% when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, means you can increase penetration rates into wind and solar even further. “And if we look at the data between 2012 and 2018, for the forest resources in Enviva’s sourcing regions alone, we’ve increased forest inventory by 13%. Where there are more markets for forests, people grow more trees.” Keppler said the industry’s social license to operate is driven by the environmental benefits of sustainably produced biomass. He cited the need to continue to focus intensely on Enviva’s role as an integral part of the broader forest products industry, to be mindful of permanent carbon in high-value products, ensure that the markets they source from are low-value wood, and to provide the appropriate level of certification and conservation efforts to protect biodiversity and forest types. “If we do that, policy makers around the world will continue to provide the latitude for us to do what we do best, which is to displace coal, grow more trees and fight climate change.”
April 2020 / Wood Bioenergy
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■ wood bio conference
Global Production Hovering over industry is the future of industrial pellets and the market dynamics in European countries as well as the large potential of Asia as a growing market for North American pellet producers. A key driver of uncertainty is the year 2027, when the UK’s main biomass incentives that have driven Jose Gonzalez much of industry’s growth could expire. Speaker Jose Gonzalez, senior principal at AFRY (formerly Pöyry), spoke on the Dynamics of the Global Pellet Market and Impact to North American Supply. According to Gonzalez, a big competitive edge for North America is its stability and reliability as an industrial wood pellet supplier thanks to plentiful fiber sources and excellent infrastructure for timber harvest,
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processing and shipping. “North America produces 54% of global pellet supply,” Gonzalez said. “Reliability is a big plus and should be a selling point, plus there’s lots of excess biomass available.” Gonzalez noted that 2027 is when some of the major UK support for coal-to-biomass conversions ends, and currently there’s no way to tell what the government might do. “Will the government extend support, or is it possible to see a big drop in demand post-2027?” Gonzalez asked. While he said he believed incentives wouldn’t be completely withdrawn, Gonzalez noted that with existing European market opportunities set to decrease, there could be new demand developing elsewhere. Ongoing coal phase-out in countries such as Germany, the Nordics, and Iberia may produce opportunities for future demand. Another potential future development, Gonzalez said, is increased use of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology that could help reposition biomass and wood pellets as a carbon negative solution. Carbon storage is seen by some as a big part of the emissions reduction effort, due to the amount of carbon that needs to be removed from the system. The largest barrier is cost, as CCS technologies are not economical without
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revenue from high carbon prices or dedicated incentives, he said. While the long-term future for UK and Europe is a bit uncertain, most industry observers agree Asia is set for solid growth in pellet utilization in the near future. There is a wide range for potential demand development, especially in Japan, Gonzalez said. Overall Japan and South Korea could combine to reach Europe’s demand levels by the mid-2020s, he added. According to Gonzalez, North American suppliers may not be the most geographically positioned for supply into Asia, but they offer non-economic benefits that other regions cannot. Suppliers across North America can offer supply stability and market experience, which Asian consumers appear to value highly. This allows North American suppliers to remain competitive, even if they are not the lowest cost. Some North American producers, such as Enviva and Pinnacle, are already establishing contracts in Asia, Gonzalez said, noting 4.1 million tonnes of contracts from the two companies. “Asia is just getting started,” Gonzalez said, adding it’s important for industry to help foster new demand on countries that are phasing out coal-fired power generation.
Doctor Bill Dr. William Strauss, president of wood pellet and biomass consulting group FutureMetrics, delivered an excellent presentation on The Future of the Industrial Wood Pellet Sector. He said global wood pellet production (including industrial and heating Bill Strauss pellets) continues to escalate, approaching 36 million metric tons through 2018, including more than 10 million in North America, and that in 2019 North America exported 8.4 million tonnes. The biggest exporters in 2019 were the U.S., Vietnam, Canada, Russia, Latvia and Estonia. The biggest importers were the UK, South Korea, Denmark, Italy (heating pellets), Japan and Belgium. He speculates global industrial wood pellet demand will increase from 15.6 million metric tons in 2019 to 31.8 million in 2025. Strauss noted the focus on new growth will shift increasingly to Asia. He said he expects no more growth out of the UK come 2022 unless current policies are renewed.
