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■ table of contents

www.woodbioenergymag.com

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14 IN THE NEWS Enviva Adds Production Capacity

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IMPORTANCE OF PELLETS Global Carbon Emissions Discussion

14 DRAX’S NEW LEADER Matt White Takes The Helm In U.S.

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DRY END PRODUCTION From Handling To Processing

16 ENVIVA WEBINAR Laying Out Biomass, Climate Goals

Cover Photography:

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18 WOOD BIOENERGY PART III More Presentations From Atlanta

Senior Vice President Matt White makes the rounds at Drax’s industrial wood pellet operation (Morehouse Bioenergy) in Bastrop, La. (Photo courtesy of Drax)

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Wood Bioenergy / August 2020

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table of contents ■

advertising index Advertiser Index is a free service for advertisers and readers.

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Baker Rullman Manufacturing

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Volume 12

Number 4

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■ from the editors

Coming To Grips

With No Place To Go N

ow we know what Irving Berlin meant when he wrote “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” As we remain mired in a seemingly perpetual state of isolation, we’re missing show business more and more, and realizing how much we had taken it for granted.

I’m not talking about musicals and theater as Berlin was, but rather all of the conferences and expos that have been—shall I repeat it—cancelled. These announcements of another show yet cancelled have been coming across the email with more regularity than those scams that want you to share in a million dollars left in someone’s unclaimed estate.

We can very much relate to the organizers of these events as they hold out until the last possible moment (hoping for a miracle). We’ve had two experiences: One was with our Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo held in Atlanta in mid-March just as the pandemic hit. To say we squeezed that one in doesn’t do justice to how tight it was.

Even as we were in the middle of that event, we were wondering if another show we do—the Timber Processing & Energy Expo, which is a bigger machinery show geared toward building products manufacturing, held in Portland, Ore.—just might be the first show out of the gate come late September. It never stood a chance. We announced its cancellation the first of July and noted the next one would be held in September 2022 as scheduled.

My heart goes out to those who are full-service event providers—the companies and their employees who handle the moving in and moving out and all of the other logistics. And what about the audio-visual technicians for these conferences? Where are they now?

Something else you’ve surely noticed is the byprod-

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uct of these cancelled in-person events and conferences: the onslaught of the virtual event. There is a role for these especially with smaller conferences. We were approached about considering one for our larger machinery expo in Portland, but it was too late in the game and frankly we’d like to see one or two other big events pull these off before we test those waters.

Our gut feeling is that when the day comes where we can move freely about the public domain and can enter a venue without fear of contamination, that we will cherish the face-to-face encounter once again, standing around in a close knit circle at a booth and talking some business or just catching up with each other’s families, seeing the expressions on everybody’s faces.

We miss going to trade shows and setting up our booth and talking to hundreds of people each day.

We’re missing those gatherings more than we could have imagined. But who could have imagined this?

Wood Bioenergy / August 2020

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■ in the news Enviva Purchases Georgia Biomass Enviva Partners is purchasing a wood pellet production plant (known as Georgia Biomass) in Waycross, Ga. with associated export terminal capacity in Savannah, Ga. from innogy SE. The purchase price is $175 million (US). In operation since 2011, the Georgia Biomass plant exceeded 800,000 metric tons in annual production last year.

The closing of the transaction is subject to antitrust clearance— both in the UK and in the U.S. The closing is planned for the third quarter of 2020.

Christoph Radke, COO Renewables at innogy SE, comments, “We are selling our U.S. pellet production facility as a result of a strategic realignment process that was decided already some years ago. This strategic realignment led to the decision that biomass was no longer considered a core business activity. As part of this process, we have already sold three biomass-fired power stations and a pellet production facility in Germany in addition to a biomass asset in Italy. The pellet plant in Waycross is the last biomass asset in our portfolio. We are convinced that Georgia Biomass would be better placed in a company which has pellet production as one of its key strategic pillars.”

Fabian Gaus, Managing Director of Georgia Biomass LLC, adds: “I’d like to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to our employees. Georgia Biomass exceeded 800,000 metric tons in annual production in 2019 and ended the previous year with setting benchmarks not only in production, but also in quality, sales and profitability. In doing so we have created a perfect basis for the future of the company under the umbrella of Enviva.”

As part of the Georgia Biomass acquisition, Enviva will acquire long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts with an existing partner-

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ship customer for annual deliveries of approximately 500,000 MTPY through 2024. The Waycross plant exports its wood pellets through a terminal at the Port of Savannah under a long-term terminal lease and associated services agreement.

Enviva Partners also has agreed to purchase Enviva Pellets Greenwood Holdings II, LLC, which, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, owns a wood pellet production plant in Greenwood, SC from its sponsor for cash consideration of $132 million and the assumption of a $40 million third-party promissory note.

The Greenwood plant has been operating since 2016 and its wood pellets are exported through the partnership’s terminal at the Port of Wilmington, NC. The partnership plans to invest $28 million to expand the Greenwood plant’s production capacity to 600,000 MTPY by the end of 2021. The partnership expects the Greenwood acquisition to close on or about July 1, 2020.

In connection with the Greenwood acquisition, Enviva Partners will be assigned five long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts with Japanese counterparties that have maturities between 2031 and 2041, aggregate annual deliveries of 1.4 million metric tons per year.

“The Greenwood and Georgia Biomass acquisitions are fundamentally transformative for Enviva’s scale and diversification,” says John Keppler, Chairman and CEO of Enviva. “Not only are we increasing Enviva’s fully contracted production capacity by 35 percent, but we are doing so in new fiber baskets, with new deep-water terminal infrastructure, and with new customers under new long-term, take-or-pay off-take contracts that we expect will enable us to continue our track record of generating durable cash flows and growing our distributions sustainably well into the future.”

Prior to the two acquisitions, Enviva Partners owned and operated seven plants with a combined production capacity of 3.5 million

Georgia Biomass produced more than 800,000 metric tons in 2019.

metric tons of wood pellets per year in Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Florida. In addition, Enviva exported wood pellets through its marine terminals at the Port of Chesapeake, Va. and the Port of Wilmington, and from third-party marine terminals in Mobile, Ala. and Panama City, Fla. The two acquisitions will add two operating plants with a combined production capacity of 1.4 million metric tons of wood pellets per year, and third-party marine terminal in Savannah.

4FRI: Election Antics With Phase 2 Pending An election year shuffling of candidates for Arizona’s Corporation Commission (ACC) may bring new life to the near-derailed 4 Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) that’s seeking to restore healthy conditions across 2.4 million acres on four national forests.

Just last year the five-member ACC voted down a proposal to require state utilities to purchase up to 90MW of biomass-fired power, a critical market expansion for the biomass and brush material produced by each individual forest restoration project.

However, this past spring a state court judge threw multiple candidates off the ACC ballot due to irregularities in signature-gathering, including an incumbent.

The two members not facing election are split on the biomass proposal. Three seats are open, so if two candidates who support the mandate are elected, the biomass utilization effort stands a better

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in the news ■

chance of moving forward. (Eligible candidates are on both sides of the issue, and some haven’t taken a position.)

Such election year antics may affect the 4FRI’s success: Increasing utilization of and expanded markets for biomass are critical to forest health in Arizona, and most involved with 4FRI agree that lack of biomass markets is severely hampering restoration progress.

Awarded in 2012, the first 4FRI contract (Phase 1) to treat 300,000 acres in 10 years has woefully underperformed, treating roughly 15,000 acres total compared to its goal of 30,000 acres a year, with lack of biomass markets a big reason for coming up short.

