IN THE NEWS

FS Says Biomass Should Drive 4FRI

Following its cancellation of the Phase 2 Request for Proposal (RFP) and bid selection in September, which caught everybody by surprise, the Forest Service “has gone back to work” on how to move forward with stewardship and treatment of the 520,000 acres that was included in Phase 2, which was part of the 4 Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) seeking to improve forest health conditions on 2.4 million acres across four Arizona national forests while enhancing wood products manufacturing and biomass processing infrastructure.

The agency hosted an industry roundtable of 4FRI stakeholders on October 12 in Heber, Ariz. that addressed restoration strategies and “lessons learned.”

Biomass disposal and bioelectricity were emphasized at the meeting as the key components in any path moving forward. The stakeholders group opened the door to another large-scale proposal or a combination of new agreements and contracts. They also emphasized the importance of accelerating the pace and scale of restoration treatments, while supporting sustainable forest restoration industries.

“The bottom line is that bioelectricity was the solution for all known bidders in the RFP in relation to the disposal of the low value biomass,” comments Brad Worsley, president of Novo Power, a producer of biomass electricity in Snowflake, Ariz. “We believe and seem to have support for the fact that there is no reason to move forward with any future RFP or GNA Stewardship Agreement that does not first assure that current bioelectricity in the state has been given the needed PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) extensions.”

Novo Power has PPAs with Arizona Public Services (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP), Arizona’s two largest electric utilities.

The stakeholders group also reemphasized the need to reduce financial costs and risks to industry, investors and the government in potential uncertain environments over 20 years. This had been cited as the main reason for the agency’s cancellation of the Phase 2 process. Two companies were apparently the primary bidders—one proposing to build a sawmill and the other proposing to build an OSB plant. Novo Power participated in both of those bids to take the biomass resulting from the two projects.

“I was stunned by the cancellation,” Worsley comments. “I knew that there was always a possibility of cancellation but the stated reasons for cancellation were true a year ago; the USFS should have cancelled then if the gap could not be bridged.”

Worsley pointed to the agency’s growing concerns over the financial ramifications for the government and the project bidders if the promised acreage for treatment ran into issues or even if the reduced acreage was sufficient.

Novo Power has less than two years remaining on its current PPAs. “At this point we need resolution on our PPAs so that we can move forward, invest and maintain the critical employee base that we have today,” Worsley says. “We will support whatever comes in the future but our future needs certainty now.” For Novo Power the Phase 2 RFP represented a stranglehold on collaboration. “Meetings between state and federal agencies, industry and NGOs became nearly impossible without undermining the integrity of the RFP and so many of the collaborative efforts died on the vine,” Worsley says. “It has also been a reminder of the disrespect shown to current industry. We all want a new shiny industry member but we put at risk the current industry, and in the end we are still the ones here and doing the work at the end of this very painful RFP process.”

Novo Power has been involved in utilizing material produced in ongoing forest health operations in the White Mountains area, but its 24 MW facility can only process so much.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and other elected officials slammed the Phase 2 cancellation decision, citing the federal government’s inability to step up to address wildfire risks and protect Arizona communities.

The Phase 2 setback continues a tough run for the 4FRI effort: Phase 1, initially awarded in 2012 then transferred in 2013 to its current owner, NewLife Forest Restoration, and including 300,000 acres over 10 years, has been hampered due to lack of logging and conversion capacity and is just now appearing to turn the corner on infrastructure needs while the number of acres actually treated remain well below initial projections.

NewLife, which plans to build a sawmill at Bellemonte, Ariz., was apparently one of the major bidders for the Phase 2 contract.

John Godfrey, owner of Godfrey Forest Products, was also a bidder and proposed to build an OSB plant at a site already selected in Winslow. He says the announcement came as a surprise, but he remains confident any issues will be resolved.

The FS is committed to forest restoration, Godfrey believes. “They’re also under tremendous pressure. They’ll come forward with a new mechanization or proposal. It can’t be that nothing happens.”

In addition to a site for the plant, Godfrey’s OSB project has com-

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Novo Power’s biomass electricity plant could be the key to a successful 4FRI.

pleted engineering design, preliminary air work, and he has a number of contractual relationships lined up.

“It’s a great place to build a mill,” he says. “It’s in the middle of a big market. It’s also meaningful to be part of forest restoration, fire reduction and preserving the water supply. There’s no reason to throw this away. If it takes another year then that’s what it takes.”