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Canadian shipments, which have dropped from 80% of market share as recently as 2016 to 40% of Japanese market share in 2019. Strauss also said he believes more policy evolution and growth is possible—even in the U.S.—and more likely as the consequences of climate change become increasingly costly at increasing rates. “Using sustainably sourced wood pellets as a substitute for coal in utility pulverized coal power stations is already part of the solution in many locations and will continue to be part of a rational and pragmatic off-ramp to a more decarbonized future,” he concluded.
In The Woods Strauss noted that there are potential new markets where coal-fueled plants could co-fire or full-fire pellets if policies evolve, including in Germany, the U.S., China and Australia, but he believes the major growth under existing policy for the near future is in Japan and perhaps South Korea In South Korea the demand for pellets is supported by Renewable Energy Certificates. If the utility is short on RECs at the end of the year, it can purchase them. The REC prices vary depending on supply on demand. But the system isn’t working properly. REC prices have dropped so producers are buying them and skipping biomass conversion. The government also recently changed REC policy and essentially cut values in half, further crippling the program. This has led to a reduction in pellet shipments. The country has a major upside as a key industrial economy, but “growth in South Korea is difficult to predict given the uncertainty over REC prices and the potential for more tweaks to REC pricing,” Strauss said. Meanwhile in Japan, officials are seeking to increase renewable energy from 16% of total power mix in 2017 to 22%-24% by 2030. Strauss noted that under Japan’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) system, “There are hundreds of small biomass-fueled independent power projects operating or in the pipeline.” He added that the trend is also toward larger installations, as 70 of the more recent projects average 44.3 MW. Such a trend is also reflected in Japan’s increased monthly pellet imports, which have ranged from around 15,000 metric tons in January 2015 to almost 165,000 metric tons at the end of 2019. Japan’s annual wood pellet imports was 1.6 million metric tons in 2019, up from 500,000 in 2017. Growth in Japan is expected to be substantial, with industrial wood pellet demand reaching 9 million metric tons in 2025. Several major power plant conversions are likely in the future, Strauss added. As for suppliers into the Asian pellet market, Strauss noted that the recent reduction in shipments to South Korea is creating excess supply in Vietnam that’s in turn making its way to Japan. The development has hit
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Danny Dructor, executive vice president of the American Loggers Council, spoke on the Health of the Logging Ranks and Staying Ahead of Environmental Encroachment. Dructor said ALC and its members appreciate the promotion of wood for bioenergy, whether in the form of a pellet, biochar, Danny Dructor cogeneration or biofuels, because it provides new markets to participate in. Environmentally, he said most loggers just keep doing what they have been doing for most of their careers, practicing sustainable harvesting practices that includes caring for the land, the flora and fauna on the landscape, and taking pride in their professionalism and ability to overcome change. He noted that environmentalists have taken well intentioned laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act and have abused them in liberal courtrooms and negotiated settlements with federal agencies as a means to paralyze the industry, especially on federal lands. “We have also seen attempts by those such as the Dogwood Alliance to stymie operations of private lands through a host of misinformation meant to stop the wood energy markets from developing,” Dructor said. Dructor said more than 26,500 American environmental groups collected total revenues of more than $81 billion from 2000 to 2012, according to The Giving USA Institute. He said The Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace International, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund are the biggies in annual collections, followed by the Sierra Club Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Audubon Society. Dructor recommend two books authored by Ron Arnold and Paul Driessen that “follow the money trail and corruption that exists between environmental or-
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ganizations, our government, and those that benefit the most from the implementation of environmental regulations.” One is Undue Influence and the other is Cracking Big Green to Save the World from the Save-the-Earth Money Machine. Dructor then reported on the results of the ALC 2019 Logger Survey, which received 580 responses nationwide. He said nearly 35% of the loggers indicated they are financially worse off than they were a year ago and 16% are better off. A whopping 97% said it is virtually impossible to replace or add new hires to their operations, and 73% said the wages and benefits were not sufficient to attract the right kind of workers to the industry. Loggers ranked finding quality drivers, trucking rates and insurance costs as the three most important impacts in being able to move wood from the landing to the mill. Insurance, equipment costs, trucking and labor ranked one through four on the list of increased operational costs. With a choice of seven items, another question asked loggers to rank to what extent landowners or mills (or the clients they work for) valued those seven items: Low logging costs scored highest, followed by consistent production, high production, safety, environmental quality, professionalism and certification.