Meanwhile, national forest officials in Arizona are hoping to award 4FRI Phase 2 contracts in September following several contract modifications. Most notable, the contract time frame has been doubled, to 20 years, with several years of “ramp up” time to develop forest products infrastructure included.

The Phase 2 contract also more than doubled the acreage to treat to more than 800,000 acres. A five-year timber harvest plan included in Phase 2 solicitation materials identified 101 projects on 203,000 acres estimated to produce 1.097 billion BF in logs and 152 million cubic feet of biomass that must be removed or handled and reduced on site.

Results of this year’s ACC election will have a definite bearing on the development of biomass markets in the state.

Drax, Mitsubishi Team Up On Carbon Capture Drax Group and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd., part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group (MHI), announce a new bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) pilot project at Drax Power Station in the UK, which will get underway this autumn. The pilot will test MHI’s carbon capture technology—marking

This massive pipe would transport flue gas from the Drax boilers to the carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant for CO2 removal of between 90-95%.

another step on Drax’s journey toward achieving its ambition to be a carbon negative company by 2030.

MHI’s 12-month pilot will capture around 300kg of CO2 a day for the purpose of confirming its technology’s suitability for use with biomass flue gases at Drax.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, comments, “Our plans to develop BECCS at the power station in North Yorkshire will help to boost the UK’s economy following the COVID crisis and support the development of a zero carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region.

Two of MHI’s proprietary solvents will be tested, one of which—KS-1 Solvent—is already being used at 13 commercial plants delivered by MHI, including Petra Nova in Texas, USA, the world’s largest post combustion carbon capture facility, capturing 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 a year.

The other is the newly developed KS-21 Solvent, designed to achieve significant performance improvements and cost savings.

Kenji Terasawa, President & CEO, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, adds, “We firmly believe that our carbon capture technology would be able to contribute to the UK’s zero carbon targets in a material way.”

Implementing BECCS at Drax

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■ in the news

could deliver 16 million tonnes of negative emissions a year—a third of the negative emissions the UK needs from BECCS to reach its zero carbon targets by 2050 and anchor a zero carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region, delivering clean growth while protecting 55,000 jobs.

MHI, together with Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO), started the development of the Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery (KM CDR) Process, a post-combustion carbon capture technology, in 1990.

Alaska Coal Firm Acquires Pellet Mill Officials with Alaska-based Usibelli Mines, Inc. announced the company has acquired Superior Pellet Fuels of Fairbanks, which produces wood pellets and briquettes for local markets. New Usibelli subsidiary Aurora Energy Solutions is also installing a new generation wood kiln that will utilize waste heat from a nearby Aurora coal-fired power plant.

The project is part of an overall effort to improve air quality in Fairbanks, where firewood is a primary mode of heating but the market is mostly green wood, leading to

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higher emissions. Fairbanks has been out of compliance for years with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards because of local temperature inversions during cold winter weather that concentrate pollutants at low levels in the community, creating health hazards.

The kiln, supplied by SII Dry Kilns, will produce dry firewood that burns much cleaner, up to 7,000 cords annually. Officials with Superior Pellet Fuels say the acquisition will also allow financing for long-needed expansion and a move to year-round production.

The projects will provide regional residents with more local options for low-emissions wood fuel.

Seedling Program Continues To Grow On June 13 Pacific BioEnergy Corp. (PacBio) achieved another milestone when planting crews with Strategic Natural Resource Consultants planted the half-millionth seedling as part of a PacBio planting program. The seedling was planted in a block near the Norman Lake West Forest Service Road, west of Prince George.

PacBio concluded its Spring Plant with the planting of 680,000

seedings. The Summer Plant is scheduled to begin on July 4 with another 450,000 seedlings to be planted.

PacBio CEO John Stirling planted PacBio’s first seedling on May 8 in the Bobtail Fire Biomass Recovery Area. “This year’s planting program is our first experience with replanting forests that were burned by an early season wildfire in 2015,” Stirling says. “We determined that we could salvage a lot of the burned wood and truck it to our plant in Prince George to make wood pellets. We’ve created economic opportunity and accelerated the reforestation in the fire damaged areas without piling and burning before replanting. I want to thank the planting crews for their work this spring and our Woodlands team for leading this project. We look forward to celebrating the planting of our One Millionth Seedling.”

In 2015, the Bobtail area west of Prince George was hit by a major wildfire which burned an area covering 25,533 hectares. The extent of the fire damage prevented salvage by the traditional forest industry.

In 2019, PacBio reached agreement with one of the major licensees in the area to salvage some of the burned fiber utilizing

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in the news ■

the licensee’s bioenergy license.

PacBio proceeded to complete forest development planning and harvest unit layout while taking into account all the resource values that are present such as wildlife habitat, visual quality objectives, fisheries, and archeological resources.

FortisBC Will Provide Renewable Natural Gas FortisBC is teaming up with REN Energy International Corp.

(REN Energy) to offer Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) produced from wood waste to its customers. The innovative project features technology being used for the first time in North America and represents exciting new opportunities to reduce emissions using British Columbia (BC)’s expansive forestry sector, according to FortisBC. The production facility will be owned and operated by REN Energy and located near Fruitvale, BC. Renewable Natural Gas is a carbon-neutral energy that is typically made from capturing the methane released from decomposing organic waste. This project will make use of waste from forestry operations, sawmills and other wood product manufacturers and, rather than collecting the methane from decomposition, would create syngas through gasification. The syngas is further converted to methane and then purified to meet natural gas line specifications.

Once operational, the technology will create a use for forestry waste in BC and unlock the potential for significant new volumes of RNG in BC. This will also assist the forestry industry with cleaning up bush residuals, thereby assisting in provincial forest fire mitigation.

Advancing carbon-neutral energies such as RNG is a crucial element of FortisBC’s 30BY30 target—the organization’s goal to reduce customers’ greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. FortisBC is also working toward having 15% of its natural gas supply be renewable by 2030, which is in

line with commitments outlined in the Province’s CleanBC promise.

The project received regulatory approval from the British Columbia Utilities Commission last month and is expected to be in service in the summer of 2021. It is anticipated to produce over one million gigajoules of RNG annually, which would make it the largest source of RNG in the province to date. RNG blends seamlessly with conventional natural gas in FortisBC’s existing infrastructure, which includes approximately 49,000 km of natural gas lines, safely delivering energy throughout the province.

Coal FIRST Initiative Could Include Biomass The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has announced its intention to commit $81 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects through the release of the draft funding opportunity announcement entitled Design Development and System Integration Design Studies for Coal FIRST Concepts. The draft Funding Opportunity Announcement has been issued so that interested parties are aware of DOE’s intention to issue the finalized FOA later this summer.

Projects resulting from the finalized FOA will support DOE’s Coal FIRST initiative. DOE’s Coal FIRST (Flexible, Innovative, Resilient, Small, Transformative) initiative wants to develop the coal plant of the future, capable of flexible operations to meet the emerging needs of the grid and transportation sector; use innovative and cutting-edge components that improve efficiency and reduce emissions; provide resilient energy to Americans; be small compared to today’s conventional utilityscale coal-fired plants; and transform how coal technologies are designed and manufactured. Some designs will also provide hydrogen to support transportation and in-

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■ in the news

dustrial applications.

