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■ table of contents
www.woodbioenergymag.com
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FROM THE EDITORS Two Makeover Stories
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WOOD YARD TECHNOLOGY Products, Systems At Front End
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IN THE NEWS Activity In Domestic Pellets
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LIGNA EXHIBITORS On Display In Germany May 11-15
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ZILKHA BIOMASS ENERGY New Pellet Plant Gears Up
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PRODUCT NEWS Biomass Equipment At OLC
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REENERGY’S LATEST Ashland, Maine Plant Starts Up
Cover photography: Zilkha Biomass Energy (Rich Donnell) ReEnergy-Ashland (Jessica Johnson)
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table of contents ■
advertising index Advertiser Index is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.
Volume 7
Number 2
26 Co-Publisher/Adv. Sales Manager ■ David H. Ramsey Co-Publisher/Executive Editor ■ David (DK) Knight Chief Operating Officer ■ Dianne C. Sullivan Publishing Office Street Address ■ 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address ■ P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Tel: 334.834.1170 ■ Fax: 334.834-4525 Editor-in-Chief ■ Rich Donnell Managing Editor ■ Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor ■ David Abbott Associate Editor ■ Jessica Johnson Associate Editor ■ Jay Donnell Art Director/Production Manager ■ Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coordinator ■ Patti Campbell Circulation Director ■ Rhonda Thomas Advertising Sales North American Sales Representative Susan Windham ■ P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery AL 36102-2268 334.834.1170 ■ Fax: 334.834.4525 E-mail: windham.susan4@gmail.com International Sales Murray Brett ■ Aldea De Las Cuevas 66, Buzon 60 03759 Benedoleig (Alicante) Espana +34 96 640 4165 ■ Fax: +34 96 640 4022 E-mail: murray.brett.aba@gmail.com Classified Advertising Sales Bridget DeVane ■ Tel: 334.699.7837 ■ 800.669.5613 E-mail: bdevane7@hotmail.com A Hatton-Brown Publication Other Hatton-Brown Publications:
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Wood Bioenergy (ISSN 1947-5306) is published six times annually by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Wood Bioenergy is free to qualified readers in the United States, including owners, managers, supervisors and other key personnel. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $50 per year, Canadian subscriptions are $60 and foreign subscription are $95 per year (U.S. funds). Subscriber Inquiries and Back Issue Orders—TOLL-FREE: 800.669.5613. Fax 888.611.4525. Subscribe or renew online: www.woodbioenergymagazine.com and click on the “Subscribe” button. When requesting change of address, please specify both old and new. Application to mail at periodical postage prices is pending at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Wood Bioenergy, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, AL 36102-2419 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40624074 Return Undeliverable CANADIAN Addresses To PO Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek Richmond Hill ON L4B 4R6 All advertisements for Wood Bioenergy are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarisms, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Wood Bioenergy. Copyright ® 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Printed in USA.
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■ from the editors
Off The Back Burner
Zilkha, ReEnergy Projects
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he theme of this issue is revitalization. Both of the feature stories are about idled mill operations that found new life under new ownership and management. One is a wood pellet mill in the Southeast and the other is wood biomass power plant in the Northeast. The article on Zilkha Biomass Energy’s startup of its black pellets plant in Selma, Ala. hits especially close to home, one reason being that it’s only an hour’s drive from our home office in Montgomery, Ala., but mainly because our very first issue of Wood Bioenergy in the summer of 2009 featured the pellet operation that previously ran on the same site, called Dixie Pellets. Dixie Pellets was one of the first U.S. Southeast industrial white pellet operations shipping product to power plants overseas. But only a couple of months after the article came out, the operation filed for bankruptcy and some messy accusations began to surface involving the developer, owner and suppliers. Rumors as to the reasons for Dixie’s demise swelled: poor product quality, fiber processing issues, and a problem with barge transportation, namely that the Alabama River downstream of the mill (and downstream of the Claiborne Lock & Dam) was too shallow at times causing less than full-load shipments. By March 2010 the company asked the court if it could sell its assets, and shortly thereafter Zilkha Biomass Energy, owned by a Houston-based family team that has had great success in energy projects, stepped in and bought it. You can pick up the rest of the story beginning on page 16. But what Zilkha Biomass Energy has built and rebuilt there, given existing space constraints, is remarkable. And meanwhile Zilkha merely changed the product from white pellets to black pellets. We’ll know soon enough if it also changed the course of the industrial pellet industry. Zilkha is already thinking ahead to its next black pellet plant, this one a greenfield project, in Monticello, Ark. The subject of the other main article in this issue, ReEnergy, is no stranger to us either. In 2013 we featured the startup of its Black River-Fort Drum (Water-
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town, NY) facility, which it converted from coal to biomass. ReEnergy has emerged as the most prolific biomass power plant developer and owner in the country. As we were publishing the Fort Drum story, ReEnergy already owned the biomass power plant at Ashland, Maine that is the centerpiece of the article in this issue. In December 2011 ReEnergy had purchased it and four others biomass power plants in the region from Montreal-based Boralex Industries. The deal represented ReEnergy’s total commitment to biomass, and Boralex’s total withdrawl from it in favor of other renewable energy ventures such as wind and solar. The 39 MW Ashland facility, which opened in 1993, had been down since March 2011 (not the first time it had been shuttered) when ReEnergy purchased it. For the first time in three and a half years the plant went into commercial production last October. Again here we have another impressive project, this one fighting the weather elements as much as the aged equipment. Its success provides ReEnergy a blueprint for future restart projects.
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■ in the news
Drax U.S. Pellets Plants Coming On UK-based electricity producer Drax reports it has two wood pellet mills in the Southern U.S. moving into production mode. Drax says its Amite BioEnergy wood pellet plant in Gloster, Miss. has produced pellets and has a March COD (commercial operations date). Amite has a 450,000 tons annual production capacity, as does the Drax Morehouse BioEnergy wood pellet plant near Bastrop, La., shown here. Morehouse is commissioning its log line and has a COD of June. Both operations are expected to reach full production six months following COD. Drax is also putting into operation a port facility, Baton Rouge Transit, in the Port of Greater Baton Rouge (La.), with first shipment expected in the second quarter. Drax has been converting its power plant operations in England to predominantly biomass-fueled (imported wood pellet feedstock) electricity generation, having already converted two coal burner units to biomass fuel, with a third one planned for conversion. Drax states that biomass now accounts for 30% of its generation capacity. Drax also states it is evaluating further investment in a potential third U.S. Gulf pellet plant; Eastern U.S. wood pellet operations; and carbon capture and storage. The company said 2014 was a challenging year with significant regulatory headwinds and major deterioration in commodity markets. (Photo of Drax-Bastrop by Jessica Johnson)
Lignetics Merges With Bear Mountain
the beginning of an exciting new chapter in our two companies’ history, making us the market leader Two long-established wood pelin the residential wood pellet inlet manufacturing companies in dustry in the U.S.,” states Tucker. the U.S. announced a merger that Sourek adds, “We are excited will create what they report is the about the merger with Lignetics the largest residential wood pellet and the ability to offer all of our fuel producer in the U.S. Ken Tuccustomers a more diverse product ker, CEO of Lignetics, Inc., and offering, now from five different Bob Sourek, CEO of Bear plant locations.” Mountain Forest Products, Financing for the transaction Inc., announced that the newly was provided by Taglich Private merged business will have a Equity LLC, management and production capacity of approxiGladstone Capital Corp. Tucker mately 450,000 tons of wood and Sourek note that the transacpellets per year, and that the tion will give the company the company will also be the only capital base to pursue expansion pellet manufacturing company plans at their current facilities, as that will have wood pellet mawell as exploring potential future nufacturing plants on both the add-on acquisitions. East Coast and the West Coast. Lignetics was founded in The combined company will Lignetics and Bear Mountain merger will have current 1983 and is one of the pioneers production capacity of 450,000 tons of wood pellets. of manufacturing premium have plant locations in
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Brownsville and Cascade Locks, Ore.; Sandpoint, Idaho; Glenville, West Va.; and Kenbridge, Va.. The merger brings together some of the industry’s well-known brands including Golden Fire, Lignetics, Bear Mountain, America’s Best, Pres-to-Log, Dry Den, Cozy Den and EZ Equine. “Completing this merger marks
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in the news ■
wood pellets and Pres-to-Logs fire logs for home heating. Since 1988, Bear Mountain Forest Products has been a driving force in the wood pellet fuel industry across the Western U.S using 100% Douglas fir.
