Recently in Forestry Category

The Alabama Forestry Commission has released a guide to help residential, commercial, and industrial consumers evaluate the opportunity to use woody biomass to fuel their energy needs. The guide illustrates the available woody biomass in Alabama and states that between 2001 and 2008 "Alabama's tree inventory increased by a net amount of 13.9 million tons annually or a 1.3% increase." The guide also lists helpful tools in evaluating woody biomass opportunities including the USDA Forest Service's fuel value calculator. The guide can be accessed here. 

From TimberBuySell.com:

Peregrine Energy Corporation, a leader in developing independent power and other industrial energy efficiency-related projects, announced today that it plans to develop a new woody biomass-fueled cogeneration plant at Sonoco's Hartsville Manufacturing Complex, according to Ralph H. Walker, Jr., president of Peregrine Energy. The $135 million investment by Peregrine represents one of the largest single capital development projects in Darlington County's history.

Plans are for Peregrine to construct and own a new 50-megawatt capacity facility that will be capable of generating enough electricity to power approximately 14,000 homes. The new biomass-fueled cogeneration facility will replace Sonoco's existing coal-fired boilers. Once the facility is operating, Peregrine intends to sell the entire electrical output and all renewable energy certificates associated with the plant to Progress Energy Carolinas, Inc., and low pressure steam from the plant to Sonoco for use in the manufacture of recycled paperboard and other converted products at its Hartsville complex.

In response to the restrictive definition of "biomass" that was used in the federal renewable fuels standard (RFS), Southern state legislatures are passing resolutions asking Congress to expand the definition of biomass to include additional forest biomass resources from private and federal lands. The states are asking Congress to change the definition in the RFS as well as to use an expanded definition in future energy legislation, such as a renewable electricity standard (RES).

Both the House and Senate of the Georgia state legislature passed resolutions asking that the definition of "renewable biomass" include "any organic matter available on a renewable or recurring basis." The current biomass definition disqualifies 15 million acres of private forestland in Georgia for being used in biomass energy production. The Alabama House and the South Carolina House and Senate have passed similar resolutions.

For more information on the biomass definition visit: http://www.eesi.org/renewable_biomass_def.

From Enerkem press release:

Enerkem Inc., an advanced biofuels and green chemicals technology company, recently announced its plans to build and operate a second-generation biofuels production facility located in Pontotoc, Mississippi. In addition, the company announced the signature of a Memorandum of Intent with the Three Rivers Solid Waste Management Authority of Mississippi (TRSWMA) for the supply of approximately 189,000 tons of unsorted municipal solid waste (MSW) per year for use as feedstock at the Pontotoc facility.

Plans call for the plant to be built, owned and operated by Enerkem Mississippi Biofuels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enerkem. It is expected to produce 20 million gallons per year of next-generation ethanol using a mix of feedstock comprised of wood residues from regional forest and agricultural operations, as well as urban biomass such as municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, and treated wood. In addition to the biofuels production facility, the investment includes an upstream municipal solid waste recycling and pre-treatment center.

The total project represents a US$250 million investment. The Enerkem process will recycle and convert approximately 60% of the MSW that crosses the gate at the Three Rivers landfill. The majority of the MSW will be converted into biofuels and the remainder will be distributed to recycling processors. The overall project is expected to create 150 long-term direct and indirect jobs, and to generate an additional 300 jobs during the construction and start-up phases.

From Andalusia Star-News:

PowerSouth joins 36 other cooperatives and municipal electric companies in Georgia, Alabama and Florida in agreeing to purchase power from a planned 100-megawatt biomass-fired power plant near Fort Gaines, Ga. The contracts are for an initial term of 30 years, with options to extend the term to 40 years. All the plant's output is committed, as are all of the renewable energy credits.

Yellow Pine plans to sell electricity generated from environmentally friendly wood waste. The material will come from timber harvesting residuals and the collection of non-commercial tree species' tree-thinnings, lumber scraps and wood waste reclaimed from landfills, according to published reports. Construction on the facility is slated to begin this summer.

From TimberBuySell.com:

The CVal spreadsheet is a powerful tool that will help foresters, managers, and project developers work with private forest landowners to assess the economic profitability of participating in carbon markets. CVal provides a discounted cash flow analysis based on a full accounting of variables, including tract size, carbon sequestration rate, carbon price, and enrollment and trading costs. Automated, financial break-even analysis in the macros version quickly assess threshold values of key variables for profitable projects, and the program readily performs "what if" calculations after storing starting values. CVal was designed to evaluate managed forest and afforestation projects traded on the Chicago Climate Exchange, but its methodology could be adapted for other trading mechanisms and agricultural sequestration projects. Documentation is provided in the program itself and in GTR-180.  CVal was developed by Ted Bilek (USFS Forest Products Lab), Peter Becker (Eastern Ozarks Forestry Council), and Tim McAbee (LandMark Systems), and is available at no cost. Tool can be downloaded here.

Southern Company has released a report detailing a series of tests conducted on co-firing green wood chips from whole and from approximately needle free pine trees. The purpose of the project was to "determine what level of processing of whole trees is required to successfully co-fire the chips in a boiler, and to evaluate the benefits and costs of wood processing compared with the effect of the fuel on the power plant." The tests were performed at Plant Gadsden in Gadsden, Alabama. From the report, summary results are as follows:

• Green wood chips were successfully co-fired in blends with coal between 8% and 15%
  wood by weight. Of the input fuel energy, 2.8% and 5.5% was from wood, and represented about 2.0 MW to 3.8 MW biomass power.
  
• Sulfur emissions were reduced, and particulates were no higher with co-firing. At normal operating condition, carbon monoxide emissions were unchanged. The measured impact on NOx emissions was small.
  
• With 10% co-firing, boiler efficiency was about the same as coal alone, while there was a slight reduction in efficiency with 15% wood.
  
• Higher moisture losses due to high wood moisture were offset or nearly offset by reduced dry gas losses up the stack.
  
• High moisture of the wood coal mixtures resulted in low mill temperatures and high mill bowl under pressures. This caused a 5% load derate when co-firing 15%.
  
• The coal-wood mixtures had much lower fuel energy to volume ratio than the baseline coal. The issues appear to have been related to the installation of new automatic controls. Stability issues were corrected in subsequent tests by tuning the fuel-steam pressure automatic controls.

The project was initiated by Southern Company & Alabama Power, USDA Forest Service, Forest Based Economic Development Services, University of Alabama, and Auburn University.

The full report can be found here.

Alabama's Gulf Coast Energy is ready to begin producing ethanol from waste wood as soon as next month. The demonstration plant will use gasification technology on wood waste and turn it into ethanol. The demonstration plant plans to eventually scale up to a commercial capacity of 45 million gallons per year. More information can be found here.

The first venture of the 2007 Chevron Corporation and Weyerhaeuser Company partnership will be the development of  Catchlight Energy LLC. The  50-50 venture is focused on the development of the next generation biofuels coming from non-food feedstocks. Catchlight Energy will "research and develop technology for converting cellulose-based biomass into economical, low-carbon biofuels." The full press release can be found here.