Port of Pascagoula commissioners this morning approved a $1.5 million dredging project to prepare a Bayou Casotte berth for a specialized wood pellet exporting facility. The board awarded the $1.47 million contract to C. F. Bean LLC for the dredging, testing, transporting and disposing of about 45,000 cubic yards of silts around Terminals E and [...]
Georgia Power Enters Into 20-Year Agreement To Add Biomass Energy
U.S.-based energy company Georgia Power has entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Rollcast Energy to boost its biomass power capacity by 53.5MW. Under the agreement, Georgia will procure the biomass power from Rollcast’s Piedmont Green Power plant, located in Barnesville in the U.S. state of Georgia. The owner of the plant will [...]
North Dakota Iron Plant Uses Biomass Fuel
A new iron plant has been given the go ahead, using green technology the facility is expected to produce 100,000 metric tons of iron nuggets per year. Located in Jamestown, North Dakota, Carbontec Energy Corporation has developed a process that uses the waste from sugar beets, wood chips and other biomass to make pig iron [...]
Rentech Drops Woody Jet Fuel For Wood Pellets
The California energy company that once touted made-in-Northern Ontario green jet fuel now wants to make wood pellets. Los Angeles-based Rentech has drastically changed the scope of its project in Northern Ontario as it announced, May 2, it is switching gears by acquiring a shuttered Weyerhaeser fiber board mill in Wawa and and the Atikokan [...]
Altavista Power Plant Fires Up Once Again On Biomass
Small chunks of wood streamed onto a mountain of wood chips nearly 100 feet high, towering over workers making final adjustments at Dominion’s just-reopened Altavista Power Station last Friday as the plant fired up its boilers for the first time in about 2½ years. The plant — reconfigured to burn biomass, or waste wood products, [...]
North American Wood Pellet Exports Reached New Record Of 3.2 Million Tons In 2012
The wood pellet export industry in North America has grown exponentially in a relatively short period of time. The export value has increased from an estimated 40 million dollars in 2004 to almost 400 million dollars in 2012. This fairly new trade development is the result of Europe’s quest to reduce its dependence on fossil [...]
Wood For Energy Use In Schools, Hospitals, and Other Facilities Growing
The State of Institutional Woody Biomass Facilities in the United States, a report just released by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, is available at www.usendowment.org. This report, based on research by Katie Premo, Endowment intern, and Kate MacFarland, USDA Forest Service (USFS) staff, fills the gap and points to the growth in use [...]
USDA Extends Agreement To Promote Renewable Fuels In The Aviation Industry
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is extending for five years its agreement to work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other partners to help develop a viable biofuel for the aviation industry. The Secretary signed the agreement with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at the Advanced Biofuels Summit at Gaylord National Harbor [...]
Pellet Manufacturers Face Increasing Competition From OSB Mills
A resurgence in OSB demand in the US, prompted by an earlier- and stronger-than-expected housing recovery, will mean stiffer competition for pulpwood, putting pellet manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. The number of new housing starts in the US has staged a spectacular comeback since September of 2012. The average number of housing starts (annualized) from [...]
German Company To Open World’s Largest Wood Pellet Plant In Louisiana
The world’s largest wood pellet plant is coming to one of the smallest towns in Central Louisiana. German Pellets GmbH will begin work immediately on a $300 million plant in Urania that is expected to employ about 80 people directly and support more than 400 indirect jobs, officials with the company and Central Louisiana Economic [...]