Rentech/NEWP Buys Allegheny New England Wood Pellet, LLC, a Rentech company, has acquired the assets of Allegheny Pellet Corp., a producer of wood pellets for the domestic heating market with a wood pellet plant in Youngsville, Pa. The acquisition expands New England Wood Pellet’s market position as the largest wood pellet manufacturer for the U.S. heating market with facilities in Jaffrey, NH; Schuyler, NY; Deposit, NY; and Youngsville, Pa. Allegheny’s wood pellet plant in Youngsville, Pa. has been operating since 1993. The company plans to add staff to increase the Allegheny plant’s production to approximately 50,000 tons over the next year to meet demand for pellets in Allegheny’s target market of Pennsylvania and New York. “Rentech and New England Wood Pellet share Allegheny Pellet’s belief that pellet fuels made
from sustainably produced biomass can play a major role in reducing demand for fossil heating fuels,” according to a statement. The Youngsville facility processes residuals from local sawmills into wood pellets for sale through big box stores, specialty retailers and bulk sales channels. The plant has historically experienced relatively stable feedstock costs due to a consistent supply of residuals within an economic haul radius of the facility. Allegheny’s customers are responsible for the costs and logistics arrangements of pellet deliveries. Allegheny will be fully integrated into NEWP and will operate as its fourth pellet plant. NEWP intends to expand the plant’s annual production from approximately 36,000 tons under a four-day work week to approximately 50,000 tons under a sevenday work week. The additional production will help meet strong demand for pellets in Pennsylvania and New York. NEWP acquired all of the assets of Allegheny for approximately $7 million in cash, using the proceeds of a five-year, $8 million term loan. Rentech, Inc. acquired New England Wood Pellet (NEWP) in May 2014.
Rentech Adds Funding For New Pellet Mills Rentech, Inc. announced that GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit investment arm of Blackstone, has increased its credit facility for Rentech by up to $63 million. The majority of the proceeds are expected to fund completion of Rentech’s Canadian wood pellet projects. Rentech now estimates the cost to complete the construction of its Canadian wood pellet projects to be $125 to $130 million. Rentech expects that the new term loan, together with its other cash resources, will be sufficient to fund its Atikokan and Wawa (Ontario) pellet projects until they have been commissioned and begin to generate positive cash flow. An uptick in estimated construction completion is due to delays in construction and higher labor costs for installation of electrical and mechanical components. The Atikokan facility is in the commissioning phase and is producing and selling pellets to Ontario Power Generation. Rentech expects the Atikokan facility to be operating at full capacity in six to 12 months. The Wawa facility is nearing completion of construction. Rentech
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■ in the news
expects the facility to begin startup and commissioning in the second quarter of 2015 and to operate at full capacity within one year from the start of commissioning.
Vencor Receives Order For Torrefied Pellets Vencor International, Boulder, Colo., announced it has received a purchase order to produce 3,000 tons of bio-coal, a renewable energy product produced from timber waste using torrefaction. Vencor describes its torrefaction technology as a partial carbonization process at temperatures between 475-575°F (200400°C) in a low oxygen environment. The physical and energetic properties of the biomass are comparable to conventional coal. The torrefaction process has the added benefit of reducing or eliminating undesirable volatiles, such as
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nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides in the bio-coal, according to the company. The key property that makes bio-coal attractive for co-firing in existing coal-fired power stations is its superior grind ability compared to untreated or fresh biomass. Vencor is scheduled to start production on this order soon for its client, Vega Biofuels, Inc., which will ship the product to an international customer. Vencor recently announced it had entered into an agreement to purchase the exclusive rights to torrefaction equipment manufactured by Virginia-based, Torretherm. James Gaspard, CEO of Vencor International, Inc., states, “The order from Vega will be the first order we will manufacture using the Torrretherm torrefaction machine. Torretherm torrefaction equipment is capable of producing five tons of torrefied pellets per hour.
Gaspard comments, “We have deals that we haven’t been able to make because we didn’t have sufficient capacity. The first machine will increase our production capacity by approximately thirty thousand tons annually.”
Pellet Mills Planned For North Florida Two ventures have announced they plan to build wood pellet mills in similar areas of north central Florida, west of Jacksonville. PHI Group, Inc., a company focused on energy and natural resources, announced it has signed an agreement with AG Materials, LLC, an Alabama company, to jointly set up a 200,000 metric tons annual production wood pellet mill in Live Oak, Suwannee County; and Enerpellets Group, a Portugal-based producer of wood pellets, announced it
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■ in the news
will build a 250,000 tons per year pellet mill in Hamilton County. PHI Group, which plans to exports the pellets, reports it has been able to secure approximately 400,000 metric tons of southern yellow pine feedstock per year from a nearby industrial source (possibly the newly built Klausner sawmill operation in Live Oak). Henry Fahman, Chairman and CEO of PHI Group, comments, “We are delighted to cooperate with AG Materials to set up the new wood pellet plant in Live Oak and believe the conditions are very favorable for our joint venture, thanks to the reliable source of feedstock, logistics, and foreseeable growing market demand.” Meanwhile Enerpellets states it is investing $60 million to build its pellet plant. “The decision was preceded by a period of analysis and evaluation of this opportunity,
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which was supported by the vast know-how acquired with the two plants in operation that Enerpellets Group holds in Portugal and overlooking the fast growing global pellets market,” according to an Enerpellets statement. “The investment will be carried out in Hamilton County, northern Florida, where the Group felt a huge support from the local community and from the State of Florida. This support was decisive for the economic viability of the investment.”
P&G Makes Official Albany Biomass With a goal to one day operate all of its manufacturing facilities on renewable energy, Procter & Gamble took another large stride in that direction by announcing an agreement to develop a 50 MW biomass power plant that will help run its
Bounty paper towel and Charmin toilet tissue plant in Albany, Ga. The plant will turn scrap wood into steam and electricity, providing 100% of the steam required to operate the paper facilities. The incoming biomass will provide up to 60-70% of the site’s overall energy needs. When it opens for commercial operation in summer 2017, the biomass plant will move P&G closer to its goal of obtaining 30% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% in the future. Scrap wood and forest residue will be fed into a new boiler system. The company says it currently gets 8% of its energy from renewable sources including wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. “As this project enables us to operate one of our largest global plants with a renewable energy source, it will reduce the environ-
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in the news ■
mental footprint of two leading brands, Bounty and Charmin. We see this as a win for our business, consumers, partners and the environment,” says Martin Riant, P&G Executive Sponsor of Sustainability and Group President, Global Baby and Feminine & Family Care. The project has been in the works for nearly two years. The $200 million plant will be built, owned and operated by Constellation, a retail supplier of power, natural gas and energy products and services, and a subsidiary of the Exelon Corp. In addition to steam for P&G, the plant will create electricity that Constellation will sell to local utility Georgia Power, who will then share it with residents across the state. Several local, state and federal officials and other companies also supported the project. The new plant will replace an aging biomass boiler that has been
providing about 30% of the total energy needed to run the Albany site for the last 34 years. “We’ve been committed to biomass for generations. This project takes us to a heightened level of commitment and benefit,” says Len Sauers, Vice President, Global Sustainability.
PFI Questions EPA Approach Pellet Fuels Institute (PFI) issued a statement on the new Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) Rule. The rule is intended to limit emissions from residential heating appliances and establish emissions targets for wood pellet appliances such as stoves and central heating systems. The NSPS rule requires any new non-commercial wood burning appliances to utilize fuel that has been
graded as part of a licensing agreement with an EPA-approved organization, such as the Pellet Fuels Institute. For appliances such as pellet stoves, manufacturers will be required to state such claims in the owner’s manuals. Rather than designating one fuel standards program for the industry, the NSPS rule as written allows pellet manufacturers to choose among three programs, including the Pellet Fuels Institute Standards Program. “Of the available options, the PFI standard is the only standard that has been developed over many years here in the United States— with input from the EPA—to specifically serve North American pellet fuel manufacturers by requiring ongoing, timely testing intended to best protect consumers in the United States,” according to PFI. In response to the rule’s release, Jennifer Hedrick, PFI’s executive
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■ in the news
director, stated “PFI has significant concerns that the current EPA language—allowing for U.S. pellet producers to choose among multiple standards programs—will cause more confusion than clarity among manufacturers, retailers and consumers as they try to grasp what the different programs and fuel standards mean. “We are surprised that EPA did not choose the PFI Standards Program as the sole program for U.S. pellet manufacturers, despite the fact that the Pellet Fuels Institute has maintained a fuel standard for over 10 years and strengthened its testing requirements in more recent years at the specific directive of EPA. “We are particularly disappointed and troubled that EPA has changed course and will now allow standards that do not incorporate the very components, such as routine testing, that EPA publicly stated were essential requirements of any fuel standard to be included in the NSPS rule.”