The projects will complete (1) design development; (2) host site evaluation and environmental information volume; (3) an investment case analysis; and (4) a system integration design study for an engineering-scale prototype of

one of the following Coal FIRST power plant concepts: 1) Flexible Ultra Supercritical (USC) Coal-Fired Power Plant 2) Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustor with Supercritical Steam Cycle Power Plant 3) Hybrid Natural Gas Tur-

bine/USC Coal Boiler Power Plant 4) Flexible Gasification of Coal & Biomass to Generate Electric Power and a Carbon-Free Hydrogen Co-Product Projects will be managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Loggers Seek Aid From Congress On behalf of its members throughout the country, American Loggers Council (ALC) is requesting $2.5 billion from Congress to directly support American loggers whose businesses have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. ALC Executive Director Danny Dructor was working with a lobbying/PR firm in early June to introduce a “COVID 19 Economic Damage Relief Package for Logging and Trucking Companies in the Forest Products Industry” bill, or “Logger Relief Fund” for short.

Joining the ALC in this effort are associations representing several states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington and Northeastern Loggers Assn.

Congress has already granted financial aid to assist farmers, fishermen and other producers of agricultural commodities through this crisis. America needs loggers, too, and as providers of another essential commodity, loggers also need America’s help.

As wood fiber consumption has been reduced due to the market impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s small, familyowned logging and log trucking businesses have not escaped the fallout. Matthew Pellki, Professor at the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello comments: “The Assn. of General Contractors (AGC) has re-

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Wood Bioenergy / August 2020

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in the news ■

ported that 40% of the construction workforce in the United States has been laid off due to project delays and cancellations. No construction means orders for lumber fall, mills saw fewer logs, and less standing timber is bought and harvested.” Pellki predicts that even if the reopening of the economy is successful this summer, followed by a consistent relatively normal economy, it will still be two years before pine timber markets strengthen.

It would be a significant challenge for logging and log trucking businesses to survive such a long recovery, and the nation’s essential wood fiber supply chain could be severely disrupted. In order to sustain the supply chain, the proposed Logger Relief Package would provide a loan program for contractors through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assist them in keeping business operational for the next 12 months while their markets attempt to recover.

Loan funds could be used for business operating expenses such as equipment loan payments, maintenance costs, fuel and oil expenses, insurance payments and other fixed and variable costs not already covered in existing federal payment programs.

To receive the loan, a contracting company would have to provide evidence of gross revenue and/or volume produced in 2019, through payment statements or a copy of 2019 business tax return forms that have been submitted to the Internal Revenue Service. A company could receive up to 10% of its gross revenue for operations in 2019 in the form of a loan. Over the next year, as long as the company can prove that revenues or volume delivered were down 10% or more from 2019, the funds will be treated as a grant and will be forgiven. If, however, the company revenues are down less than 10%, the funds will become a low interest loan not to exceed 5% and will need to be repaid.

In its announcement, the ALC

states, “This is not a state or regional issue, but a national issue that needs to be addressed to sustain the essential service providers of the timber harvesting and hauling industry. Members of the American Loggers Council stand ready and able to assist members

of Congress and the Department of Agriculture.”

Log on to the ALC web site: amloggers.com/news/supportthe-logger-relief-package and fill out the form that will automatically generate an email to your representatives.

August 2020 / Wood Bioenergy

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■ matt white q&a

New Drax Biomass Leader

Matt White EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt White was named Senior Vice President of Drax Biomass on January 6, 2020, coming from a chemical and logistics provider to the oil industry where he was director, Manufacturing & Engineering. The bulk of White’s career has been in manufacturing management, helping organizations to grow, adapt to change and increase safety and efficiency by developing high-performing teams. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Wood Bioenergy posed a few questions to White as he settles into his leadership role over Drax Biomass operations in the U.S., based in Monroe, La. Drax Senior VP Matt White Wood Bioenergy: To say that you’ve encountered challenges you didn’t anticipate upon being named Senior VP for Drax Biomass would be a great understatement. Can you address how Drax Biomass reacted to the pandemic initially and how things have progressed?

Matt: In a crisis, people come first. The safety and well-being of our employees is critically important at all times, not just through the pandemic, and the team has been very successful and diligent in working together to promote a safe working environment. We have processes in place to ensure people are working safely and socially distancing when they’re at any of our facilities so as not to spread the virus and we’re in contact with our partners throughout our supply chains to ensure they’re doing the same.

Some of the measures we implemented during the pandemic include restricted travel between different sites, separation of shift workers, social distancing and other provisions across the pellet mills, offices and other infrastructure. Drax’s dedicated biomass export facility at the port of Greater Baton Rouge on the Mis-

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sissippi River in Louisiana is highly restricted and tight controls continue.

We’re also in regular contact with local, state and federal authorities to ensure that sustainable biomass supplies continue to flow. Highlighting the resilience of our supply chain during the pandemic, we loaded our 100th cargo of sustainable biomass at our Baton Rouge port facility for delivery to Drax Power Station in the U.K., where it helped keep the lights on for millions of U.K. homes and businesses.

WB: How do you feel the industrial wood pellet industry is faring during the virus crisis?

Matt: Our business has been very resilient during this time. This has helped support Drax Group’s robust global biomass supply chain as it continues to deliver the fuel the U.K.’s largest power station needs to produce 12% of the country’s renewable electricity—enough to supply up to 4 million households.

WB: Coming in, what were/are some of your goals for Drax Biomass?

Matt: The safety and well-being of our employees and our communities is always our first priority across the company as we work to grow our business while reducing costs. Drax Group aims to increase sustainable biomass production capacity to 5 million tonnes a year from 1.5 million tonnes now and cut costs by a third by 2027. Here at Drax Biomass we have a number of projects and initiatives either completed or underway to help achieve that.

These include the new rail spur at our LaSalle pellet plant in Louisiana and the co-location of a sawmill at LaSalle—both of which have already helped reduce emissions and costs over the past year. In terms of in-

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matt white q&a ■

creasing the amount of sustainable biomass we supply, 0.35 million tonnes of expansion are already underway and we expect to add more with the construction of smaller satellite plants.

WB: What was your impression of the Drax operations team coming in?

Matt: When I took up the role, I quickly realized that we already had a very strong team. This is helping us in our focus to ensure we have a robust health and safety culture as we continue to produce high-quality pellets in the most efficient way and work on expanding sustainable biomass supply.

WB: What do you see as some of the biggest challenges for Drax and the industrial wood pellet industry moving forward in a post-coronavirus world?

Matt: We have learned that clarity in what we need to do is really important to us all. Our COVID priorities— keeping everyone, including our local communities, as safe and healthy as possible, and keeping our business running well—have been fundamental to our success in the past few months. This has helped lay a very strong foundation for moving forward and meeting our goals to increase pellet production and implement further efficiencies in the supply chain as we reduce costs.

Matt: Biomass-generated electricity will be an important part of the global climate change solution. It supports healthy forest growth and biodiversity, while providing reliable, flexible renewable power and is a way to deliver much-needed negative emissions.

Adding carbon capture and storage to bioenergy—a technology called BECCS that Drax is already testing at the power station in the U.K.—takes sustainable biomass a step further by providing the negative emissions that will be crucial to meeting global net zero targets. Last year we announced our world-leading ambition to be a carbon negative company by 2030 by using BECCS—meaning we would be removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is produced right across our operations.

Because it can deliver negative emissions BECCS is a game-changing technology—it is the only negative emissions technology which also produces flexible renewable electricity and as a result it will be needed around the world to meet climate targets. It’s also an opportunity to drive an economic recovery post-COVID that helps preserve and create jobs and clean growth— both here and in the U.K., while also generating renewable power.

WB: What is your opinion of the current effectiveness of the industrial wood pellet supply chain?