Hurricane Michael Devon Dartnell, director, market analysis and research, Georgia Forestry Commission, spoke on Hurricane Michael’s Impact on the Forest Resource. He noted several things that worked in favor of the post-storm salvage effort, including that GFC organized an immediate meeting with mills, timber producers and the Florida Forest Service. He said wet storage capacity was added at some mills such as Rex Lumber and Canfor; producers focused on high value timber first and pulpwood tracts were postponed; log truck weights increased to 95,000 lbs. GVW and permits were issued for wet decks; logs were barged to south Alabama for additional sawmill capacity; pro-
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ducers came in from the north and west to add logging capacity; the wet winter made salvage difficult but extended utilization lifespan and it prevented mill quotas; and loggers gave it their all in the most difficult conditions during the salvage effort. Dartnell said while typical conventional logging Devon Dartnell costs are $9-$12 per ton, Hurricane Michael logging costs were $15-$25 per ton due to the arrangement of wood and because trucking costs also went up. Harvesting challenges were plentiful: the cut down machines first had to access into the damaged stand; snapped off stems required the skidder to pick up individual trees; sawmills would not accept diagonal cuts at the butt or top end; splits, knots and stresses were worse from Michael than less powerful storms; some mills took only leaning trees because of shake, splits and loose knots. Dartnell said future challenges are numerous: timber supply is severely depleted in the path of the storm; mills are having to truck logs farther. With 1.35 million acres severely or catastrophically damaged in Florida and 370,000 acres in Georgia, reforestation contractors and seedling nurseries will be sold out for years and require more than a billion seedlings.
Affordable Clean Energy Detailing some of the differences between the EPA’s recent Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule now being finalized, and the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan it replaced, Scott Osbourn, principal with Trinity Consultants, covered EPA’s Final ACE Rule and Its Scott Osbourn Bioenergy Implications. The previous Clean Power Plan had over-reached, he said, as a program that sought to regulate the energy sector through the Clean Air Act and inserted EPA into energy policy. The new ACE rule allows states to set their own standards that meet federal guidelines consistent with current law. The former plan had also determined the best system of emission reduction (BSER) for power plants based on reductions achievable not only through inside-the-fence measures such as technical and process improvements but also through shifting of generation
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from higher-emitting to lower-emitting plants and fuel conversions. Now, EPA defines BSER for CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants as heat-rate improvements based on a range of “candidate technologies.” The big difference is the new rule concentrates only on technical improvements “inside the fence” at a power plant. Any benefits derived from biomass conversions or co-firing such as sustainability and carbon sequestration from replanting aren’t even considered. Dealing directly with wood bioenergy, Section 111 of the new rule notes that: “While biomass itself can be considered a carbon-neutral fuel due to its role in the natural carbon cycle, biomass combustion emits more CO2 per BTU than fossil fuels, thereby increasing the CO2 emission rate at the source.” Osbourn added EPA will not allow biomass co-firing as a compliance measure because recognizing its potential for reducing CO2 emissions “relies on accounting for activities not applied at and largely not under the control of that source…including consideration of terrestrial carbon effects during biomass fuel growth.” Section 111 also says states can’t rely on emission averaging or trading among affected coal-fired units at the same or different plants and no credits can be given for reductions achieved through increased utilization of renewable energy or gas-fired generation.
Non-Wood Bioenergy Alternative fiber sources have a definite place in the supply chain, said Wendy Owens, CEO of Hexas Biomass, during her talk entitled Non-Wood Bioenergy Crops + Wood for Sustainable Energy Production. Owens noted 30-40% potential U.S. wood cost increases by 2050. Non-woody biomass sources have a role to play in the Wendy Owens market, but also come with a set of disadvantages and benefits, she said. Some of the negatives include low energy density and high variation of physical and chemical characteristics. Availability and affordability are issues depending on location, and there’s always a risk when relying too much on one feedstock source, she said. Looking at a branded giant grass, Xano Grass, Owens noted that among other benefits the fiber is an easy wood supplement that drops right in to pellet production processes and adapts well to efficient mechanical harvesting systems. Xano Grass is a nitrogen fixing soil remediator that’s carbon negative, extremely high yield and requires no pesticides and low water use, she said. Compared directly to wood, Xano Grass is more productive, Owens’ presentation showed, generating 540
tons of biomass over 18 years compared to the 85-215 tons of an 18-year timber rotation. Owens stated that pellet producers should consider adding alternate fibers as a way to meet demand while keeping costs down and increasing supply chain resilience. Doing so is a low cost way to mitigate variability and uncertainty, and also control ash and silicon content, she said.