UMaine Farmington Plans Biomass Boiler A plan to heat most of the University of Maine at Farmington buildings with a single biomass heating plant was approved by the UMaine System Board of Trustees. The $11 million proposal calls for building a 5,800 sq. ft. biomass boiler plant. The plant will consist of a 500 HP wood chip boiler, connected to an electrostatic precipitation device and a smokestack. It will pump 210° F water through a 12,000 foot loop. Connected to that loop will be heat exchangers in 24 UMF buildings, representing most of the campus. Buildings connected to the loop would have their preexisting heating systems either replaced or modified, depending on age. Some of the newer systems would be maintained to provide some additional heating input into the system. The $11 million project is expected to have a 10-year payback for UMF, reducing the campus’ fossil fuel consumption by 90%.
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Wood Bioenergy / April 2015
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Zilkha Biomass Energy:
Black Pellets Are By Rich Donnell
On the cover of the magazine: Thermal conditioning station at Zilkha Biomass Energy in Selma, Ala. Above, Volvo wheel loader works the new chip yard, with storage silos and manufacturing plant in background where “Zilkha Black” pellets (above right) are produced.
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Here SELMA, Ala. ilkha Biomass Energy is commissioning its much-anticipated 275,000 metric tons per year nameplate production capacity wood pellets manufacturing plant at the site of the former Dixie Pellets plant here. But unlike Dixie Pellets, this plant produces “Zilkha Black” pellets, marking a radical departure from the growing list of large production white pellet plants already built, nearing startup, or announced in the Southeast U.S. Dixie Pellets started up in 2008 at 520,000 metric tons capacity—one of the first large scale, new generation wood pellet plants with plans to export pellets to electricity generation markets in Europe. But Dixie Pellets allegedly experienced a range of manufacturing, river transport and product quality issues. One industry observer added “bad luck” to Dixie’s problems, and said Dixie “wasn’t that far away” from making it a successful operation. But Dixie couldn’t get there, and in 2010 Houston-based Zilkha Biomass purchased the plant at a bankruptcy auction. Initially, Zilkha Biomass had planned to move the machinery and operate a plant elsewhere, but it stayed the course on the banks of the Alabama River. Zilkha Biomass performed a major overhaul of the Dixie plant, including most importantly the product coming out of it. The company expects to build more plants, truly greenfield projects with greater production capacity. It has already announced plans to build one in Monticello, Ark., and is engineering it to include modifications based on its experiences at Selma.
Z
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■ pellet mill
Aerial view of Zilkha’s Selma plant on the Alabama River
Now, as Vice President of Engineering Clyde Stearns says, it’s a matter of establishing a premium product that imitates coal in an immature market. “It is a tough challenge,” Stearns says, “but this is a game-changer.”
Background Certainly the father-son ownership of Zilkha Biomass Energy has an impressive track record with energy business ventures and cutting edge technologies. Selim and Michael Zilkha used computer modeling to drill for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico in the late 1980s and 1990s and ultimately sold their highly successful Zilkha Energy Co. to Sonat for $1.3 billion in 1998. They next turned to renewable energy and formed Zilkha Renewable Energy, which became one of the nation’s largest developers of wind farm projects before Goldman Sachs bought it in 2005. Zilkha Biomass Energy CEO Jack Holmes has been right there with the Zilkhas, dating back to the 1980s as president and chief operating officer of Zilkha Energy. Their initial foray into bioenergy was the development of a direct-fired biomass-fueled gas turbine for generating power at commercial and industrial facilities. But then something called “black pellets” caught their eye. Immediately they liked the idea of a pellet that was water resistant and didn’t have major dust issues. They bought the intellectual property around that process, filed additional patents and started developing it with an eye toward using black pellet technology as a substitute for coal or as a co-firing fuel with coal, meaning a less costly conversion at the power plant. To complement the new venture, Zilkha Biomass Energy built a demonstration plant with full size equipment in Crockett, Texas. Clyde Stearns for one was impressed with the technology and the product. Stearns, an engineer, had worked for years with Globe Machine and its finishing end equipment in the plywood industry, as well as for project fabricator WPS Industries and heat energy and drying systems supplier TSI. More recently Stearns had been the sales manager over biomass and wood pel-
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Live bottom reclaimer and magnet detection
leting at Buhler, which provided machinery to the Green Circle Bioenergy 650,000 metric tons wood pellet plant that started up in 2008 (and which in January was purchased by the large white pellet producer, Enviva). Stearns joined Zilkha Biomass Energy in 2011. Stearns points to the impressive properties of the black pellet—it’s hydrophobic so you can store it outside, low dust, no self-heating, little oxygen consumption, no additives, safe to handle, safe to ship—but emphasizes that the real difference is the higher energy value (a net califoric value of about 19.3 megajoules per kilogram, giving the black pellet up to 15% more energy per kg, he says), and a higher bulk density of 15% or more. “So when you load a shipload full of black pellets, you have about a 30% advantage,” Stearns says. “The combination of the higher energy and the higher bulk density is the big transportation and storage advantage of this product.” Still, it’s the visual image that makes an immediate impression. Successful testing overseas began with a shipment of 4,000 tons to a power company in Europe. Rain pelted down on the open pellets at the Port of Beaumont (Texas). Zilkha Biomass likes to do the water glass test, where white pellets are put in a glass of water and black pellets are put in another glass, and after an insignificant amount of time the white pellets turn mushy. For all of the above reasons, a utility company in Europe has signed an off-take agreement with Zilkha for the majority of production from the Selma plant. But what makes the “Zilkha Black” pellet black? Zilkha describes its technology as “thermal conditioning.” The wood is put in a sealed pressure vessel, steam is injected, and then steam is released, blowing the fibers out of the pressure vessel, and, if you want to get somewhat technical, separating the wood into cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin so that now lignin is available to act as a binder. And it’s not torrefaction, which is a different process that’s also trying to produce a charcoal like pellet. Stearns explains that torrefaction heats up wood in a contained environment in the absence of oxygen. “The challenge for
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Two Bruks green hammermills
torrefaction has been largely how do you control that process—once you start cooking in the absence of oxygen it’s hard to stop the process and re-introduce the product into an oxygen environment,” he says, adding that the torrefaction process achieves high energy, but you lose a lot of mass (wood weight) and binder to do it. “Our view is there’s a sweet spot where you get the properties you want, higher caloric value, water resistance, with a much lower mass loss. At the end of the day, a technology like ours is a much lower cost producer.”
Selma Conversion But a lot had to be done before Zilkha could go commercial with its product—such as doing an overhaul of the former Dixie Pellets white pellet plant. Zilkha and the equipment manufacturer/supplier, Bruks, worked together to build and pave a new chip yard. They added two new Fairbanks truck scales to supplement an existing Fairbanks scale; added a Bruks truck dumper to two existing Phelps truck dumpers; installed a new Bruks radial chip stacker; expanded the chip storage area; put in a new live bottom reclaimer; new General Kinematics scalping screen; two new Bruks green hammermills for resizing ¾ in. chips to 3⁄8 in. and which served to increase the capacity of the dryers; and a new chips-to-silo conveyor.
B&W Megtec environmental control at thermal conditioner
Zilkha also purchased a new Volvo wheel loader for moving chips throughout the chip yard and feeding the reclaimer. Two existing MEC single pass rotary dryers were reconditioned and two WTS dual fuel burners added. Two new Hurst 19,000 lb/hr firetube boilers provide steam for the thermal conditioning. Zilkha operators refer to them as a workhorse boiler that responds faster to turning up and down. After drying, chips come from two dry chip silos up a conveyor and into the thermal conditioning area, the mini EPC of which was contracted to Yates Construction. Prior to its installation, two existing concrete silos were demolished to make room. Chips go to one of three bins, each feeding two vertical reactors (for a total of six reactors). Once they’re filled, the capping valve is closed and steam is inserted. After a certain amount of cooking time, the pressure is reduced a little bit, the blow valve at the bottom is opened and the release of the steam pressure blows the material over into a blow tank cylinder. The pressures, temperatures and exact sequence is the proprietary part of the technology. A Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC system handles the resultant vapor and sets the stage for future energy recovery. Meanwhile the dryer exhaust is treated in a new TSI wet ESP and an existing RTO. The previous plant had a
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One of two MEC rotary dryers
Two Hurst boilers provide steam for thermal conditioner.
scrubber and then the RTO, but Zilkha realized that if it wanted to run the dryers full bore it needed to install a wet ESP. Material surge capacity is built into the thermal conditioning area, with material exiting the blow tank’s live bottom screw to two Andritz dry hammermills that are close-coupled to the pellet production building. The mill is running two lines of five Andritz 26LM pelletizers each. Adjacent those lines is a “mothballed” third
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line of five pellet mills that the previous operation ran, but Zilkha doesn’t need them based on the existing dryer capacity. Changes in the pelleting island include new stainless steel cross conveyors and distribution conveyors and a new pellet collection conveyor Overlooking the pellet lines is a new control room. Zilkha’s elevated control room uses the latest AllenBradley automation control, including FactoryTalk HMI for Ethernet network, allowing various trending analysis,
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recipes adjustment, machine monitors and other features through a common development environment. Zilkha also added two large 1191 tonne Scafco pellet silos, allowing the mill four days of pellet storage (at 24 hour full production days). Kesco also installed a dual truckloading station, which includes a pellet dedusting system using an adjustable counter flow air deduster, enabling less than 1% dust. The station includes a new pellet bucket elevator and four new 50 tonne pellet bins. The existing fire prevention and protection system required considerable refurbishment and additions. GreCon, Simplex and Clarke provided their technologies. The Selma plant is designed for 100% trucking to the Port of Mobile. Zilkha has left the barge loading apparatus in place but has no current plans to barge any material. For all of its pellet trucking, Zilkha is using transportation firm Billy Barnes Enterprises, based in Frisco City, Ala. Barnes has built customized trailers and is using chip vans rather than bottom dumps in order to develop some back haul opportunities.