Matt: Drax Group has a robust and resilient supply chain with specially developed port and rail facilities and other infrastructure to transport the biomass to the power station in Yorkshire. Here in the U.S., Drax built two pellet mills and acquired a third creating 1.5 million tonnes of pellet self-supply. Alongside developing Matt: We ship all our biomass from our three wood the vital infrastructure, we also designed a world-leadpellet manufacturing plants in Louisiana and Missising sourcing policy to ensure that the biomass Drax sippi to Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire in Enguses is sustainable and supports healthy and growing land. This means that we are supplying around 20% of forests. the biomass Drax uses to generate flexible, renewable As an example of how far our supply chain has come power for homes and businesses in the U.K. already, in the past five years, the team here at Drax’s As we look to the future, we see that the global market Baton Rouge facility has gone from loading its first for biomass wood pellets is growing. We expect it to vessel with 20,000 tonnes of sustainable wood pellets, grow around 5% a year over the next eight years due to to the 100th vessel, which loaded almost 63,000 tonnes. growth in demand from Asia—in particular from Japan.

The team did this while achieving an industry-leading This is a positive sign for biomass, safety record, underscoring its as more markets are recognizing focus and commitment to the its benefits and more people are well-being of our employees. supportive of the role it can play in We will continue to work generating renewable power and around the clock to maintain conhelping to meet global climate tarsistent and reliable deliveries of gets. As the global biomass market sustainable biomass to Drax develops, it will bring opportuniPower Station—a critical national ties for the company to capture asset which supplies 12% of the value in other markets.

U.K.’s renewable power. We are constantly reviewing our supply WB: Give us your take on the chain from the forests to the Matt White leads Drax’s rapidly expanding op- power station to ensure it is as efcarbon capture movement that erations in the U.S. Drax is so heavily involved in. ficient as possible.

WB: Drax continues to increase its percentage of its own pellet production that goes to the U.K. facility. Does Drax also currently ship to other countries and which countries seem to have the most potential for Drax?

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Enviva Hosts Webinar On Biomass

By Jessica Johnson

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sustainability must be tracked, and REDII requires management systems at the forest sourcing level. Jenkins described that these systems must be designed to account for the legality of harvesting operations; forest regeneration of harvested areas; areas designated for nature protection purposes are protected; harvesting considers maintenance of soil quality and biodiversity; and that harvesting maintains or improves long-term product capacity of the forest. She cited the European Commission directive stating that for any country not a party to the Paris Accord, “management systems are in place at forest sourcing area level to ensure that carbon stocks and sinks levels in the forest are maintained, or strengthened over the long term.”

Jenkins, who has been at the forefront of creating a tracking system for Enviva’s harvesting contractors called Track and Trace, explained how the Enviva system meets and exceeds the requirements laid out by the European Commission. Harvests must meet strict guidelines, including no non-forest conversions and other industry standard best management practices.

Jenkins addressed the positive economic impact that biomass has on local and especially rural economies in the U.S. with some compelling data positively correlating forest harvest and growth; before closing with how stand or single tree accounting cannot provide accurate near or long term assessments of the net GHG emissions.

The webinar circled back to some high level forest industry remarks—like biomass is not the market driver for a given harvest of timber; that clear-cut has a negative connation in the public eye; and proper forest management actually yields more trees overall.

Jenkins ended with the sentiment that the biomass debate has been emotionalized away from the data.

n May 27, Jennifer Jenkins, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Enviva, and Roger Ballentine, President, Green Strategies, hosted a webinar based on a paper the two published May 6 called Seeing The Forest: Sustainable Wood Bioenergy In The Southeast U.S. The hour and a half long presentation touched on the major topics of the paper. The six Jennifer Jenkins major themes included the role of biomass in a clean energy portfolio; not all biomass is good/not all biomass is bad; aggregate national-level greenhouse gas inventories fully account for biomass/there is no “loophole”; the net climate impact of biomass sourced from private working forests cannot be properly assessed without consideration of market economics; focus on single tree or stand level accounting does not provide an accurate assessment of net GHG emissions in the near or long term; and other attributes that must be part of any evaluation of biomass production from U.S. Southeast forests.

Ballentine initially focused on steps needed to achieve mid-century climate goals, which include reducing global warming by 1.5°C. Citing information from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): A tripling of bioenergy use across economic sectors can help achieve 2050 targets for decarbonization. The pair then began the more broad scope descriptions of biomass and what steps Enviva sees necessary in order to have biomass more widely accepted and utilized to help achieve a cooler planet.

Jenkins touched on the basics of a working forest, especially in the Southern U.S. She noted that forest inventory in the U.S. South has increased while harvests remain steady—pellets accounted for just 2.7% of removals in 2017. She was clear to explain that while Enviva supports limiting harvesting use, private landowners dominate the forestland of the U.S. South, and halting harvests would be problematic, and detrimental to local rural economies.

As part of the European Commission’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (REDII), biomass Enviva webinar focused on perceptions and realities of forest biomass

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■ wood bio conference

Advanced Pellets Lead

Wood Energy Discussion

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is the third in a three-part series reviewing the speaking sessions during the sixth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo held March 10-11 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta and hosted by Wood Bioenergy magazine. The seventh Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo will be held March 29-30, 2022 in Atlanta.

By Rich Donnell, Dan Shell and Jessica Johnson

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popular session during the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo was devoted to Advanced Pellet Technologies, and more specifically: Is It Time to Move to Pellets 2.0? What Is the Technical and Economic Status of Advanced Pellet Technologies?

Bill Strauss, president of FutureMetrics, served as the moderator. Strauss noted that steam exploded or torrefied pellets produced by thermal treatment have been promised

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for years as a better option to white pellets. They have higher energy per cubic meter, some exhibit hydrophobic characteristics, and in general they require less modifications to pulverized coal power plants that want to co-fire or fully switch from coal to pellet fuel. However, Strauss said, the promises have consistently failed to come true due to technological shortcomings, their inability to compete with white pellets on a dollars per delivered energy cost basis, and to some degree, market inertia in a sector where more than 25 million tonnes of white pellets will be used in power stations in 2020.

An illness kept Bjørn Knappskog, CEO of Arbaflame, from attending, but moderator Strauss stepped in and presented Knappskog’s paper, Advanced Pellet Fuel from a Proven Technology.

Knappskog has been head of business development of the bioenergy division at Pemco since 2017, which includes both white pellets production and district heating, and development of next generation wood pellets through Norway-based Arbaflame. He has held the role as CEO of Arbaflame since late 2019, with key focus on commercialization and preparation for large scale industrialization of the technology.

Knappskog explained that Arbaflame Pellets are handled and used as coal throughout the supply chain. He said in addition to emerging demand from Japan, Arbaflame sees an increased demand for this type of fuel in Europe.

“Coal is actually being phased out by EU governments and local stakeholders,” he said, pointing to examples such as Italy, which is expected to phase out coal power by 2025, as is the UK, Finland by at least 2029, Denmark, The Netherlands and Portugal by 2030.