In My Backyard Cornelis De Hoop, associate professor of the Louisiana Forest Products Development Center at Louisiana Sate University, presented The Wood Pellet Industry in the U.S. South: Urban vs. Rural Resident—Environmental, Social and Economic Perceptions. De Hoop spoke for the authors of the study, Dr. Rich Vlosky, director of the Cornelis De Hoop LFPDC, and Mason LeBlanc, procurement analyst with Drax Biomass. De Hoop said the study was conducted because there is a significant gap in the knowledge-base regarding the relationship between the U.S. industrial wood pellet manufacturing industry and the general public, and more specifically with regard to rural and urban perceptions. The study survey focused on population in a 50mile radius of six pellet mills (rural) and on the two largest metropolitan areas in each state with mills selected for the survey (urban). Not surprisingly, 46% of the urban respondents were not aware of the pellet industry, while only 18% of rural had no awareness. Several questions provided a 1-5 (strongly disagree, somewhat disagree, neutral, somewhat agree and strongly agree) answer base. Generally rural residents
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Focusing on southern pine timberlands, Copley said the average southern yellow pine plantation accumulated 2.4 tons of volume per acre per year in the late 1980s, and by 2016 that number had more than doubled to five tons per acre per year. “As a whole, we are growing much more wood on an acre of land today than we were 30 years ago,” he said. “There is still room for improvement; a well-managed SYP plantation can produce six to eight tons per acre per year.” Abundant grade supply is one of the factors that has led to a massive influx of sawmill investment in the South. In 2019 Copley said firms in the South completed 10 sawmill expansions and five new sawmills began operations. This added 1.7 billion BF of capacity to the regions. Firms expect to build or expand 21 mills in the South in the next two years. Southern softwood sawmill capacity should approach 23 billion BF by 2024, a gain of 17% in five years. more so than urban dwellers think the wood pellet industry is more effective in protecting the environment, though there is some skepticism from rural as well. Urban residents more so than rural think the industry more negatively affects sustainable forests, wildlife habitat, water quality, soil quality and air quality, though rural also shows some skepticism about air quality control. Rural was more agreeable than urban that the industry is good to work for, creates quality jobs and contributes to community economic health. Overall, rural respondents had a more positive perception of the wood pellet industry, though it wasn’t an overwhelming endorsement.
Timberland Trends Andrew Copley, senior analyst with Forisk Consulting, spoke on North American Timberland and Forest Industry Capital Investment Trends. He noted that the rapid rise of TIMOs (Timber Investment Management Organization) and REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust) as a major component of the private corporate landowner class in North America is mirrored by the decline of the vertically integrated forest products company. He said that Weyerhaeuser’s REIT with 11,735,000 million acres is far and away the largest owner of Andrew Copley timberland; it is larger than the four largest U.S. TIMOs combined. He said in 2019 about 1.6 million acres changed hands.
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Circular Bioeconomy Dr. Dick Baldwin, managing partner of Oak Creek Investments, spoke on Forest Utilization within a Circular Bioeconomy. “It’s a clever term that describes a process that yields the greatest benefits from the forest over time. When it is done well, greater benefits are realized by all,” Baldwin said. Baldwin addressed global warming and defined it as when CO2 and other air pollutants Dick Baldwin and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb solar radiation that has bounced off the earth’s surface— radiation which normally would escape into space. But pollutants trap the heat, causing the planet to get hotter. The solution, if you agree with the premise, Baldwin said, is to consume less CO2 generating substances, extract CO2 out of the atmosphere, and sequester whatever CO2 you can in long-lived repositories. “Nothing can do it as effectively as trees within a working forest,” Baldwin said. “Using the regenerative approach is even more effective.” And the resulting solid wood products can store nearly half the carbon that is captured in a growing tree, Baldwin said. “Wood and its processes lends itself to the principles of circular bioeconomy,” Baldwin said, adding that the buzz around the Tall Wood building movement (mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber) is providing impetus to move forward with circular bioeconomy. Baldwin, citing the U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas In-
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ventory, said U.S. forests and forest products sequestered more than 730 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2019, equal to almost 15% of U.S. carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. Baldwin further defined a circular bioeconomy as a process of share into a hierarchy of products, maintain as long as possible, use resources to the maximum, reuse in a different form or application, reduce waste to a minimum and dispose in an environmentally friendly manner. The role of forest and wood product within a circular bioeconomy is most pronounced because “the faster the tree grows, the more carbon is derived from the atmosphere and embedded in the tree. Carbon sequestering increases as the tree grows and declines as it ages and decays. Resulting wood products will sequester carbon indefinitely based on their service life,” Baldwin emphasized. Baldwin noted that currently there is much controversy in identifying the environmental impact of biomass being used for heat and energy, but he added, “Biomass and its variety of uses is an integral contributor to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the circular bioeconomy framework for creating greater value while reducing the environmental impact.”