Zilkha also maintains a corporate forester, Brian Reed. They are procuring 100 truckloads of chips per day, or approximately 2,000 tons per day, five days a week. Zilkha expects to work with a nucleus of six suppliers, with possible expansion to nine or 10. So far the
suppliers were already running chipping operations. A big reason for the refurbishment of the wood yard with additional paved spacing, an additional truck dump and two more truck scales was to minimize wait time for incoming trucks.
Raw Material Zilkha contracted Forest2Market to conduct a wood basket study, focusing on in-woods residuals, first and second thinnings and otherwise pre-merchantable raw material. The results showed an enhanced wood supply since the startup of the previous operation. The Zilkha mill uses primarily in-woods fuel chips—full bark on limbs—and some chip mill clean chips to fill the gaps when it’s wet. The raw feedstock material is primarily southern yellow pine; a smaller percentage comes from a hardwood mix that will find its way into the softwood intake from mixed plots. Zilkha hired Ray Seymour as the forester on staff, having worked for RockTenn based in Stevenson, Ala.
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New control room overlooking pelletizer lines
Personnel Forester Seymour is but one of several personnel on site who came from the pulp and paper industry. Director of Operations Barry Ford worked more than 30 years in the paper industry, including for Graphic Packaging,
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New TSI wet ESP off the dryer
RockTenn and Smurfit-Stone mostly in production positions. Plant Manager Charles Daw also came from Graphic Packaging and before that Georgia-Pacific and Smurfit-Stone. Process and chemical engineer Jim Truax worked for International Paper.
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Left to right, Barry Ford, Director of Operations; Clyde Stearns, VP of Engineering
Zilkha at Selma also brought in 10 employees with pelleting experience, including Brad Mayhew as
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production manager. He worked several years at the Georgia Biomass pellet plant, ending up there as plant manager before coming to Zilkha. Six former Dixie Pellets employees joined the Zilkha staff, three of them as supervisors. “They’ve been very helpful,” Ford says. “They understood a lot of the issues. One of the first things we did was sit down with them and say tell us what the problems were, what would you do different. They had
some very keen insights.” Ford says at peak construction the site included more than 200 workers. The plant runs with 54. Ford compliments the city of Selma, Wallace Community College and Alabama Industrial Development Training for their assistance in the screening and applications process. Ford adds that the operation received a whopping 1,200 applications. Overseeing all of this activity is Sonny Jackson, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations. “We’re all very excited to wrap up commissioning and begin production,” Jackson says. “Construction of the Selma plant went smoothly. We’ll be able to take what we’ve learned here and make sure future projects are deployed even more efficiently.” Now that Zilkha is commissioning the Selma plant, planning to build a larger one on a site already selected in Arkansas, and expecting to build more plants, the issue of black pellets versus white pellets for off-shore electricity generation and heating markets assumes real-time relevance. Zilkha’s Stearns is confident about where it’s headed. “Once the world can see that this is a commercially available product and it can be produced in large quantities, I believe that in the next five years most of the industry will convert to a second generation pellet that has the attributes that we’ve got here.”
Wood Bioenergy / April 2015
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â– biomass power
ReEnergy Ashland
Restarts With Boom By Jessica Johnson
The ReEnergy Ashland restart management team, from left, Mark Bossie, John Sawyer, Mark Thibodeau and Paul Brabant
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During the restart celebration, Gov. LePage deemed ReEnergy Ashland officially open for business. (Erin M. Dunn photo)
ASHLAND, Me. eEnergy Holdings, based in Latham, NY, acquired the idled Ashland, Me. biomass power plant in December 2011 as part of a multi-power-plant purchase from Boralex, and began working on a plan to restart the facility. Since northern Maine is on its own operating system, and is not tied to the rest of New England, but instead is tied to New Brunswick, Can., market conditions were challenging for a restart. The grid reliability over the years, thanks to different market factors, became very unstable, so the ReEnergy facility in nearby Fort Fairfield, Me. was running on high critical status quite often and was often told not to come off line or drop any megawatts. Something supplemental was needed. The Ashland restart became possible due to a number of factors, including energy market changes, availability of transmission capacity and a growing need for a local outlet for mill and forest residues. The restart project began in late July 2014, under wraps, and the facility was brought to commercial operation on October 22, 2014. The four key players on the Ashland restart and management team will say that even though a lot of blood, sweat and tears were poured into the facility during that time, the end result was worth it. “Collectively, with the group we had here, we did a helluva job. We spent a lot of nights here and a lot of weekends here. Most of our wives were asking us if we had girlfriends up in Aroostook County, because we weren’t coming home,” John Sawyer, ReEnergy Senior Engineer and restart Project Manager says with a big laugh. During WoodBioenergy’s visit to the facility, the excitement and energy amongst the restart and management team was palpable.
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Coming On-Line During the restart, the four-man team split time between Fort Fairfield and Ashland. Sawyer is based in Maine, but travels between the facilities; Paul Brabant
The facility takes between 45-60 truckloads of fuel per day.
was the maintenance manager at Fort Fairfield, moonlighted at Ashland during the restart, and is now located full time in Ashland as the Maintenance Manager. Mark Thibodeau is ReEnergy’s Regional Manager for the Fort Fairfield, Ashland and Stratton plants. He serves as ReEnergy Ashland’s Facility Manager. Mark Bossie, like Brabant, worked full time at Fort Fairfield, while moonlighting at Ashland during the restart. Now, he is located full time in Ashland as Operations Manager. Before any work could be done on the existing facility, the team had to reenergize the existing substation, which took a lot of work behind the scenes, a lot of electrical testing in order to get conveyors running. Sawyer says the first big project was to restore the backfeed from the substation back to the facility. A lot of TBDs popped up on the ever-growing list of projects to complete. After a while Sawyer just started writing TBM, To Be Mark, or TBJ, To Be John. “We drew a lot from our internal resources. Stratton’s I&C tech and mechanics came up to help with certain things, as well as Fort Fairfield and Livermore Falls. By doing it ourselves, a lot of people gained a lot more experience, and the quality of work was a lot better,” he believes. Sawyer says on the original schedule in Microsoft Project there were 400 to 500 rows of things to “check on” or “find out about” or “consider.” After he added his items, he sent it around to the team, who put their thoughts in it. It was hard work, he says, but it was definitely fun. The best part in his mind? There was only one phone line and limited internet. “We didn’t get inundated with things that weren’t valuable to the start up. We could kinda do our own thing. “We all agreed on a schedule. We had probably 40 things under the wood yard. Then we split it up. I had a section, Paul had a section, Scott (another engineer) had a section and we all became project managers in those areas. So if it didn’t work you were going to have to answer some questions,” Sawyer explains. It was a fast restart for the company, much faster
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than corporate anticipated. According to Sawyer, December 1 was the projected date for producing reliable power. ReEnergy Ashland was producing reliable power on October 22. “I think our corporate people were a little surprised about what we did within the time we did it in,” Sawyer says. “Once this really started rolling and got the momentum up, people were saying, ‘Holy moly we gotta make sure we get the wood in there because John and Mark are going to be ready to light this thing,’” he adds laughing. Within coming on-line, in a 24hour span, the plant was at 36 MW. Full capacity is a gross output of 39 MW, which is capable of producing approximately 284,000 MWh of electricity each year—enough to supply nearly 37,000 homes. Thibodeau believes that the work done in Ashland could act as a guide for future ReEnergy startups or restarts. “We made some mistakes and we were wrong sometimes, but we had a lot of lessons learned and overall it was a huge success. It’s a building block for the company. We did it with 100% internal resources from the company—we did the startup without hiring one single outside consultant,” he says with pride. For ReEnergy as a company, safety is the top priority. Bossie recounts that during the restart there were no recordable injuries.
