In Homerville, Georgia, under blankets of pine trees, stands Conner Holdings LLC. Founded in 2019 as a family-owned chainsaw logging company, Conner Holdings has since expanded to own several mid-size sawmills through Georgia’s Pine Belt region, including that of Homerville as its base of operations. While a young company, the Conner family’s roots in logging go much further back.Steven W. Conner, the founder of Conner Holdings, purchased and renamed Alapaha, Georgia-based Dupont Pine Products, also known as Dupont Yard Inc., in 2011 from Hubert Moore Lumber, the equipment of which he has since upgraded. In 2018, Conner restarted Cross City Lumber LLC, a chip-n-saw sawmill built in 1969 and idled in 2008. Conner sold the mill, located in the Florida city of the same name, to a private equity firm in 2021.Especially in recent years, an obstacle has been looming for southern sawmills like Conner Holdings: the closure of multiple paper mills, upon which sawmills rely to sell their residuals. And while large-scale producers can eat the cost of their sawmill waste, that loss of revenue hangs over mid- and smaller-scale producers.&nbsp;For Conner Holdings, this problem became a challenge to be conquered. And as strong businesses do, the company made a calculated risk: With little-to-no experience, it entered the pellet mill industry. Says Conner Holdings CEO James Foss, “It was risky, but it was a calculated risk. We have two operating sawmills that produce residuals, so we already had our feedstock. Throughout the pellet mill installation process, Steve [E. Connor] seemed like he was kicking himself for not doing this sooner.”Building Bridges&nbsp; The recent addition of a pellet mill and residue-processing technology to its Homerville sawmill has given the once lumber-focused company a new perspective. “When we got started with the pellet mill, most of my focus was project coordinating…[and] design work for that. We had some things that were new to us, so we had to figure them out,” Foss says. The brunt of this work, he explains, surrounded the process of entering the key market for U.S. wood pellets: Europe and its sustainability certification standards. Conner Holdings uses natural gas to heat its residuals, which complicates its ability to sell into European markets.Enter Stela Drying Technology: a family-owned, Germany-based equipment manufacturer. Founded in 1922 by Stefan Laxhuber, the company has seen three generations of leadership. “The backbone of the German economy is made of innovative companies that have a certain niche. We’re very good at what we do,” says Wedig Graf Grote, Stela’s vice president of sales in North America.&nbsp;Stela’s path into its niche started 60 years ago, Graf Grote explains, with grain dryers. In 1975, the company set up its first low-temperature belt dryer, and by 2000, it had branched out into industrial bulk material drying, where the business has remained focused since. Where grain dryers rely on gravity to pull material through, a belt dryer operates on a continuous process in which a belt pulls an even layer of the material through a dryer tunnel. Air is pulled through the belt and the material, evaporating the moisture content.Partnering for Efficiency&nbsp; “We really designed our mill around other mills,” Foss says. “We went and visited, heard their stories, heard the horror stories, and tried to engineer in as much automation as possible to let you know if something’s broken. So, our mills are primarily run from a control room, and we have a control system with enough sensors to let us know if the belt’s broken, the chain’s broken, if something’s not running.”&nbsp;In 2023, Stela Drying Technology Corp. was founded in the U.S.—the second Stela branch abroad after Ukraine—and the company brought in Graf Gote to build up business in the states.&nbsp;The motivations of both companies led them to cross paths: Conner Holdings was searching for a partner with experience in both low-temperature belt drying and navigating European sustainability requirements, and Stela was to set down roots in the U.S. With those synergies, the partners began production on Conner Holdings’ on-site pellet mill, C&amp;H Pellets, and the installation of Stela’s RecuDry low-temperature belt drying system.