DOTHAN, Alabama – Operating the country’s newest pellet mill, Peak Renewables is using premium raw materials to produce renewable fuel in a small carbon footprint here in southeast Alabama. With a rated capacity of 150,000 tons annually, the plant is a joint venture between Peak Renewables and Rex Lumber, a top regional lumber producer with three sawmills located near the new facility.

The strategic partnership works well for both companies: Peak Renewables is part of the Brian Fehr Group, which operates multiple companies in the forest products and wood bioenergy sectors including a construction division called Peak North America. Founder Brian Fehr is perhaps best known as a mill machinery and equipment systems manufacturing and construction developer first with the BID Group and now Peak North America, a major sawmill equipment and systems supplier. Fehr and his companies have a wealth of connections throughout the wood products manufacturing and related construction and fabrication industries.  Rex Lumber is a family-owned producer of kiln-dried Southern pine lumber with a long tradition of quality and consistency.  The three sawmills provide premium dried planer shavings to the pellet mill—a key factor in the plant’s small carbon footprint and emissions profile.

In addition to the pellet mill, Rex Lumber is also a partner in SmartLam, a major cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel manufacturer that’s also part of the Brian Fehr Group and located adjacent the pellet mill in south Dothan (with another plant in Montana). With its high quality and low moisture content lumber, Rex Lumber is a key supplier to the CLT facility as well. Though the CLT plant isn’t a big pellet furnish supplier with just a few truckloads of shavings a week, the two facilities together create a compelling vision of fossil fuel reduction strategies and carbon sequestration innovation that benefits both the Brian Fehr Group and Rex Lumber and shows the companies’ commitment to environmental protection.

Dothan Project

The pellet plant began construction in June 2023 and ran the first test pellets in December 2023. Plant Manager James Potts, a 30-year veteran of the regional pulp and paper industry who joined the company during construction, notes the pellet mill had moved into full production by this past February. “We’re always learning as we go, but since February I think the team has built a good knowledge base,” he says. “They’ve learned a lot because they started from the ground up in getting the plant running.”

While the plant is the newest in the U.S., the equipment has been around: Formerly operating as a Pacific Bioenergy facility in British Columbia, the equipment was disassembled, refurbished and re-installed at the Dothan site. Peak Renewables General Manager Operations Mark Cunningham says, “Moving equipment from northern British Columbia to south Alabama went very well logistically. Our partner company Peak North America did an outstanding job safely removing the equipment, cleaning it of any residual material and refurbishing worn components, at our various shops in Canada, Alabama and Florida.”

Peak North America also handled construction and installation and did a great job on a short six-month timeline, company officials say. “Having a plant that had been running made the design seamless in many aspects,” Cunningham adds. “As with most projects, we always find areas where we could improve the layout, but fundamentally we are very happy with the finished product here in Dothan.” He says that overall, “The project at Dothan has been a huge success in our eyes.”

During an open house event earlier this year, Cunningham thanked the City of Dothan planning department and Chamber of Commerce for all their work and help getting the project up and running, and the efforts of Peak North America and its subcontractors as well.  “Our Peak Dothan Operations Team have learned so much in only a few months and demonstrate daily that we have an awesome team running the plant,” he added.