Operations Put simply, the plant uses heat generated by the combustion of biomass material to create steam, which drives a GE turbine to generate electricity. The power is sent along a transmission cable system for sale into the region’s power grid. Avery Weigh-Tronix scales and a Fairbanks indicator are used to record biomass deliveries. Trucks are unloaded using one of two Phelps Industries truck dumpers. From the dumpers, material is conveyed using ProcessBarron conveyors to a fuel out pile, tended by
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Caterpillar D8 and D7 bulldozers, both with a chip blade, and a Caterpillar 950 wheel loader. CBI supplied the wood hog in the fuel yard. The plant uses a single Zurin boiler, which produces steam at a rate of 334,000 lbs. per hour, 875 PSI and an average temperature of
900° F for a GE steam turbine and generator. A Foxboro DCS system allows a single operator to monitor all the equipment in the facility, as well as monitor electrical output and boiler operations. On average, this plant will take
in 450,000 tons of raw material per year, which shakes out to between 45-60 truckloads a day. Since the burn rate is higher in winter, the average fluctuates: 1500 tons per day during those months, and about 1100 tons a day in the summer. Bossie says that translates to basically one to one-and-a half truckloads per hour. Eric Dumond is responsible for fuel procurement for all of ReEnergy’s facilities in Maine. The typical radius for fuel procurement is about 50-75 miles. However, Thibodeau says usually they don’t have to go that far; Ashland is a great area for wood supply, it’s the heart of the northern Maine woods. Additionally, the facility burns a lot of the residuals from local sawmills. “Spec? Bring it, we burn it,” Brabant says cheekily. The fuel spec is broad, but for chips it is a three-inch minus. Bossie echoes Brabant by saying unless there is a major issue with a fuel load, they do not turn it away. With such a diverse fuel supply, processing and housekeeping present challenges with residuals, because dust is relatively weightless and just takes off inside the boiler compared to chips, which are denser, but “We’re adapting to it,” Bossie says. In November 2014, ReEnergy Ashland received SFI certification. It was an extremely detailed intense process, and Thibodeau is pleased with the extra work everyone put in to make it happen, especially from Dumond and his team.
Weather Concerns To point out the obvious, northern Maine receives some extreme weather. At the time of WoodBio’s visit, the high was -9° F and there was nearly four feet of snow on the ground in certain places—that presents a unique challenge for the power plant. Thibodeau explains, “The snow presents problems not necessarily on transmission of power but on
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Before the restart could happen, the existing substation had to be reenergized, in order to get the conveyors running.
processes we have at the plant with burning of wood chips. We get a lot of frozen, wet wood that is encased in ice. Trying to burn snow and ice requires more BTUs.” Maine also experiences “mud seasons.” In an effort to combat the slowdown during them, the fuel yard tries to stockpile. The worst one is in the spring after the snow melts, because there are no forest operation as loggers can’t get into the forest without rutting up the ground. Thibodeau says they try to come into a mud season with as much inventory as they can. However, it’s a tough balancing act because after more than 90 days the wood is at risk of natural combustion. Bossie adds, “There is a point were the wood starts burning in the piles. It’s a balance between stockpiling enough and not wasting.” Sawyer agrees, but notes the importance of the grid reliability. “This grid is a winter peaking grid; in this part of the state, there is no need for supplemental power, except in the winter.” Sawyer estimates the county uses between 70-80 MW, and the ReEnergy facilities in the area are lugging a large amount of that. Fort Fairfield puts out 37 MW and Ashland puts out 39 MW.
Employee Relations When it came time to hire operators, ReEnergy received more than 200 applications and interviewed more than 100 to fill the 22 open positions. Thibodeau, Bossie, Brabant and HR Manager Lori Russell spent day after day, almost back to back in the conference room, interviewing people. Thibodeau says while Sawyer was out trying to get the plant together, people would be coming in for interviews and often he or Bossie or Brabant would be running out to get something done in the plant. “Staffing was quite a feat in itself,” he says, “It was painstaking but it was a critical part.” Once the interview process was complete and applicants were selected, they were given a packet of information, a guide to the plant. After reading it, and
A Foxboro DCS system allows close monitoring of goings on.
spending time inside the facility, they were expected to be able to draw systems and figure out how the systems worked in order to not only operate systems properly, but also troubleshoot issues. Sawyer says one of the key things they kept drilling into the employees was, “This startup is going to happen. We don’t want to be in a position where, as a manager, I say, ‘go start the condensate pump,’ and you look at me and say, ‘where’s the condensate pump?’ They were expected to be 85% plus competent on the stuff in that book.” Many items in the book had to be checked by a member of the management team, which Sawyer says helped get the employees up to speed quickly. Employees were hired in August and September and by late September and October, the facility was making steam. “It was a really steep learning curve. 95% of the crew was new to the plant and they had a matter of weeks to be ready,” Thibodeau says. “They had other experiences; they were well qualified from other places, but when you have to learn a new plant, a plant this size, there’s a lot of systems in place to understand.” The training packet was a good guide, and employees were sent to the Livermore Falls, Me. facility. Employees spent about a week training on an operating plant, which certainly helped. ReEnergy Ashland employs 25 full time, a mix of boiler operators, plant operators, mechanics, electricians, fuel yard operators and supervisors. In the state of Maine, boiler operators have to be licensed, as they are high-pressure boiler operators. Thibodeau believes it is a good program—adding that it requires his guys to be higher trained. The facility has four shifts, each with a shift supervisor, boiler operator, fuel yard operator and control room operator. A four-man maintenance crew includes two mechanics, an electrician and an electrical and instrument technician. Two fuel quality techs assist with delivery of wood, and one administrative assistant is in charge of accounts payable, receivable, payroll and
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Northern Maine is known for extreme weather, presenting some issues with chips combusting in piles, if left longer than 90 days.
keeping the office together. Sawyer points out that the employees at the facility don’t just have one job. Just like the management team, they wear many hats. “The thing about the operators is, even though they are shift workers, when the plant goes down they convert to maintenance,” he explains. The plant has two scheduled outages during the year, one in the spring to get ready for the summer peak and one in the fall to get ready for the winter peak. He continues, “Whatever it takes to get us to where we are running 90 plus percent capacity, these guys have to help make it happen—they aren’t just boiler operators.” Thibodeau agrees, grateful for the teamwork in place. “Biomass plants are inherently driven by efficiency—we have to be. You have to be really streamlined. It’s a big team effort and it’s in extreme conditions. We’ve had wind chill warnings of -50 and -60 degrees this year and guys have had to climb the stack in those conditions. You have to have dedicated people for that.”
Local, State Impact Before the restart, Ashland as a town was floundering. But thanks to a few key factors, like the opening of a J.D. Irving, Ltd. sawmill and the restart of the power plant, the town has become more vibrant. Brabant, a resident of the area,
says the local impact of the plant has been incredible, “Any of the stores you go to, people are happy there’s activity again. For the longest time the Ashland area was like a ghost town.” During the restart, Sawyer says both he and Thibodeau made a concerted effort to hire local contractors, “Whenever we could use anybody local, we did. We tried to support as much as we can locally—try to be a good neighbor.” It wasn’t just the local community that took note of the restart project, Maine’s capital city was also aware. So when the time came to start commercial operations, ReEnergy had a Restart Celebration. On October 2, economic development officials, state and local dignitaries, ReEnergy corporate officers, the state Chamber of Commerce president, Senator Angus King and Governor Paul LePage came to ReEnergy Ashland and toured the grounds. Sen. King spoke, as well as Gov. LePage, with Thibodeau acting as the Master of Ceremonies. At the end of the event, when it was time to officially open ReEnergy Ashland for business, Gov. LePage flipped a switch, built by Brabant, an air horn went off, and a truck dumped a load of fuel. ReEnergy’s corporate communications director Sarah Boggess says the day couldn’t have been better, “There was a lot to celebrate in Ashland that day.”
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Wood Yard
Technology EDITOR’S NOTE: The following manufacturers, who are advertising in this issue of Wood Bioenergy, submitted the following copy and photos. All statements and claims are attributable to the manufacturers.
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wood yard technology ■
Acrowood
DiamondRoll screen operating at slight incline.
Acrowood DiamondRoll screens have long been used in the pulp and paper industry to remove fines from wood chips. DiamondRoll screens have also been used in particleboard plants to segregate particles to be used in the face or core of the board, along with removing over-sized particles for further processing. This application of passing acceptably sized material and removing large particles for subsequent milling has recently been applied in pellet plants. The above photo depicts a DiamondRoll screen operating at a slight incline. The green feedstock contains a variety of particle sizes, ranging from sawdust to large wood chunks. The small material passes between the shafts of the screen to an airlock below while the oversized material is directed into a green hammermill. This installation runs at a normal flow rate of 15 oven dry metric tons per hour. Should the mill wish to change the size of the material passing, the spacing of the shafts can be adjusted via a simple shim change. While this application is on green feedstock, another recently sold DiamondRoll screen will process dry material at a much smaller separation point. This will allow the plant to increase total capacity without increasing the size of the hammermill. Both applications reduce loading to the hammermills and are expected to increase wear component life as a result. Acrowood and its predecessors Black Clawson and Sumner Iron Works have supplied chippers, screens and associated forest products equipment for more than 100 years. The common thread for all this machinery has been efficient and reliable operation with minimal maintenance. Visit acrowood.com.