Friendliest Feedstock Determining the most carbon friendly and lowest cost feedstock for electricity generation in Georgia was the goal of a study presented by Dr. Puneet Dwivedi, Associate Professor of Forest Sustainability at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. His presentation was entitled Wood Is the Most Carbon Friendly Puneet Dwivedi and Least Expensive Feedstock for Electricity Generation. Dwivedi noted the nature of coal consumption and electricity generation in Georgia across four production areas (consuming 13.6 million tons of coal a year). Land use patterns across the state were noted in relation to coal production, and the potential of various feedstocks in each area was analyzed. Georgia’s 38 million acres include 25 million acres of forested land, 4 million acres of agricultural land and 2.5 million acres in pasture, Dwivedi said, and a wide variety of feedstocks can be grown, the most common being various grasses, corn stover and cotton stalks, and pine timber. Dwivedi sought to find the most cost-effective and carbon friendly bioenergy feedstocks for coal-based power plants located in Georgia. In doing so, his study
compared the unit cost of electricity and the unit carbon intensity of electricity generated from bioenergy feedstocks in the state. The study included a cost-benefit analysis and life cycle assessment (grams of CO2/unit of electricity generated), and assumed all feedstocks would be torrefied. The lowest unit cost of electricity was pine timber at $112.8 per MWh, followed by cotton stalk ($116.8) and switchgrass ($119.5). The highest? Energycane, at $132.5 per MWh. Pine also had the lowest per unit greenhouse gas intensity of the feedstocks examined, at 133.7 kg of CO2 emissions per MWh. No other feedstock came within 10%, as the closest was giant reed at 150.1 kg of CO2 emissions per MWh. “Loblolly pine is the most cost effective and carbon friendly feedstock that can displace coal in Georgia with little monetary support,” Dwivedi said.
We’re Working While admitting that his labor market insights came with a big coronavirus impact question mark, George Meek, owner of Top Wood Jobs, said older age groups are projected to have faster rates of labor force growth, continuing a trend. Meek spoke on George Meek the Current Employee Market: Where Are All the Available Workers? A Recruiter’s Perspective. Going into March, for the first time there were more U.S. job openings than eligible workers to fill them, Meek said, and the U.S. and other countries are facing a
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widening skilled labor gap. Other dynamics include more wage and benefit increases, as average worker pay hit its highest level since 2008, and greater incentives to keep workers. Meek noted that the most re-
cent labor reports showed turnover rates close to an all-time low at 44% with wood products at 35%. In such an environment, Meek told Wood Bioenergy Conferences attendees, “Recruiters are actively going after your
employees.” Adding that he should know, Meek said, “More of the candidates I contact are now employed and not looking for a job.” The longtime industry recruiter added, “The best people are already working.” As for employees who are working but looking for a job, location is a big consideration, he said, in addition to better pay and benefits and also a better work-life balance. Thanks to the Internet and everything from networks like LinkedIn to ex-employee chat rooms, prospective employees are now doing almost as much research as employers do on them to find the right fit. “They can take their time to find better jobs,” Meek added.