Knappskog said Arbaflame has been developing a coal-

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replacement biofuel at its What is torrefaction? Johnson demonstration plant since asked. “Heat treatment process 2010. The process has included for woody biomass that progresmore than 10 full-scale tests sively decomposes and gasifies together with end-users. the biomass, leaving a higher Arbaflame demonstrated carbon, higher energy material 100% conversion in 2014 and that can be further processed delivered Arba pellets for sev(typically by densification) into eral years to the Thunder Bay a variety of primary feedstocks generating station, a backup for other products such as bioplant in Ontario. It demonmass fuel.” strated full conversion to bioHe said torrefied pellets can mass with only minor show a comparative cost and Arbaflame reports signing a long-term supply agreemodifications. Although this is profit advantage compared to ment with Maasvlakte power station in Rotterdam. Dea backup plant, it demonstrated liveries started in the second half of 2019. This photo white pellets. He said the process the difference in capital expedican be tailored to custom fuel is from Oslo Port, just outside the city center. ture conversions compared to properties, offers more carbon large white wood pellets. and less volatiles, lower energy He said Dong Energy spent €95 million to replace coal density and higher yield, can be blended with coal or other with white pellets, Ontario Power Generation at Atikokan biofuels, is hydrophobic, high density, can be produced with spent €100 million, Drax Power spent between £650-700 or without binders. He pointed to no adverse effect on mill million. Replacing coal with Arba pellets at OPG in Thunand combustion, low dust formation and torrefied biomass der Bay cost only €3 million. can replace coal in power plants.

The key challenge for all advanced pellet technologies Other key points, Johnson said, is the torrefaction of is to prove cost competitiveness versus traditional wood biomass can reduce the organically bound chlorine up to pellets. Arbaflame’s solution is to integrate its process with 90%, and that torrefaction is opening up the energy and chemical extraction, increasing the value of its waste biocarbon market for agricultural byproducts and grassy streams. This will be demonstrated at its new commercial crops with ordinarily high chlorine contents. “This could plant under construction this year. change the equation on both feedstock costs and sustainThe next challenge in order to increase the market peneability concerns,” he said. tration to an even larger scale is to become cost competitive Johnson said the potential encompasses biofuel pellets for versus coal per GJ. Arbaflame plans a full-scale R&D test power production, blast furnace carbon injection, chemical program to verify the use of low-grade fuel in combination compound recovery, concrete production, polymer extender, with chemical production to reach this goal in 2021-22.

3D printing, advanced material production, pretreatment for Extensive verifications, experience and technology gasification and biochar production. “Biochar not only sells readiness put Arbaflame in a position to sign a larger longfor several hundred dollars per ton, it also effectively seterm supply agreement with Maasvlakte power station in questers carbon into soil for hundreds of years and creates Rotterdam. Deliveries started in the second half of 2019 perfect conditions for permaculture eliminating the need for from the demonstration plant. fossil fuel based fertilizers,” Johnson said.

This demo plant by the way has now been demolished He also talked about the innerworkings of TSI’s Lab and construction of the commercial plant, Arba One, is onTorreactor. going. It will have a capacity of 70,000 metric tons of pelGarth Russell, Vice President of Biomass Conversion lets per year, combined with a biorefinery producing higher and Mechanical Pulping at Valmet, Inc., delivered a paper value products such as Furfural and Methane right away. prepared by Mats Arnberg, Director of Biomass ConverAndrew Johnson, Vice President of TSI, spoke on the sion Technology at Valmet, entitled Realizing the Green Current Status of Torrefaction Technology. He addressed Gold with BioTrac Continuous Steam Explosion System. briefly TSI’s background in drying and air emissions conArnberg said BioTrac is offered for use mainly in black trol technologies, and pointed to TSI membership in the pellet, bioethanol and biochemical production. He said International Biomass Torrefaction Council (IBTC).

BioTrac is adopted to the specific need of each process but What are the prospects for torrefaction? Johnson asked. in all parts is the heart of the process.

First he said there is cautious optimism, and that IBTC is The presentation addressed steam explosion, which he tracking 24 torrefaction projects representing more than 2 said dates back to the 1920s. Basically it is heating biomillion tons of production. “The process is becoming well mass with steam followed by rapid de-pressurization. The developed and products are very flexible,” he said. “The hemicellulose decomposes and lignin softens, making the potential market is huge.” material excellent for pelleting.

Johnson showed a world map of coal fired power and Some key points about black pellets, according to the the various stages of closure, shelving and very modest presentation, is that it’s a renewable fuel that can be used permitting and construction. to replace fossil coal, it is durable and more moisture re-

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sistant than white pellets, and thanks to its properties it lowers both the CAPEX as well as OPEX in logistics.

“Steam explosion is not to be confused with torrefaction,” he said. “They are two different methods to produce advanced pellets.”

The presentation showed that Valmet has the equipment, technology and expertise to offer a complete black pellet plant, including the energy island and controls center.

Valmet can offer the BioTrac system for capacities going from pilot scale up to about 500,000 t/year from a single unit. He described the continuously operating BioTrac reactor as beginning at the surge bin for storage and to ensure stable feeding of biomass; the plug screw feeds the material into the pressurized vessel, the reactor; the biomass is treated with steam and discharges continuously via a screw system; the reactor has automatic time and temperature control to ensure stable product quality; the steam explosion happens at the bottom where the biomass is discharged to the non pressurized part; after the reactor the biomass and vapor are separated; the vapor goes to energy recovery and biomass to pelleting.

The presentation noted several benefits. The first benefit relates to stable and constant steam consumption. The consumption of steam is continuous meaning that the steam supply system can be standard and simple. The system has automatic control of temperature and time.

The second benefit is the homogenous particulate quality, which in effect leads to a very homogenous pellet quality. The reason is the design of the discharge and the fact it is a continuous process which means that all particles are subjected to the same pressure drop after going from the pressurized zone to the non-pressurized zone. The reactor has automatic time and temperature control to maintain same process conditions.

The third benefit is the economical treatment of steam after BioTrac. Both from an environmental and economical perspective the vapor after the BioTrac needs to be recycled. The flow of biomass and steam is separated in a cyclone. A continuous flow means also the separated vapors are stable and constant and the system to treat or recover the vapors will have a simple and straightforward design.

All of these benefits leads to attractive CAPEX and OPEX. And the BioTrac system is based on further refinement of proven technologies in pulping and fiberboard, he said.

The presentation showed two graphics, one of a horizontal BioTrac mainly used for agro-based material, and one of a vertical BioTrac used for woody biomass. Valmet reports it has sold more than 20 of the pretreatment systems.

The presentation closed with the note that Valmet was selected by FICAP to deliver the first continuous BioTrac for the production of black pellets. The plant will produce 120,000 black pellets and startup is scheduled this year.

FICAP is owned by investment fund groups and Europenne de Biomasse who developed the project.

Tim Wagler, CEO of Trinity Green Derivative Products, spoke on CE2—Cellular Explosion Technology. He said this technology occurs at the cellular level and does not require a steam boiler; it is continuous, not batch, no long

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process exposures; creates large volumes of high-value liquid extract; it transforms the pelleting process: no hammermills, no indirect dryers; it enables smaller, federated pellet plants nearer lower-cost feedstock that can be rapidly installed and commissioned.

“Our objective is to produce highly conditioned fiber as a co-product, in concert with liquid extraction,” Wagler said.

He cited various liquid extract products (phytohormones, wood preservatives, adhesives, etc), and the coproduct fiber, noting pine chips that enter the technology at 50% moisture come out within seconds fiberized at 18%. The resulting CE2 pellets offer impressive composition breakdown.

He also showed a slide of CE2 fiberboard produced at Mississippi State University, 1 in. thick, 60 lbs/ft3 with 4% MDI binder.

Wagler emphasized the liquid extract. Each line (40K mt/year) produces 3 million gallons of extract per year, he said. Consider 80,000 mt (two lines) with gate price of $135/mt and $1/gallon liquid extract, requiring $10 million CAPEX at $125/mt and OPEX of $115/mt, delivering a production margin of $7.6 million.

He showed the plant conceptual and noted several partners including Anderson International for lignocellulosics, GLC Consulting for horticulture, Mississippi State University and Idaho National Laboratory.