Airoflex Equipment Airoflex Equipment has been supplying the industry standard for hydraulic truck and trailer dumpers since 1947. Airoflex Equipment engineers and designs material handling products which include extended arm, standard pivot, and fully-portable truck and trailer
dumpers, along with above or below grade receiving hoppers, and in pit receiving hoppers. Airoflex is dedicated to providing durable, reliable and quality built equipment. Airoflex is known for its high performance, low maintenance, and robust cylinder design. Professional engineers can tailor equipment to meet your specifications. Airoflex has experience in handling biomass, wood chips, bark, RDF, municipal solid waste, sugar cane, grain, seed, peanuts, scrap metal products and can handle any bulk flowable material. Airoflex truck dumpers and hydraulic cylinders are now manufactured by Hoffmann, Inc., at their Iowa facility which specializes in the fabrication of large, industrial components and equipment. Hoffmann’s fabrication facility has more than 70,000 sq. ft., and is entirely dedicated for metal fabrication. Hoffmann’s build team offers any type of steel component or custom engineered equipment built to detailed specifications. The steel fabrication team can provide the assembly and erection services needed for your dumper and hopper installations.
Airoflex truck and trailer dumper
After-sale customer service is the Airoflex commitment, with startup and commissioning, a large inventory of spare parts, service legs for ease in maintenance, cylinder rebuild and repair, a cylinder exchange program, and inspection and testing services to provide assistance when required. Search the large in-stock inventory for pins, pin eyes, pusher pins, pivot bearings, stuffing boxes, adjustable packing glands, packings, spanner wrenches and replacement cylinders for the main dumper, backstop, pit doors and wheel locks. Airoflex products have been installed throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, and in the Middle and Far East for industries such as biomass, municipal solid waste, pulp and paper, energy generation, cogeneration, food processing, rendering and recycling industries. Visit hoffmanninc.com.
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Caterpillar
CEM Machine
Caterpillar material handling
Increase fleet utilization, control costs and use capital more efficiently when you join forces with Caterpillar to build high-performance wood yards at pellet and biomass energy plants. Caterpillar’s application experts work with the plant’s team to design and execute site-specific plans to improve productivity, manage the equipment life cycle, enhance safety and sustainability and optimize cash flow. Using a six-step process and a proprietary business model, Caterpillar’s wood yard experts gather facts and business requirements and then build a business case for a custom plan to optimize material handling in the wood yard. Caterpillar also offers by-the-hour financing and full maintenance and repairs contracts that keep machines running. The customer pays only if the machine is running/productive. In general, for bioenergy plants that receive whole tree roundwood, Caterpillar recommends a system that includes: Cat 990K or 988K to unload log trucks in a single pass; track Cat 325D FM log loader or wheeled Cat M325D L material handler for safely high decking inventory in a smaller footprint; Cat M Series medium or large wheel loader fitted with log forks to move logs to the debarker; Cat 966M or 972M with a high dump or high capacity wood chip bucket to load bark into chip vans (a Cat 972 with 15 cu. yd. wood chip bucket can load a typical chip van in under five minutes); and a Cat 226D skid steer loader with a grapple bucket for cleanup around conveyors. With a grapple bucket the operator can pick up bark and debris under conveyors by grabbing it instead of trying to force it into the bucket. For bioenergy plants that receive only chips, Caterpillar recommends Cat dozers. The line covers a wide range in sizes from the smaller D7E with 31 cu. yd. chip blade to the larger D10T with 90 cu. yd. chip blade, so you can right-size your choice depending on the size of your operation. Visit caterpillar.com.
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CEM continues to produce chipping equipment that produces high quality chips and microchips, and makes money for its customers. New CEM equipment delivered is already chipping millions of tons of wood annually. For a biofuel producer, high process energy efficiency is an essential element of plant profitability. So while making microchips from logs requires somewhat more energy than making conventional chips from logs, microchips are reduced to a drier feed with far less milling energy than are conventional chips. The result is that the total required chipping plus milling energy for preparation of a drier feed is substantially less with microchips. The photo below shows a shredded chip product at left, ready for drying, and three progressively larger size wood chip supplies alongside. ‘Shreds,’ Cut & Green-milled typical dryer feedstock
microchips 6 mm lg. (1/4")
Conventional Chips 20-25 mm (3/4"-1") long
microchips 10 mm lg. (3/8") screened
Consider the relative ease by which the small pieces of 6 mm (1/4") microchips can be hammered to shreds against the large amount of work needed to be done on the large conventional chips. So whether your process needs high-quality efficiently produced microchips or conventional wood chips, the superior design, long life, high reliability and simple maintenance of CEM’s microchip processors and chippers is an operator’s best choice. Visit cem-machine.com.
Fulghum Industries Fulghum Industries, Inc., a Georgia, USA-based manufacturing company, has completed two state-of-the-art 170 ft. log handling cranes for use in Canada. Fulghum Industries has been serving the forest products industry since 1956, engineering and fabricating the equipment needed to handle, debark, chip and process all types of hardwood and softwood. These two cranes have been purchased by a pellet manufacturer in Canada and have been specially engineered to handle the extreme Canadian winters on top of an already demanding workload. Fulghum’s 170 ft. log crane is the largest of Fulghum’s standard-sized cranes and was selected for its size, durability and reliability. With their combined storage capacity, the two cranes will be able to unload, store and feed 1,000,000± metric tons of logs per
Wood Bioenergy / April 2015
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handling equipment and expertise needed to excel in such a competitive market. Visit fulghum.com.
MDI
Fulghum crane at pellet manufacturer in Canada
year; meaning that their operators will be able to process timber even when the roads are too icy for trucks. Add that storage capacity to the inherent ruggedness of Fulghum Industries’ equipment, and the mill will have a pair of cranes that will operate constantly and consistently, without the hassle of unscheduled maintenance and unnecessary repairs. The biofuel, biomass, pellet, pulp and paper and lumber industries are a booming part of the global economy, and Fulghum Industries is available to supply the material
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MDI metal detection
Well designed and supported metal detector systems are a necessary part of the production process. They are there to protect expensive equipment and prevent costly downtime in the event that damaging metal is present. MDI is a proven leader in the industry with 50 years of experience in providing industrial metal detection systems.
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MDI metal detectors are designed to work in harsh environments, taking into account such things as variable frequency drives, radio interference, and AC noise; all of which can create big problems for many metal detecting systems. The MDI system is designed to filter out these effects. In today’s world, digital technology plays a major role in modern electronics. The processing power of a digital system greatly enhances performance and achieves powerful results. The TWA-2000 Surround Metal Detector System with MP-4 customizable digital technology provides the processing power to achieve higher performance with greater stability and better sensitivity. In addition, the TWA-2000 has advanced digital filtering, reduced product effect, enhanced performance and the ability for remote access, which can allow for remote service diagnosis and software upgrades, when available. The TWA-2000 Surround is successfully used in numerous applications in various industries. MDI has two flat under conveyor systems. The XR3000 system is an economical metal detector designed to give consistent protection against tramp metal damage; used generally where load depths are low, and the application calls for protection from primarily ferrous metals. The second flat under conveyor system, the
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MP-2000, features the same customizable MP-4 microcontroller that is used in the TWA-2000 system. This advanced digital technology has processing power to achieve higher performance with greater stability and better sensitivity. The MP-2000 is used in situations where more sensitivity is needed for ferrous, non-ferrous and manganese. Both shielded systems are highly resistant to all radio and electrical interference. The TWA-2000 and the MP-2000 both have optimum sensitivity at any product speed up to 2,000 FPM. MDI takes pride in an experienced and well trained Service Department that has the knowledge, experience and technology to help with any metal contaminate needs that may arise in today’s bio-fuel production environment. Visit mdiblue.com.
Phelps Paper mills, wood pellet mills and biomass facilities that receive bark, hogged fuel, and mixed biomass deal with the inherent problem of these materials not metering well or simply not clearing at all from truck dumper drag chain hoppers. Due to its stringy and fibrous nature, bridging, clogging or bottlenecking may occur at metering gates, belt conveyor transitions or at disc screens. These
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â– wood yard technology
clumps of biomass do not simply spread out, but must be aggressively broken up. A Phelps Backrake installed in the drag chain hopper breaks the clumps before this material exits the hopper, producing a more consistent and steady discharge of biomass through the material handling system. Visit phelpsindus- Phelps backrate increases tries.com efficiency of truck dumpers.