Funding for forest health and forest fire prevention programs and contracts is included in the Biden administration’s massive infrastructure bill that has yet to pass through Congress as of November 1, 2021.

The Phase 2 contract award announcement had been delayed several times since 2019 due to 13 contract modifications including reductions in stewardship acreage from as high as 800,000 acres during initial discussions.

Yosemite Clean Energy Picks California Site

Yosemite Clean Energy announced it has secured the site for developing its first carbon-negative green hydrogen and renewable natural gas (RNG) production plant in Oroville, Calif., with groundbreaking scheduled for second quarter 2022.

Yosemite’s biofuels production facilities will utilize Austrian-based gasification technology successfully commercialized and deployed by Christian Aichernig of Repotec to produce commercial scale carbonnegative green fuels. The Oroville plant will be the flagship dual-bed gasification facility in the Americas, following more than 100,000 hours of commercial run-time across developed plants in Europe, Japan and South Korea.

California has an estimated 35 million tons of waste woody biomass available annually, currently left to burn, decay and decompose, emitting immense amounts of greenhouse gases and black carbon. Yosemite will sustainably convert this biomass into syngas, from which carbon negative green hydrogen and RNG is produced us ing downstream technology already widely commercialized in the U.S.

Tom Hobby, the company’s president, states, “Yosemite and our team of engineers, forest and farm professionals, legal, marketing, and financial teams will lead the company to become the first wood waste biomass plant to produce commercial scale carbon negative green hydrogen and RNG for the California fuel markets.” One plant will produce an estimated 31,000 kg per day of RNG and 12,200 kg per day of green hydrogen. Over the next 10 years, Yosemite plans to have biomass energy plants across North America.

Each Yosemite biofuels plant will be locally owned by farmers and forest landowners, who in return will provide wood waste, gathered at the end of the orchard’s lifecycle or through sustainable forest management. Vice-President for Business Development Robert Jackson comments, “This is new. We’re providing an all-new mineral right from a waste stream and converting it to a revenue stream for farmers and forest communities.”

Enviva Collaboration To Benefit Emissions

Enviva Partners and Green GasUSA, an integrated renewable natural gas (RNG) solutions pro vider, announced a 10-year RNG offtake agreement to decarbonize natural gas-related emissions in Enviva’s operations. The agreement is expected to eliminate more than 64,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent from the atmosphere every year, which equates to 14,000 passenger cars being removed from the road.

Enviva’s commitment underwrites a stand-alone GreenGasUSA project to install equipment that captures and treats methane currently being released directly into the atmosphere at a food processing facility in rural South Carolina. As part of the agreement, GreenGasUSA will transport the RNG directly to

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10 Wood Bioenergy / December 2021 Enviva’s wood pellet plant in Hamlet, NC to be utilized in its emissions control equipment in place of fossil natural gas in the beginning of the third quarter 2022.

The elimination of direct methane emissions at the food processing facility and conversion of these gases into RNG will be one of the first “food waste to RNG projects” conducted in the U.S. Southeast. In fact, the methane captured and emissions eliminated as a result of this offtake agreement are expected to offset approximately 75% of all Enviva’s direct emissions from its manufacturing operations, or Scope 1 emissions, on an annual basis for the duration of the 10-year agreement.

“We are proud to partner with GreenGasUSA to minimize the use of fossil fuels in our Scope 1 emissions and execute on highly effective carbon-neutral strategies,” says Thomas Meth, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Enviva. “Selecting GreenGasUSA for this project was a natural choice as several of their agri cultural partners are in close prox imity to our existing operational infrastructure.”

Studies have shown that methane released into the atmosphere is a highly potent greenhouse gas that is 85 times more impactful than CO2 over a 20-year life cycle. Capturing fugitive methane from wastewater facilities, landfills, agricultural activities, and other sources has been identified by the EPA as a key strategy to reduce greenhouse gases and slow global warming. In addition, RNG projects provide much needed investment and income in rural agricultural communities disconnected from infrastructure.

Since this will probably be pipe line quality gas, it can be used anywhere in the plant gas is required.

“Methane capture from agricultural sources is one of the most impactful things we can do to combat climate change,” adds Marc Fetten, founder and CEO of Green Gas USA.

Earlier this year, Enviva announced a Net-Zero Commitment

that will reduce, eliminate or offset all of its direct emissions by 2030. As part of this ambitious plan to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels and improve energy efficiency, Enviva agreed to adopt innovative and improved lower-emission processes through investments in projects that result in real, additional, and thirdparty verified net-carbon reductions.