Better Information
Tim Young
Pellet producers and others in the wood bioenergy supply chain can use data mining and “big data” information to better assess risk when it comes to feedstock issues and plant locations, according to Tim Young, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Tennessee’s Center for Renewable Carbon. Young spoke on Using Data Mining and Big Data to Assess Risk in the Biomass Supply Chain. He noted that increasing computing power and access to more streams of data and better ways
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of analyzing and acting upon it have the potential to move the industry to a new technical level, yet issues remain. Developing stable and accurate sources of data is critical to taking advantage of these technical advances, and addressing such issues as oversimplification or cumulative variability across sample size are important to develop accurate systems. For example, Young said, overlaying geospatial data with socioeconomic data may help producers quantify feedstock risks or future issues, but maximizing the value of such information is only possible by using high quality databases and data streams. Another example is the familiar “forested regions” map one sees of the whole country or certain regions, with their color shadings for areas with the highest timber volumes. Now, Young said, technology allows a much more accurate—and realistic— picture when the forested areas are overlaid with federal lands data, population centers and concentrations, plus unsuitable timber-growing regions. This provides a much more detailed and insightful awareness of feedstock issues and trends, he added. Young referenced the Biomass Site Assessment Tool (BioSAT) he’s been involved with through UT along with other universities and organizations that uses algorithms integrated with geospatial and socio-economic data to quantify risk probabilities when it comes to determining the best location for a pellet plant or other biomass processing facility. “Data mining and algorithms can help us assess risk,” Young said, calling data mining the “new frontier” in information technology. “Risks affect financial outcomes, and periodic updates of data is critical,” he concluded, cautioning those in the audience that “Algorithms are only as good as the data” that they use.
Coming in the next issue of Wood Bioenergy: Coverage of the Wood Bio Conference will continue with summaries from the presentations delivered by several equipment suppliers and engineering consultants.
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■ dryer island Air Burners Air Burners, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of air curtain burner systems worldwide. Air curtain burners eliminate wood waste (including whole logs and root balls) and protect the environment by using air curtain technolPGFireBox produces biomass power generation. ogy to eliminate smoke. Air curtain technology will trap the smoke particles and reduce the particulate matter released into the air, reducing them to an acceptable limit per U.S. EPA guidelines. Air Burners offers a variety of products to fit your job site. There are smaller, tailorable machines like the Trench Burner and BurnBoss. The larger machines such as the FireBox and PGFireBox can be brought into your jobsite on a flatbed trailer. The Trench Burner, Burn Boss and FireBox machines arrive fully assembled at your job site so you can quickly get to work. The PGFireBox allows you to generate electric and thermal energy while getting rid of wood waste. There are three different units to choose from: the 100KW, 500KW or 1000KW. This energy, both electric and thermal, can be used to power your job site, warehouse, dry kilns, etc. Each unit is able to be disassembled and reassembled, allowing you to easily move from one job site to the next. It requires no permanent facilities, like buildings and smoke stacks. In addition, the PGFireBox does not require secondary fuel sources like natural gas. This reduces the cost and makes the installation easier. Air Burners machines create a byproduct of burnt wood debris called biochar. Biochar is essentially a wood charcoal that can be used in a wide range of applications such as soil amendment, plant growth and water retention. Many of Air Burners’ customers use the biochar production as supplementary income while helping to get rid of wood waste.
Baker-Rullman
Baker-Rullman high efficiency wood biomass drying
Baker-Rullman’s innovative triple-pass drum dryer offers industry leading performance and efficiency in the smallest possible package size. A properly sized and tuned drum dryer system suited to your input volume is the key to planning an efficient system. BakerRullman’s specialized engineers are dedicated to accomplishing these
goals with each and every installation. Here are some key factors that have contributed to our record of dependability:
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Three full length cylinders provide the maximum effective length and residence time in a very compact package. The drum drive uses specifically designed engineering class bushed roller chains and sprockets. Trunnion rollers are made from Class 50 cast iron with a minimum roller face hardness of 270 BHN. The inboard tapered roller bearings, which have a ‘B-1-’ life of 15 years, allow the roller to rotate around our stationary roller shaft supported by our hold-down pillow blocks. The drum tire in our systems is hot forged from a single billet of AISI 1025 steel, then finish machined. There is no weld seam on it, and the steel grain structure is oriented for greater wear resistance and strength. To achieve efficiencies better than 1,500 BTUs per pound of water evaporated, our design incorporates longer residence times, robust temperature control, and superior drum insulation. Precise electronic controls eliminate heat surges and fuel waste. Consistent evaporation in Baker-Rullman’s triple pass dryer design protects wood biomass from under or over drying. Heavier, wetter product moves slower than fine particles, giving uniform drying to all particles. That’s why our rotary dryers have long been known for protecting the integrity of all types of material. Baker-Rullman’s energy efficient, high-performance rotary dryers have developed a global reputation in ultimate reliability.