Next steps? Wagler said two sites have been selected for a pellet demonstration plant; this will be followed by liquid extract commercialization (seeking go-to-market partners, emphasizing horticultural, row-crop applications); and the Phase 2 IP Development, and he said a co-development announcement is imminent.

Wagler said they continue to seek strategic investment partners and fiber demonstration partnerships.

Handling With Care Cautioning plant operators to take the time to better plan material handling as a part of new plant or expansion project design, Tim Brown, Business Development Manager for Biomass Engineering & Equipment (BE&E), gave a presentation titled Smart Material Handling–Good Designs Are NOT More Expensive.

Brown’s primary point was that considerations for efficient material handling need to be incorporated from the first conceptual meetings, not just tacked on as an afterthought or commodity component.

Smart material handling begins with smart designs and informed equipment selections, Brown said. “Is the goal to build the cheapest mill, or is the goal to produce a mill that is efficient, reliable, and profitable?” He questioned the logic of designing a plant and buying the best dryer, best pellet mills, best hammermills—and then connecting them with the lowest bid for material handling equipment.

Brown examined issues that BE&E sees on a regular basis that cause operational inefficiencies and unscheduled downtime. In general, plant operators work with an engineering group, EPC, contractor, or combinations of the

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three to design a new mill. Selections and layout-placement for the major pieces of equipment are done, then the pieces need to be connected. “Material handling equipment will not be optimized unless it’s considered during the layout design phase,” he stressed.

Optimized material handling includes monitoring and screening incoming raw material, and developing an autoreclaim infeed system that reduces reliance on wheel loaders. (Brown cited a recent study at a particleboard plant that showed the total annual cost of operating a wheel loader is more than $400,000.)

Brown gave a detailed example of how a more costly dual input conveyor infeed system is more efficient and profitable than a single input conveyor. In this case, it’s smart to build in redundancy to the system.

As an example, instead of designing an infeed that uses a single input conveyor running at its maximum capacity to move 50 tons/hr., use two conveyors with 35 tons/hr. capacity. That way, the plant isn’t completely down if there’s an issue with the infeed conveyor. Also, both conveyors are running at below capacity, leading to less wear and tear and longer component life. Plus, if one of the conveyors is down for repair or maintenance the mill can still operate at 70% capacity on the full 35 tons/hr. from the other con-

Tim Brown of BE&E addressed material handling.

veyor, Brown said.

He concluded that the cost of equipment can be misleading. “Is the least expensive really the best choice?” he said, urging operators and planners to determine factors such as total installed cost, component life and the costs of operation over five or 10 years. Also, don’t forget horsepower requirements and energy use over the life of the equipment.

“So what is the true cost when less expensive fails?”

Brown asked, adding that when factoring in the true costs of downtime, good designs are definitely less expensive, more efficient and profitable in the long run.

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Dust Management Jeff Nichols with Industrial Fire Prevention and Greg Bierie with Benetech USA captivated the audience with a breakdown of the hazards relating to combustible dust and how to manage dust while keeping production safe.

Nichols was up first with the presentation, The Combustible Dust Hazard Analysis. Nichols has been providing special hazards protection for combustive dust processes since 1979 and is the author of The Ultimate Guide To Fire And Explosion Prevention, a guide that aptly carries the tagline: a layman’s guide to helping you keep from burning down and blowing up your plant. Nichols, a return presenter to the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, and his company Industrial Fire Prevention, which represents Fagus GreCon, really drilled into chapter 7 of the NFPA standard, 652, on combustible dust and its accompanying requirement to do a dust hazard analysis.

Nichols explained what chapter 7 of the standard meant, what needed to be implemented by plants and when it needed to be done. The stan-

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dard requires all facilities to have dust hazard analyses done on all new and existing processes and facility compartments that are at risk for dust explosions. The dust hazard analysis must be completed to be in compliance with the standard—and the analysis should be reviewed and updated at least every five years.

The responsibility to have this analysis done falls to the owner/operator of the facility where materials are determined to be combustible or otherwise explosive, like a wood pellet plant or biomass power plant.

As an overview of the standard, the dust hazard analysis must evaluate the fire, deflagration and explosion hazards and provide recommendations to manage the hazards in accordance with other NFPA guidelines outlined in a subsection of the standard. The results of the dust hazard analysis review should be documented, including any necessary action items requiring change to the process materials, physical process, process operations or facilities associated with the process. In general, the analysis must include areas identified for evaluation where fire, flash fire and explosion hazards exist and identification of safe

operating ranges (including identification of currently in place safeguards and recommendations of additional safeguards).

As a refresher, Nichols touched briefly on chapter 5 of the NFPA standard, section 4, which articulates the determination of explosibility. In the event that explosibility of dust is unknown, the standard allows for three approved tests to be done— which includes the “go/no go” screening test methodology described in ASTM E1226. Additionally, as part of the 5.4 standard, owners/operators are allowed to use the worst-case characteristics of various materials being handled as a basis for the hazard analysis.

As required by 7.3, each part of the manufacturing process that could cause combustible dust to be present shall be evaluated, including potential intended and unintended combustible dust transport; fugitive combustible dust emissions and deflagration propagation. Manufacturing buildings are also included in this particular subsection of the standard, which includes each building or building compartment where combustive dust is present shall be evaluated, and the analysis must address potential combustible dust migration between buildings or building compartments, as well as potential deflagration propagation.

Nichols noted that as part of 7.3, the NFPA includes very specific language on housekeeping as it relates to dust accumulation. The evaluation of dust deflagration hazard in a building or building compartment shall include a comparison of actual or intended dust accumulation to the threshold housekeeping dust accumulation that would present a potential for flash-fire exposure to personnel or compartment failure due to explosive overpressure.

Threshold housekeeping dust accumulation levels and nonroutine dust accumulation levels (like from an upset condition) should be done in accordance with the NFPA standard.

In closing, Nichols pointed out that the NFPA standards are the primary point of reference for OSHA

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and the EPA, as well as insurance underwriters and other assorted authorities that might have jurisdiction over a facility. Additional information, including the exact language can be found on NFPA.org, or by reaching out to spark detection and fire mitigation equipment suppliers and insurance underwriters.

Wrapping up the session, Greg Bierie, Sales & Technical Marketing Specialist, Benetech USA, gave his talk, Total Dust Management—Production Done Safely. Bierie gave an overview of Benetech USA and the tools and solutions provided by the company to reduce dust, prevent spillage, improve material flow and ensure compliance with OSHA, MSHA, EPA and NFPA. Bierie then discussed two major dust explosion incidents in BC in 2012 (Babine Forest Products, Burns Lake, and Lakeland Mills, Prince George) where facilities were destroyed; there were four fatalities and over 40 injuries. According to the findings of Work Safe BC both incidents were because of wood dust acting as a fuel following explosions originating in spaces where conveyors were receiving and moving wood waste. Bierie asserted those incidents gave the industry a chance to change past thinking that one piece of technology or one piece of equipment will fix “it.” Now, he said, Benetech’s approach will be about integrating the right tools for successful solu-

tions—which include a sustainable approach to dust and spillage mitigation.

Bierie went through each of Benetech’s integrated tool solutions, noting before and after progressions in plants, as well as drawings and models that show the benefits of using Benetech branded engineered transfer systems.

While Bierie cited Benetech specific systems, of which there are over 450 installations, the advantages of using a transfer system apply to all available systems, which include reducing the generation of dust, increasing the wear liner life, reducing product degradation, reducing plugging, reducing maintenance cost and improving overall workplace safety.