Canfor Goes Forward With Arbios Biotech

Canfor Corp. announced its positive final investment decision in support of the construction of the first phase of Arbios Biotech’s (Arbios) innovative biomass-to-lowcarbon biofuel plant in Prince George, British Columbia. The plant will use new technology to convert sawmill residues, primarily bark, into high value renewable biocrude which can be further processed in refineries to produce low-carbon transportation fuels. Arbios is a joint venture between Canfor and Licella Holdings Ltd.

“Today, we begin an ambitious sustainability journey that will change how we work and the impact we have on our communities and the planet. We imagine a future as sustainable as our forests,” comments Don Kayne, President and CEO of Canfor.

“We are delighted to take this next step on our journey towards our vision of providing low carbon circular economy solutions around the world. The evolution of this project will help BC’s and Canada’s suppliers of transportation fuels achieve their emissions and low-carbon targets,” adds Don Roberts, Chair of the Arbios Board.

Arbios plans to proceed initially with one processing line which will convert 25,000 dry tonnes of wood residue to 50,000 barrels of sustainable bio-oil per year, a direct substitute for fossil crude, from post-consumer waste wood biomass. Being scheduled to start producing renewable biocrude in the first half of 2023, the plant is planned to be built on a portion of Canfor’s Intercontinental pulp mill site, and Arbios will have the potential to expand up to four processing lines within the existing footprint.

The new Arbios plant will utilize Licella’s patented Cat-HTRTM decarbonization platform. The plant represents the next scale-up of its hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) technology, building on the recent commissioning of Arbios’ CS-1 facility on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, which continues to demonstrate the technology’s capacity to produce low-carbon products.

The project is within the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, with whom Arbios

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has been working closely.

The project is receiving strong sup port from both federal and pro vincial government programs, including issuance of credits under BC’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Renewable and Low Carbon Fuel Requirements) Act; Sustainable Development Technology Canada Fund; and BC Ministry of Energy and Mines and Low Carbon Innovation’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund.

Westervelt Expands Timberland Holdings

The Westervelt Company and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group, announced the acquisition of more than 76,000 acres of high-quality pine timberland in south east Georgia and the creation of a partnership that will focus on sustainable timberland management.

The newly acquired property had been owned and managed for nearly a century by Superior Pine Products, a family-owned company headquartered in Georgia.

“This was a rare opportunity to purchase a special timberland asset in southeast Georgia. The land matches Westervelt’s strategic growth and diversification objectives, and its age class distribution balances growth and sustainability goals,” comments Westervelt President and CEO Brian Luoma.

AFRY Appoints NA Head Of Energy

AFRY Management Consulting announced that Vignesh Gulasing am has joined the firm as Director and Head of Energy for North America.

Gulasingam has worked in the North American energy sector for 25 years with a breadth of experience spanning leadership roles in consulting firms, IPPs, regulated and unregulated utilities. His most recent role was as VP & Head of Americas Power and Renewables Consulting (aka Energy Transition Consulting) at Wood Mackenzie Inc., where he was instrumental in building the consulting services within the energy transition practice focused on new energies and decarbonization/ESG initiatives.

Roseburg Continues Growth In The South

Roseburg has completed the purchase of 30,000 acres of timberland in the Southern U.S. from Forest Investment Associates (FIA). The prop er ties are in the northeast region of North Carolina and the southeast region of Virginia, and consist of loblolly pine plantations. Roseburg already owns 158,000 acres of timberland in the Roanoke Valley, following a 2017 acquisition.

The lands acquisition follows the July 1 announcement of Roseburg’s plan to build a new, high-capacity sawmill in nearby Weldon, NC.

GP Sells OSB Mill To West Fraser Timber

An oriented strandboard plant in Allendale, SC will now have its third ownership since starting up in 2006. West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. is purchasing the facility from Georgia-Pacific for $280 million. The Allendale facility has been idle since late 2019 when GP shut it down citing market conditions. The plant has an estimated annual production capacity of 760MMSF (3/8 in. basis).

West Fraser intends to invest $70 million to upgrade and optimize the facility in preparation for a restart in nine months.

In 2005 Ontario-based Grant Forest Products announced it would invest $400 million in building two OSB mills in South Carolina, one in Allendale and the other in Alcolu in Clarendon County. When the U.S. economy went into a recession Grant sold the two OSB plants to Georgia-Pacific in 2010.

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