&nbsp;While seeming daunting, Graf Grote explains that the science behind the system is simple, operating on a three-level drying structure. Air enters the upper portion of the machine and is indirectly heated by water-to-air heat exchangers to temperatures between 140-250 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 60-120 Celsius)—temperatures that won’t drastically heat the residuals but will remove moisture through evaporation. The heated air is then pulled down to the second layer and through the drying residuals, evenly dispersed on the belt being pulled through the dryer. The air moves through the belt and is kicked back out at the bottom of the machine, and evaporation cools down the dried residuals. The belt itself, a woven mat, offers the filtration required for the dryer, he continues, along with cleaning devices built into the dryer. Because of its low-temperature operations, the material remains well below ignition temperatures, minimizing risk.Testing the Waters&nbsp; Within the Pine Belt of Georgia, one feedstock stands above the rest: southern yellow pine (SYP). According to the USDA, SYP consists of four key species: longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly and slash pines. “It’s the major feedstock for the southeastern forest products &nbsp;industries,” Graf Grote explains. Conner Holdings is surrounded by SYP, making the timber its sole feedstock.&nbsp;“From a feedstock narrative in the pellet world, SYP as a pellet is desirable because it’s more energy dense,” Foss adds. SYP serves as a fantastic feedstock for pellet production because softwood trees like pine boast a higher resin content and contain more Btus. than hardwood alternatives. Softwood pellets also rank superior to hardwood-made pellets in terms of the amount of ash produced by burning them. Lower ash content means fewer breaks for maintenance and smoother operations.&nbsp;Processing these logs results in a significant residual amount. “If you run a log through a lumber mill, in between bark, shavings and sawdust … we’re down to about 60% in lumber, and the rest is all residuals,” Graf Grote explains. “So, there’s an inherent need for a sawmill to find an outlet for those chips.”&nbsp;What complicates matters when working with SYP is also what offers its salvation—the exact resin content that heightens its burning temperatures. “We were worried that maybe pine resin wouldn’t be much like other feedstocks or woods [Stela] had experienced in their primary spots in Europe,” Foss recalls. “We felt like that could be an issue—that our SYP might be stickier than what they’re used to and plug up their belts.”&nbsp;As it turns out, Stela’s belt dryers were exactly what Conner Holdings’ pellet mill needed. “They were adamant it wouldn’t [plug the belt] and it hasn’t,” Foss says. “We’ve seen almost a whole year’s cycle of the seasons of drying. It has a cleaning cycle, like a pressure washer, that runs in the process to clean the belt, so the idea was that we could just run it more. Well, we haven’t. We’ve just run it normally. It was a blessing that the STELA belt dryer started up with no problems. You don’t really plan for no problems in an industrial setting like this.”&nbsp;This joint project marks some significant firsts, and based on the results, most definitely not lasts. “This is the first low-temperature belt dryer in the pellet industry in the southeastern United States, and the first application of the highly energy efficient RecuDry technology in the country,” Graf Grote says. “It’s also the first time we’ve dried SYP at this scale.”Keeping it Green&nbsp; In the Pine Belt, where trees grow one to three feet per year, the issue of meeting sustainability isn’t in production, but transport. The Stela RecuDry technology allows Conner Holdings to continue using natural gas while simultaneously remaining as clean as possible, Graf Grote says, so the company can remain compliant with European certification standards. “We recirculate the air through the machine, and then use part of the recirculation air to preheat the ambient air coming in. This allows us to essentially get a better efficiency on the thermal energy by 35-plus percent,” he explains. “[The residual material] comes in at 40-45% and gets dried down to 10-12% moisture content.”Also important to consider, Graf Grote explains, is the end product. Conner Holdings produces industrial pellets that are used as a coal replacement to lower emissions and carbon footprints, and meet sustainability and environmental goals. “The whole idea behind pelletizing is to be able to ship that densified material. It’s easier and safer than shipping residuals, and there is less volume,” Graf Grote says.&nbsp;For mid-size pellet producers, Graf Grote couldn’t agree more with Conner Holdings’ decision. “As a sawmill, you suddenly have three legs to stand on: lumber, mulch and pellets … it makes you more resilient as a company.”With challenges for the lumber industry ahead, Foss calls the industry to action. “[I don’t think] biomass has been fully embraced as a sustainable energy for pellets,” he says. “There are looming energy crises on the horizon. So why not biomass?” Author: Caitlin Scheresky&nbsp; caitlin.scheresky@bbiinternational.com

2025-10-02 - A Full-Circle Feedstock (Biomass Magazine)

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The recently completed installation of a pellet mill and innovative drying system is empowering Georgian family-owned lumber company Conner Holdings to expand its potential.

A Full-Circle Feedstock

A Full-Circle Feedstock

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