Bierie moved quickly to talking about load zone components and load zone solutions offered by Benetech that increase plant safety, reduce conveyor maintenance and increase operating efficiency. Next up was Benetech’s dust suppression options, of which the company says it can reduce dust levels by over 90% with the added benefit of reducing moisture levels in biomass plants to less than 2% by weight. With lowered water usage, improved application and lowered maintenance of the spray system and cleanup in the conveying system, Bierie says mill personnel have compared the difference to night and day.

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A Decarbonized Future:

With Wood Pellets

By William Strauss

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s the consequences of climate change accelerate and become increasingly costly, policies aimed at controlling carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels will also accelerate and become increasingly aggressive.

There is a readily available pathway in the power generation sector for lowering carbon emissions. The solution leverages existing large utility-scale coal-fueled power stations by substituting a renewable solid fuel for the coal.

This relatively easy-to-implement fuel switching results in a dramatic lowering of the net carbon emissions per megawatt-hour of power generated. The replacement solid fuel is sustainably sourced wood pellets.

This topic has been the subject of previous FutureMetrics white papers. However, given the current COVID-19 induced disruption to our global economy and how that may impact energy policy strategies, it is important to remember that there is a relatively low-cost, easy to deploy, and highly carbon beneficial energy source solution for power generation.

Wood pellets produced from renewing working forests are already a major part of renewable power generation in many countries. In the UK, two large coal power stations, Drax and Lynemouth, have been repurposed to use pellets in place of coal. England’s largest thermal power plant, Drax, can generate power from 100% pellets on four of its 650 megawatt lines. With relatively low-cost modification, the two converted coal power stations have not lost

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any output capacity. Each Drax power boiler made 650 MW on coal and they make 650 MW on pellets.

And the power is not intermittent and variable. The chart below shows how power from pellet fuel in the UK performs a baseload role that is impossible for solar and wind.

Solar never generates at night and sometimes the wind does not blow very much. Follow the arrow on the chart for an example of a time in the UK when solar (it was nighttime!) and wind were not producing much power. A few days later, wind was producing a lot of power. Pellets, along with nuclear, are stable and underpin the grid’s supply of on-demand power. As a benefit to that stability, neither the combustion of pellets nor the energy from nuclear add to the net CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

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When wind turbines are generating substantial power (from evening April 16 onward in the chart), less natural gas, a fossil fuel that adds to the net CO2 in the atmosphere, is used. The baseload from the large power stations running on uranium and pellets provides a steady foundation of low-carbon electricity.

Wood pellets produced from sustainably managed forestry operations, when used to produce power, do not increase the net stock of CO2 in the atmosphere. The basic necessary condition for an area of managed forests is if forest growth rate equals or exceeds the harvest rate then the net stock of carbon held in the forest is constant or growing. Thus, the CO2 released in combustion is contemporaneously absorbed by the new growth and no net new CO2 is added to the atmosphere (more on this several paragraphs below).

For the Drax power station in the UK, the net reduction in CO2 emissions from the substitution of pellets for coal averages about 86%. The fossil fuels used in the supply chain for pellets result in a carbon footprint for the pellets delivered to the power station. It should be remembered that the fossil fuels used in the supply chains for natural gas, coal, or diesel also add to the carbon footprint of those fuels. Any fuel that needs to be mined or harvested, refined, and transported by pipeline, truck, rail, and/or ship will accumulate a carbon footprint if fossil fuels are used for power, heat, and/or transport.

With several assumptions on distances traveled by truck, rail, or ship, fuel used per tonne-km, how electricity is generated, the efficiency of the UK power station using pellets, etc., to get pellets from the Southeast U.S. to a power plant in the UK the estimated CO2 footprint is about 133 kilograms per megawatt-hour of electric power generated (kg/MWhe). The chart above shows how this is calculated. Getting coal to the power station will have a similar CO2 footprint.

The major difference between pellets and coal is the difference in CO2 emissions during combustion. When a typical grade of coal is used in a typical power station, combustion produces a net of new atmospheric CO2 of

about 980 kg/MWhe. Pellets produced from sustainably sourced wood fiber produce a net of new atmospheric CO2 of zero kg/MWhe. Opponents of the use of pellets for power generation disagree with this accounting based on two major objections: (1) pellets are not carbon neutral in combustion, and (2) the use of pellets will lead to deforestation. They are right to be concerned about carbon emissions from power generation and deforestation; but they are wrong about both when it comes to the use of pellets for power in advanced economies.

Pellets are already a major component in the global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Those efforts are supported by national policies that in one form or another incentivize the utilities to generate more carbon free power. Those incentives are typically a subsidy to the power generator to offset the higher cost of pellet fuel versus coal. To qualify for the benefits of the policies the generator has to prove with rigorous and independent auditing that there is a net carbon benefit.

The foundation of the auditing is based on a requirement to sustain the net stock of carbon sequestered in the forests. There are many other important criteria for satisfying certification requirements for the use of biomass derived fuel; but here we only focus on how those criteria assure a net carbon benefit.

As a simple example, suppose a managed forested region whose purpose is to grow wood for the forest products industry grows an additional 500,000 metric tons of new wood every year. That annual growth rate would set the boundary for the maximum removal in a year. If that boundary is not crossed, then the net stock of carbon held in the forest is not reduced because the net stock of biomass is not reduced. If all of that harvest were to become wood pellets (highly unlikely as sawlogs from which lumber is made almost never turn into pellets) then the carbon released in the combustion of the pellets would be cycled out of the atmosphere by the new growth in the managed forest that same year. Because a significant proportion of the annual harvest turns into lumber and that carbon is not cycled back into the new growth, the net change of CO2 in the atmosphere is negative as long as the sustainability boundary based on the annual growth rate is not crossed.

This explains why both objections by opponents of using pellet fuel are poorly crafted. We should all be concerned about deforestation. But to use pellets as fuel in a power station in the major importing nations of Europe, the UK, and soon Japan, the pellets must carry credentials certifying that they are produced from sustainable feedstock. If the source of the pellet feedstock is the result of activities that permanently reduce forested land, the power plant will be denied the support that allows it to use pellets in the first place; and those rejected pellets will not have a buyer in those markets. Sustainability rules embedded in CO2 reduction policies purposefully prevent deforestation.

In general, any large investment in a factory that uses forest products as feedstock, such as a large lumber mill, a pulp and paper mill or a pellet mill, does not expect a

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■ pellets pathway

factory requiring investments of hundreds of millions of dollars to run short of wood after a few years because their annual demand denudes the forest. For good business reasons, the production rate of a lumber mill, pulp mill, or pellet factory should never exceed the ability of the region to supply wood every day of every year, essentially forever.

In other words, the annual demand cannot exceed the ability of the region to produce annual new growth equal to (or greater than) the mill’s annual demand. Matching the size of the mill with the sustainable annual supply is good business.

But pellet producers have to go beyond that “good business” motive because of the requirements for an exporting pellet factory to prove the sustainability of its feedstock.

Thus, the fears of deforestation as a result of the pellet business between North America and major pellet importers are unfounded.

The sustainability of the forests translates into the foundation of the carbon benefits of pellets. The sustainability constraint that restricts the annual allowable harvest to not exceed the annual growth prevents the atmosphere from seeing a net increase in CO2 even if every tree harvested turned into pellets.

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But, as noted above, that is not how the industry works.

Pellets are not made from the high value portions of the tree. Most of the usable parts of the harvested tree turns into lumber, paper, or other engineered wood products; many of which sequester CO2. Some byproducts from sawmilling turn into pellets; and typically in normal markets, only the parts of the harvested trees that are not suitable for lumber and other building/furniture products, or pulp and paper, turn into pellets.