ProcessBarron ProcessBarron has the in-house capabilities to engineer, design, supply and install virtually any type of rebuild or upgrade to chip systems, stacker reclaimers and conveyor systems, such as powerfeed, infeed chutes,
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ProcessBarron wood yard engineering and design
debarkers, belt and chain conveyors, chippers, discharge systems, chip screens and baghouses. ProcessBarron has the expertise to help design a system based on the specifics of your project by evaluating the following governing considerations: throughput volume and storage volume; physical size of land and facility; upfront capital budget vs. operating budget; climate; and local regulations. For more than 20 years, ProcessBarron has been designing, manufacturing and maintaining the country’s
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■ wood yard technology
most durable and reliable systems available for biomass plants. Their experts understand how to integrate biomass equipment to work in tandem with traditional systems for partial plant conversions, or can tackle a total fuel, air and ash system conversion. ProcessBarron has the expertise to take on the unique challenges of biomass conversion and plant maintenance. Don’t let the machines set the timetable by simply being reactive. Get ahead of problems with proper wood yard maintenance. ProcessBarron’s field services save biomass plants from extended downtime and lost productivity. ProcessBarron regularly provides technical personnel to evaluate existing wood yard equipment and make recommendations for future compliance with new regulations and/or plant process changes. Visit processbarron.com.
Rawlings Manufacturing The original rotary wood hog was invented and developed by Rawlings Manufacturing in 1977. Since then the family owned company has manufactured and marketed several series of product lines. The wood waste recovery systems are available in stationary, portable and skid mounted systems; both vertical and
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horizontal models are available. Rawlings wood hogs come in all shapes and sizes, from simple stand-alone vertical hogs for sawmills, pulp, paper, power and pellet plants to complete custom horizontal hog systems that can process material of any length such as logs, forest debris and urban waste. The Rawlings Patented Rawlings super hog Super Hi-Inertia Hog is designed to run 24/7 365 days a year. The rotor is equipped with the highest mass moment of inertia in the industry with the lowest operating costs per ton of material processed. Operating at lower RPMs, the Rawlings machine still provides the crushing and shearing power needed to handle really tough jobs, like green waste, cypress, redwood, cedar, poplar and a wide range of other stringy and fibrous materials. The Rawlings Super-Hi Inertia Rotor was designed to maximize inertia while minimizing its weight. With less downtime and easier maintenance customers have applauded both the Super-Hi In-
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■ wood yard technology
ertia Rotor as well as the Rocwear striker system. Rawlings is dedicated to advancing this technology and to providing the very best support to its customers. Visit wastewoodhogs.com.
West Salem Machinery
West Salem milling island
West Salem Machinery (WSM) Green Milling Islands combine screening and green milling machinery, like WSM’s super shredder, with a wide array of infeed and outfeed machinery to deliver a complete high capacity green milling island, including metering feeders, screening/cleaning centers, and gravity or air-assist discharge. Because each component is of the same millduty construction, your green milling island will operate with 24/7 reliability and durability. WSM’s super shredders are massive machines for the largest capacity requirements. The Super Shredder delivers high tip speed for small, consistent fiber sizing, increased screen area for more throughput, with flexible and interchangeable tooling for easy maintenance. Mill duty construction delivers continuous production of premium quality feedstock. Materials processed include wood chips, agricultural residuals (corn stover, straw, bagasse), pre-hogged wood, sawdust, shavings. WSM Dry Milling islands include WSM’s 4400 Series hammermills with ancillary machinery, including conveyors, feeders and screening/cleaning equipment. This provides a complete high capacity dry screening and milling island for efficient production of fine-grind fiber. WSM’s 4400 hammermill gets the job done. These high speed, high volume hammermills have 20,000+ FPM tip speed for high capacity milling to a small particle size. Features include a large diameter hammer circle and throat widths from 20-60 in. These rugged mills have extended sizing screens to maximize production. Heavy duty fabricated steel housing and easy glide access doors make for superior strength and wear life. WSM’s complete hog fuel screening and grinding systems feature bulk feeders for metered feeding, magnetics, pre-screening and cleaning for reduced grinder wear and increased throughput, and grinding of oversized material to a consistent fuel size. Material
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transfer conveyors and support structures and access platforms provide a fully integrated fuel preparation package. Visit westsalem.com.
Wolf Material Handling Systems
Wolf installation at GREC in Florida
After receiving recognition for providing the fuel yard solution for a 2012 Biomass Project of the Year at the Nacogdoches Generating Facility near Sacul, Texas, Wolf Material Handling Systems followed up by providing a similar solution for the recently commissioned, 100MW Gainesville Renewable Energy Center in Gainesville, Fla. Wolf was tasked with supplying every component in the wood yard from the time the delivery driver weighs in at the gate to the metered delivery of fuel to the boiler house. As a complete solution provider for the GREC system, Wolf designed and manufactured an innovative sampler system at the scale house and over a half mile of conveyors incorporating: one fixed stacker, two wood hog chain feeders, and two Wolf-designed underpile reclaimers with the associated chute work and dust collection system. The system also included three Airoflex drive-over truck dumpers, inbound and outbound scales, RFID fuel-tracking system, and dual hog and screen systems. The centerpiece of this project is the Wolf Radial Stacker/Reclaimer capable of automatically building a 4 million cubic foot pile at a rate of 600 tph while simultaneously reclaiming at a rate of 200 tph. Far from the first stacker/reclaimer that Wolf provided, it is the largest to date. Wolf’s first stacker/reclaimer was part of another award-winning project that Wolf designed and built for Delano Energy back in 1989. That unit was capable of building a 450,000 cubic foot pile at 186 tph while reclaiming at 45 tph. For more than 35 years Wolf Material Handling Systems has been a “Single Source” supplier providing innovative, client-centered biomass and biofuels handling solutions to the power generation, resource recovery and pulp and paper industries. Wolf can take your project from “Concept to Completion.” Visit wolfmhs.com.
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Amandus Kahl
Kahl pelleting presses
Three years ago, the current U.S. market leader in the field of wood pelleting had Amandus Kahl present them the modified wood pelleting press type 60-1250 with 600 HP and was soon convinced of its capacity (on average 6 t/h) and its sturdiness. Today, 37 Kahl flat-die pelleting presses are in operation in their four plants. Currently, about 60 Kahl pelleting presses produce a total of 3 million t of wood pellets per year in the U.S.—most of them industrial pellets used in power plants for co-firing. This year, Amandus Kahl has accepted an order for another 24 presses by the U.S. market leader which will be commissioned in 2015. Why Kahl flat die pelleting presses? Kahl presses demonstrate quality in details such as: reinforced press bodies, robust cutting devices, breathing air filter preventing moisture in the gear interior, oil filter with flow meter, and pan grinder head stop for optimum adjustment of rollers and die. As for energy efficiency, Kahl considers the complete plant, from the reception facilities to the finished product silos. With an improved press control, clear machine monitoring and the use of a so-called traffic light control system, downtimes can be avoided and the service lives positively influenced. The long service life and the simple rework of the pelleting tools, such as die and pan grinder rollers, result in low operating costs and high overall efficiency. Furthermore, Kahl presses can
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be used economically as a pan grinder mill for other applications, for example for crushing wood chips, torrefied wood, waste tires, domestic and industrial waste and many more. The “white pellets” are still on the upswing and could yet be replaced soon in popularity by the so-called “black pellets.”These are pellets of torrefied biomass which have a higher calorific value, a higher energy density and a high water stability. Amandus Kahl is also involved in some important projects for this technology. In the next few years, Amandus Kahl expects further growth in the broad field of pelleting of renewable raw materials, which they consider to be a contribution to sustainability. Hall 13, Stand C38
Firefly
Firefly spark detectors
Firefly has more than 40 years of experience in providing preventive fire protection to the process industries. The installation of a preventive fire protection system can save the industry from costly fires and dust explosions. By combining unique and patented technology, Firefly offers premium safety solutions that minimize false alarms and keep the industries in production. Firefly is the first company in the world to be FM approved for spark detection/extinguishing systems with spark detectors detecting hot particles down to ≥250°C (≥482 °F) and for spark detectors detecting down to ≥400°C (752 °F). Detecting down to 400°C or 250°C is critical to prevent fires and dust explosions, based on the minimum igni-
tion temperature (MIT) and minimum ignition energy (MIE) for most process material. Hall 27, Stand F59; Hall 13, Stand C04
Jenz
Jenz stationary chipper
The worldwide demand for pellets is increasing in both the private and industrial sectors. Jenz is presenting a powerful stationary chipper for use in the pellet-producing industries and in biomass power stations such as the HE 561 StA. The machine was specifically designed for permanent industrial use with a production of up to 150 lcm wood chippings per hour. The extremely efficient helical rotor ensures absolute smooth running. On this rotor, the reversing blades are staggered helically around the circumference. In comparison to the continuous cutters normally used, these blades cut successively. This means that the cutting power is always concentrated on a small area. This reduces the overall power requirement and the machine runs very smoothly in comparison. The material output is fragmentized so that it can be used in biomass power stations, for pellet production and also in the timber industry. The HE 561 STA is a further development of the HEM 561, which has been used in the mobile sector for many years. The draw-in is composed of an aggressive top draw-in roller, which is mounted on the rotor shaft to save space. The proven steel section apron conveyor is used for the bottom draw-in in combination with an additional aggressive draw-in roller. The chipper is built with a draw-
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ligna exhibitors ■
in width of 1000 mm at an intake high of 560 mm. This means that softwood with a diameter up to 56 cm and hardwood with a diameter of up to 42 cm can be fragmentized. A range of electrical motors is available for the drive. The drive power of the machine being displayed is 250 kW, and this can also be provided with a frequency converter for soft starting on request. The drive speed is stated at 1490 rpm, the drum speed is 590 rpm and the torque is 1602 Nm. Stationary equipment for the processing of ligneous biomasses is becoming increasingly important, especially in the growth markets of Asia and the U.S. All this has meant that Jenz was able to sell a very satisfactory number of stationary machines over the last few months. Open-air site (FG), Stand L03/5
Promill-Stolz
Promill-Stolz has pelleting history.