Hurst Boiler Hurst biomass boiler systems and solid fuel STAG (Stand-Alone Gasifier) series burner can reduce or even eliminate your energy and disposal costs through the combustion of renewable and susHurst STAG green burner tainable fuel sources. It’s capable of burning wood, coal, bark, construction debris, nuts, shells, husks, paper, cardboard products, hog and poultry fuel, sawdust, shavings, sludge and agricultural biomass. Offering integration and scalability, the new, high efficiency Integrated Control Systems—BIOMASS-TER and FIREmaster for boiler room monitoring and communications—provide advanced supervisory boiler controls for all new and legacy Hurst products. The Hurst Biomass-ter and Firemaster feature a Co2 neutral release and integrated PLC based total systems for plant and remote monitoring, and integrate with all protocol conversion communications such as bacnet, MODBUS, and Ethernet IP. Hybrid Series: available in steam or hot water multi-pass dry back design, 100 to 1800 BHP, 15 to 450 PSI steam. N65 Series: available in steam or hot water firebox design, 100 to 1500 BHP, 15 to 450 PSI steam. S100 Series: available in steam or hot water firebox design, 100 to 800 BHP, low pressure steam with hot water options. STAG Units are used when heated air is needed instead of steam or hot water. Hurst manufactures units to service oil heaters, rotary dryers, lumber kilns, brick kilns, and the firing and co-firing of boilers. Available with components such as ash systems, material handling, custom blend refractories, combustion air systems and the Hurst BIOMASS-TER combustion monitor-
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ing system. Our biomass, cogeneration and solid fuel burner product line is available with options including flat grate stokers, underfeed stokers, and traveling grate stokers to meet all biomass system requirements. Energy solutions based on biomass and biofuels provide clean and renewable energy.
Polytechnik In 2018, OIE AG, a subsidiary of the energy supplier Innogy SE, commissioned Polytechnik with the supply and installation of a waste wood-fired saturated steam boiler plant with a Polytechnik saturated steam boiler with automatic cleaning steam capacity of 15t/h. In Baumholder, OIE AG operates a heating plant with an overall heat output of 45 MW. Only fossil fuel natural gas had been used for heat generation. The heat was fed to the local district heating network from multiple flame-tube boilers in the form of steam. The main recipient for heat from the heating plant are the US Army’s properties in Baumholder. The saturated steam boiler plant is designed for a thermal output of 10 MW, which corresponds to a steam capacity of 15t/h, and a maximum steam pressure of 13 bar (above atmospheric pressure). The biomass boiler is used for baseload supply and should be operated all year round. Polytechnik’s scope of supply and performance included the complete plant technology, from the fuel feeder to the chimney. The shredded waste wood is stored in three chambers; every chamber is equipped with a top-loader discharge system, provided by the customer. The top-loaders drop the heaped wood chips into the fuel feeder. First, the fuel is evened out by a vibratory chute in order to reliably detect and discard long splinters and ferrous metals in the downstream fuel sorting plant, consisting of a separator for objects with excessive length and a magnetic separator. The processed wood chips are transported to the holding tank via a trough chain conveyor and from there to the hydraulic fuel insertion, which feeds it to the combustion chamber. The firing consists of an adiabatic combustion chamber with a watercooled push grate. In general, Polytechnik considers the heat generation through combustion and the subsequent heat recovery in the boiler separately—that is, the boiler will only work well and, above all, consistently, if an adequate combustion has taken place beforehand. Therefore, Polytechnik firings are always customized for the respective fuel and dimensioned in such a way that the complete combustion of all organic components in the boiler is guaranteed. The downstream saturated steam boiler is a fire tube boiler with two flues. The boiler is equipped with the proven compressed air system for fully automatic cleaning of the flue tubes during plant operation. For increased efficiency, the boiler is equipped with a downstream economizer. This way, the plant can reach a combustion efficiency of >90%. The customer put a great emphasis on high accessibility and maintainability of all plant components. Therefore, Polytechnik supplied a steel structure for inspections, which allows access to all areas that require regular mainte-
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nance via stairs. A SNCR plant (selective, non-catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides via urea injection), developed by Polytechnik, was installed for flue gas denitrification. Polytechnnik already used this system in multiple projects and every time it reached a high separation efficiency. In this plant, a Lühr fabric filter is used for flue gas filtration. This filter reduces the dust content in the flue gas to < 20mg/Nm3, relative to a residual oxygen content of 6%. The filter ash is collected separately from the grate ash and flue ash in an ash silo. The silo has a capacity of 100m3; the ash can be emptied directly into a silo vehicle through a loading station. Polytechnik plants are controlled by a safety-oriented Siemens PLC. A special feature of this controller is its high control accuracy. The key operating parameters remain stable even during strongly fluctuating use of power. Every plant can be monitored via remote maintenance. The new boiler plant has been supplying heat to OIE AG’s district heating network since late 2019. An availability of more than 8,000 hours per year constitutes no problem for Polytechnik plants. This plant’s output can be reduced to 15% of the nominal output when using dry fuels and can therefore still be operated regularly with a power consumption of only 1.5 MW.