There is no rational logic that can show that the use of materials from responsibly and sustainably managed forests can result in a net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere.

As climate change consequences exponentially increase even nations like the United States will see the value in converting some existing high-efficiency coal fueled power stations to use wood pellets.

That strategy avoids stranding some coal power station assets. And the strategy is complementary to a rational and pragmatic transition to a more decarbonized future by providing renewable reliable baseload on-demand power.

William Strauss is president of FutureMetrics, based in Bethel, Maine. E-mail: williamstrauss@futuremetrics.com.

Phone 207-357-8708.

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dry end production â–

BE&E SMART Floors Biomass Engineering & Equipment offers robust, cost-effective wedge floors for reclaim in bunkers, storage buildings, and containers. Called SMART Floors, these machines are powered by a simple hydraulic system that is housed separately from the material for easy access. Each stroker in the system is individually powered so technicians can perform maintenance without halting output.

SMART Floors reclaim material with a push-pull system that shears material from the bottom of the pile to provide a true first-in, first-out material flow. Because the floors do not move the entire pile, the floors discharge material at a steady and accurate rate for better metering than a system with slat-floors.

SMART Floors are available in a SMART Container system—a storage/feeding bin built from a repurposed sea container. SMART Containers install quickly and can be made stationary or mobile.

These containers are advantageous in that they can be made dust tight, typically do not require building permits to operate, and can be easily moved or reconfigured. With these horizontal silos, operations can increase storage modularly by adding units side by side. Placing containers side by side also provides operations the ability to add redundancy and accurately blend material upon discharge.

Visit BiomassEngineeringEquipment.com/equipment/ smart-floors/

Brunette SmartVIBE Conveyor The Brunette SmartVIBE is a unique and simple vibrating conveyor, designed for low cost maintenance and maximum uptime efficiencies.

The patented design allows operators to change the conveyor speed by utilizing a variable speed drive (VFD) to control the drive motor RPM which effects the conveyor stroke. An internal counterweight ensures optimal balance, even at different speeds. The SmartVIBE has no external balance beams and no coil springs. It features a springless vibratory mechanism which is fully balanced at each stroke.

The vibrating conveyor drive is designed to be inboard complete with a single electric motor. An eccentric shaft, driven by a belt and a sheave complete with belt guard, is mounted in roller bearing assemblies and connected to the

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â– dry end production

conveyor with custom elastomer elements that provide trouble free operation in summer and winter.

Parallel torsional shafts are mounted in a heavy duty housing, secured in place with B-Loks and connected to the rocker arm. The rocker arms provide a link between the counterbalance weight and the trough. The counterbalance weight is a unique design feature of the Brunette SmartVIBE. It can be converted to a secondary trough to increase material flow, or to carry fines when a screen is being used.

The conveyor can be constructed in different widths and lengths, with size specific screening options, metal detector, or rare earth magnets. Our newest model, the Brunette SmartVIBE 5826, is 58 in. wide and comes with fines screen and metal trap. Visit brunettemc.com

MoistTech Measurement Sensors MoistTech Corp. has quickly become the leader in moisture measurement and control, manufacturing a range of online sensors and at-line instruments for moisture measurement and real-time moisture process control. Utilizing Near-Infrared state-of-the-art technology, MoistTech exceeds expectations, increasing profits and productivity.

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By measuring moisture continually through the production of wood pellets, proactive avoidance of moisture issues is accomplished. Insensitive to material variations such as particle size and material height/color, the sensors provide continuous, reliable readings with no maintenance, a one-time calibration with a non-contact, non-drift optical design allowing for immediate process adjustments based on real-time measurements.

Moisture management tools such as MoistTech’s IR-3000 Online Sensor allow for moisture content to be continually monitored and adjustments made on the fly.

MoistTech recommends installing sensors in several locations throughout the pellet process. First, installing a sensor prior to the dryer will monitor the moisture levels going in. Too dry of a product will result in over drying causing a dusty, ambient environment but could also result in a fire.

Installing sensors after the dryer, prior to the pelletizer,

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dry end production ■

will result in significant cost savings.

Product too dry will prevent pellets compacting and not molding together very well. Product too wet could cause the pelletizer to plug up, resulting in shutting down the line and product waste. Visit moisttech.com

less required maintenance—higher availability—lower total cost of ownership—smallest footprint in its class—designed specifically for biomass applications—easy access for cleaning and maintenance—ready to

start design for a short startup time— much higher torque compared to standard motor mills.

Schutte Hammermill is the exclusive distributor of Graf products in North America.

Schutte/Graf Mill

The new Graf GEPD 900/138 “Gorilla” is the world’s first biomass pellet mill with direct drive motor.

Designed and engineered in Germany, the Graf 900 features variable die speeds, allowing the operator to control the pellet quality through variable moisture and particulate sizes. The high torque motor is directly connected to the drive motor to deliver the power directly to the pelleting chamber. This mill has no belts or gears, so there are fewer moving parts and consequently less maintenance.

With the integration of the direct drive, Graf Equipment has significantly reduced the footprint of the 900 Series pellet press. The total weight of this mill is nearly 35,000 lbs., with a main shaft weight of 3,200 lbs. The front and rear roller support assembly weighs 1,322 lbs.

While the motor assembly technology is new, the pelleting chamber features Graf Equipment’s tried and true robust and compact design. The inside diameter for the die is 35.4 in., and the die track either 4.25 or 5.4 in. The mill features a temperature sensor at the roll assembly, and is available with optional control systems, feeders, mixers, die and roller lifts.

Features and benefits include: up to 10% less energy consumption—adjustable die speed for better quality—

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■ product news

Forbes Is Sole Owner Of Brunette Machinery Brunette Machinery Co. Inc. announced that Kirk Forbes has concluded the purchase of shares from his business partners and is now the sole owner of Brunette, which is celebrating more than 75 years as a leader in supplying quality equipment to the forestry industry.

This move brings the company back to its family roots. Forbes continues as President and CEO as he leads the company into the next era with the directive to strengthen Brunette’s position as a market leader for machinery in the North American forestry products and biomass industries.

“We are in a great position to capitalize on our growth potential both organically, and through strategic acquisitions and partnerships,” Forbes says.

Brunette is well known for its expertise in debarkers, hogs, and chip-

pers. Recently, Brunette has developed new wood processing machinery such as the Retract-to-Load (RTL) Log Singulator, BioSizer high speed grinder, SmartVIBE conveyor, Whole Log Micro Chipper, and Veneer Chipper.

Malwa Impresses Graanul Invest Valga Puu, a forestry company of Graanul Invest, has acquired two Malwa harvesters that will enable

better maneuvering in forest thinnings and prevent ground damage.

The light weight, nimble harvesters can move extremely small diameter forest material.

The harvesters are equipped with 700 mm tires, which significantly improve the distribution of weight and improve traction. The weight of Malwa’s machine starts from 5,400 kg (11,900 lbs.) and its length is 5–7 meters.

“Valga Puu continues to test the new machines to figure out the limits of their capabilities and the best relation between the management and profitability of the forests,” according to Graanul Invest. “Even the very first tests have clearly shown that the efficient new harvesters help to take modern forest stewardship to a new level.”

Graanul Invest, headquartered in Estonia, is Europe’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets.

■ CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS ■ ■ employment opportunities

Top Wood Jobs Recruiting and Staffing George Meek geo@TopWoodJobs.com www.TopWoodJobs.com (360) 263-3371

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