The wood pellet industry has been booming in France since the second half of the 2000s. However, its national establishment is actually much older, since the first plants were installed in the ’80s. Some players, present in the market since the early years, bring a unique vision of the current evolution. This is the case for Promill-Stolz, a designer, manufacturer and installer of pelleting units, whose customers provide to this day 70% of French production, 70% of Baltic production and 15% of world production. “We provided our support and expertise to the first French producers 30 years ago, and we’ve been naturally accompanying them and our new customers as the market continued to grow significantly,”
explains Christophe Garnier, Sales Manager of Promill-Stolz. “We understand that the growth is currently driven by the larger producers who set the tone on the market, since 90% of the production is provided by only 30 manufacturers. Their numerous existing and ongoing projects testify of the vitality of this sector. Besides, we consider that the French demand will be multiplied by six by the year 2020.” Only 10 years ago, the overwhelming majority of wood pellet producers essentially used sawdust from softwood and operated very simplistic installations, composed of a drum dryer, hammermill, and one to three pellet mills. Today, the very big installations are much more complex: —They must be able to process very specific formulas consisting of various species of softwood and hardwood, in the form of logs, chips or sawdust. —They are equipped with technologies used to remove bark from logs, to chip logs, to mill chips, and to dry with the use of a drum or belt dryer. All of this has a direct impact on hammermill and pellet mill design and over the years Promill-Stolz has gained a high level of expertise in the adaptation of those process machines to all possible scenarios. Promill-Stolz took part in carrying out large pellet plants of more than 150 000 T per year, some operating with alternating belt and drum dryers, and others operating with mixed combinations of hardwood and softwood logs. Those plants were installed in countries such as France, Russia, Malaysia and the Baltic States. Hall 13, Stand D48
RUF RUF GmbH & Co. is based in Zaisertshofen, Germany and began specializing in the design and manufacture of briquetting equipment almost 30 years ago. What started out with a press for making briquettes out of tree bark has over
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RUF has sold more than 1,000 briquetting systems for biomass.
the years developed into a multifaceted global business. RUF manufactures briquetting machines at its own factory in Germany. By manufacturing the components and producing the machines, RUF is in a position to react quickly and flexibly to its customers’ needs. Over the years RUF has sold more than 3,500 machines and carried out numerous press tests on a huge range of materials. This wealth of experience means that RUF can provide the right machinery to suit every need. The company specializes in the design and manufacture of briquetting systems for wood, metal and other materials. Its biomass presses have an output of 30 to 1500 kg/hr, depending on the particular machine and material to be pressed. Along with wood in the form of sawdust, wood shavings and wood chips (up to 30x30 mm), other materials such as cotton, paper, miscanthus and tobacco can also be briquetted. RUF has sold more than 1,000 briquetting systems for the wood/biomass sector. RUF briquetting machines can be incorporated directly into the existing production line and provide the user with many advantages, including: premium quality and excellent burning briquettes; reduction of volume, removal of dust; simplified storage and transportation. Hall 13, Stand B17
Vecoplan Vecoplan AG is a leading manufacturer of machines and plants for the international wood and recycling
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industries. Vecoplan is based in Bad Marienberg (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany, and develops, produces and sells high technology plants and machines for shredding, conveying, screening, storing and dosing of wood, biomass, pelletizing, paper, plastics, alternative fuels and domestic and commercial waste. Vecoplan provides a number of innovative technical solutions and is a single source for the processing of wood required for recycling and energy generation. It is a market leader for the production of large chipping plants, biomass power plants, sawmills, wood processing and pelletizing plants. Its customers are persuaded by its portfolio of products and services which range from planning to commissioning, and which include the complete range of systems technology. Vecoplan configures bunker, conveying and storage sys-
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Vecoplan VecoBelt pipe conveuor
tems in conjunction with its customers, according to the highest quality standards. Many of Vecoplan’s technologies are patented. The Vecoplan pipe conveyor VecoBelt is ideal for conveying bulk materials over long distances either horizontally or on a slight incline. The material being transported glides on a cushion of air in a closed steel tube. It features very low drive capacity required in relation to conveying capacity; minimal dust because belt is completely
enclosed in the conveying tower; greatly reduced wear thanks to small number of moving parts; large spans thanks to self-supporting belt construction; conveying capacity rates of up to 850 m³/h; belt widths of 500 and 800 mm. Today Vecoplan AG employs more than 400 from its headquarters in Germany and at offices in the UK, Spain, Austria and the U.S. Its comprehensive dealers and service network worldwide offers presence and support to all of its customers. After the commissioning of machinery and plant systems, Vecoplan ensures that the process operates reliably. Vecoplan supplies anything from a single machine to a complete turnkey system according to the individual requirement of its customers and at the highest standards of quality and sustainability. Hall 27, Stand E51
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product news â– Biomass Comes Up Big At 2015 OLC Loggers from across the Western U.S. and points beyond recently made the trek to the Oregon Logging Conference February 19-21 in
Eugene, Ore. The event drew great crowds and featured great weather and sold-out display space, organizers say. During the OLC, several biomass update seminars were held for visitors, including a status report from The Beck Group on current projects, forest residual potential and issues going forward when considering biomass utilization in the region, plus a presentation from Washington State University on various biomass collection techniques across the Northwest. Biomass equipment manufacturers weighed in as well, including Morbark and its 3800XL Wood Hog grinder (top photo) and Peterson with its 4310B drum chipper.
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■ product news Amerimulch Offers Coloring System
ers who want simple, effective, high-volume production. Visit amerimulch.com.
The acquisition will considerably improve Premier Tech Chronos’ ability to better serve global accounts in Brazil and reinforces its brand recognition.
Premier Tech Buys Almeida Martins Premier Tech announced the acquisition of Almeida Martins by its Industrial Equipment Group, Premier Tech Chronos. This 10th acquisition within the last 15 years allows Premier Tech Chronos to expand its worldwide presence and reinforces its status as a leader in the packaging equipment industry. Almeida Martins is a Brazilianbased company founded in 1993 and dedicated to helping companies with material handling as well as robotic solutions for packaging and palletizing. Almeida Martins’ advanced technologies and machine capabilities are now used by more than 800 companies in Brazil.
Amerimulch mulch coloring
Amerimulch, a member of the ChromaScape family of brands, offers the new MobileTrom coloring system, ColorTrom. It is available in a self-contained, portable unit. If you are looking to enter the colorenriched mulch industry, or simply expand your current operation, and if 100 yards per hour hits your production target, the MobileTrom is an attractive option. Amerimulch colorants are formulated for superior bonding, coating and coverage and its equipment is designed for produc-
Andritz Will Supply Two Enviva Plants Andritz reports it has received an order from Enviva, one of the leading producers of wood pellets, to supply wood yard equipment, engineering and field services for two biomass pellet plants, each with a capacity of 500,000 tons per year, to be built in North Carolina. Andritz will supply several innovative products for manufacturing high-quality mini-chips from round timber at high production rates. At the heart of the wood processing line is the HHQ30 chipper knife combination with TurnKnife system from Andritz Iggesund Tools.
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CONTACT CARL JANSEN AT 541-593-2777 OR Carlj@SearchNA.com
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Top Wood Jobs Recruiting and Staffing George Meek geo@TopWoodJobs.com www.TopWoodJobs.com (541) 954-8456
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