Stela Following more than 95 years of tradition, stela Laxhuber has improved its tried-and-tested technology and brought them to the market. With the newly established RecuDry system, operators will be able to Stela low-temperature belt dryer RecuDry work with at least 35% less energy consumption compared to older systems or, taking another perspective, will have an accordingly higher drying capacity maintaining their present energy consumption. The stela RecuDry system divides conventional technology into two drying areas. The Recu module saturates the drying air optimally by circulation and reheating. A partial stream of the saturated air is fed to the condensation module. The contained—mostly latent—energy warms the fresh air in the condensation module. By using an air-to-air heat exchanger, a large part of the energy used is thus recovered and thus guarantees a highly efficient drying. Decreasing energy consumption by minimizing emissions to ambient are the main advantages showing up with the green way of drying. The stela RecuDry system is a new technology that makes it possible to retrofit existing plants quickly, space-saving and cost-effectively, while also making a significant contribution to the reduction of emissions in the drying plant. The steadily increasing number of realized projects in Europe shows the potential of the new technology and continues to make the industry sit up and take notice. Some references for Stela RecuDry systems include: IKEA Industry, Poland; Federer Pellets, Italy; Mayr-Melnhof Holz, Austria; SIA Baltic Block, Latvia; Stora Enso, Sweden; Rettenmaier & Söhne, Germany; and Moelven Pellets, Norway.
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■ product news Morbark Reveals Two New Grinders
New Morbark Wood Hog 2400X
Morbark, LLC debuted the 2400X and 3000X Wood Hog horizontal grinders at this year’s CONEXPO/CON-AGG show in Las Vegas. Both machines can be equipped with tracks (XT models); and the 3000X can be built as a fifth-wheel/dual-axle unit or pintle
hitch/tri-axle. Ideal for niche markets like municipal solid waste, pallet recycling, sawmills, nurseries and tree care debris, both grinders are perfect for processing yard waste, brush and other mixed woody feedstock into salable product. Designed to be modular and available in multiple configurations for various applications, these grinders can take businesses to the next level. These newest models in the X Series of next-generation horizontal grinders from Morbark follow the successful launches of the 3400X in March 2017 and 6400X in May 2018. “Morbark continues to expand our efforts to better serve the needs of all our customers no matter where they live and work around the world,”
says Michael Stanton, Morbark Director of Industrial Products. One of the most important features of the 2400X and 3000X is their compact size. Their standard width (2400X: 7'6"/2.29 m; 3000X: 8'2"/2.49 m) make them within the legal transport width in any country. The models also share design features like the sloped infeed sides, which improve operator sight lines for more efficient loading of material, and easy-to-load grate systems. The 2400X ranges in horsepower 188 to 203 (140.2 – 151.4 kW), while the 3000X has engine options from 350 – 577 HP (260 – 430 kW). Like all of Morbark Wood Hog models, both the 2400X and 3000X also will be available with electric power.
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Top Wood Jobs Recruiting and Staffing George Meek geo@TopWoodJobs.com www.TopWoodJobs.com (360) 263-3371
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Wood Bioenergy / April 2020
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