Natural gas prices have hit rock-bottom in Minnesota, undercutting the state’s taxpayer-supported efforts to promote statewide biomass energy projects. Minnesota has invested more than $11 million in taxpayer and utility funds to advance technologies that burn biomass for heat and electric generation or convert it to a synthetic gas, but it’s now getting difficult for [...]
Global Demand For Torrefied Biomass On The Rise
Torrefied biomass is on the brink of becoming a viable feedstock for utility-scale electricity generators, potentially displacing coal as well as some conventional untreated biomass and wood pellets. A new report by Hawkins Wright forecasts that favorable renewable energy policies in Europe, North America and Asia would result in global demand of more than 70 [...]
ZeaChem Secures USDA Loan Guarantee For Commercial-Scale Cellulosic Biorefinery
ZeaChem Inc., a developer of biorefineries for the conversion of renewable biomass into sustainable fuels and chemicals, recently announced it has been selected for a $232.5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program. The conditional commitment enables the financing and construction of ZeaChem’s first commercial-scale cellulosic biorefinery, a [...]
Coal Emissions Tax Funding Biomass Grants In Canada
Revenue from a coal emissions tax is being used to fund grants encouraging biomass fuels in Manitoba. New Agriculture Minister Ron Kostyshyn recently announced that the province will provide up to $400,000 in grants to get coal users to switch, boosting support for Manitoba’s biomass industry. “Biomass is a made-in-Manitoba fuel that can be produced [...]
ALSC Announces Approved Agency For Wood Pellet Certification
The American Lumber Standard Committee (ALSC) recently announced that Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau will serve as a third-party auditing agency of the Pellet Fuels Institute’s (PFI) densified wood pellet monitoring and labeling program, as administered by the ALSC. According to the PFI, at least 27 companies representing 41 pellet manufacturing mills have pledged to support [...]
State Agency Sides With Nippon Paper On Biomass Energy Project
The Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) has sided with Nippon Paper Industries USA in a challenge from several environmental groups to its $71 million biomass energy project at its paper mill in Port Angeles, Wash. Green organizations are fighting biomass expansion projects at the Nippon mill in Port Angeles and the Port Townsend Paper [...]
International Bioenergy Consulting Service Announced
BBI International and NEAtech recently announced a joint venture to develop a new international consulting service called BBI Consulting Services. Utilizing existing resources, the service will allow BBI International and NEAtech to deliver additional expertise to customers who are conceptualizing, developing or refining their bioenergy projects. By combining their experience and BBI International’s broadcast spectrum, [...]
Range Fuels Plant Sold For $5.1 Million
Officials of LanzaTech NZ Ltd., a closely held biofuels company based in Auckland, New Zealand and backed by billionaire Vinod Khosla, say it will convert a U.S. cellulosic ethanol plant it bought from Range Fuels Inc. to produce chemicals from biomass. LanzaTech is developing a process that uses proprietary microorganisms to convert carbon monoxide-containing gases [...]
World’s Largest Wood Pellet-Based Power Plant Set To Go Online
The world’s largest wood pellet-based biomass power plant, RWE npower’s Tilbury, England facility, will be fully commissioned and producing electricity by the end of January, according to company officials. The plant will generate nearly 750 MW of electricity using wood pellets produced at RWE’s Waycross, Ga. facility. The facility is currently running two of three [...]
Low Country BioMass Pellet Plant Starts Up
Low Country BioMass, LLC, Ridgeland, SC, completed construction and began production in mid-November. The pellet plant is on track to finish the commissioning process and begin its 24/7 schedule by the middle of January. With three Andritz pellet presses, the plant is converting pine residue from area sawmills into pellets bound for Europe to be [...]