4/17/08 PORTLAND, Maine: The annual meeting of the New England chapter of the Millyard Operators Technical Advancement Group (MOTAG-NE) took place this week in Portland, Maine. The technical program featured several presentations that were related to biofuels and the developing wood pellet market. Speakers representing interests in Maine and New Hampshire, as well as other areas along the Atlantic seaboard to as far south as Florida, highlighted the state of the industry with respect to new installations of biofuel use, plant installations, and plant experiences.
It started with a presentation concerning the Red Shield Environmental plant located on the previously closed pulp mill site in Old Town, ME. This plant has already re-started the Kraft pulp mill and is shipping market Kraft pulp, but the speaker highlighted the exciting development work that is being done in cooperation with the University of Maine at Orono to develop cellulosic ethanol in a pilot plant biorefinery complex, establish a 320,000 ton per year wood pellet plant, and operate a steam and electrical production facility on the site using fuel wood sources. Several speakers noted the development work that is taking place in several locations to solve the many problems of making wood-based ethanol production an economically profitable process. Red Shield Environmental will use the hemicelluloses present in the black liquor after pulping, but many other technologies are possible.
A virtual visit to the Green Circle BioEnergy plant in Cottonville, FL (near Panama City) showed the advanced state of installation of this 560,000 ton per year wood pellet plant. The raw material handling equipment is installed and has been used to stockpile boiler fuel materials, as well as nearly 24,000 tons of wood chips and sawdust used in the process. All of the woodyard equipment was supplied by BRUKS Rockwood, including the truck dumper, boiler fuel and wood chip storage and reclaim systems, primary chipper, and all the interconnecting Tubulator conveyors. This is currently the largest pellet plant in North America, and will be in full production in the next few weeks.
Avrill Cook of Biomass Commodities presented several examples where large residential and small commercial interests have converted previously oil-heated facilities to wood pellets. Outside pellet storage bins feed clean pellets through a simple screw and tube system to boilers that heat small to medium sized buildings. A few examples were shown where large buildings were heated in this manner. Pellets are being manufactrured from many raw materials, not just wood, and he noted the problems that arise with higher-than-wood ash levels that may result. In general the technology is viable, and the pellets seem to be available to meet the demands of the market, but the potential for converting existing oil furnaces would seem to be nearly limitless.
Many Maine-based pellet manufacturers were present, and their mood was generally upbeat concerning the prospects for this market. There were concerns from all sides (electrical power plants, pulp mills, OSB plants, pellet plants, and others) concerning the availability of standing trees and sawmill residuals to meet the potential need for wood for these many process. Biofuels are the current rage, and meeting consumer’s demands for Green Energy may be difficult to achieve in light of restrictions placed on harvesting New England forests. High wood prices make many of these operations economically viable only when oil is $100 per barrel or higher (It currently is over $115 per barrel).