Alamo Group acquires Morbark Alamo Group Inc. has completed its previously announced acquisition of Morbark LLC, a former portfolio company of Stellex Capital Management, for a total consideration of approximately $352 million, on a debt-free basis and subject to certain post-closing adjustments. The acquisition includes products sold under the Morbark, Rayco, Denis Cimaf and Boxer brand names. Morbark is a leading manufacturer of equipment and aftermarket parts for the forestry, tree maintenance, biomass, land management and recycling markets. Its products include a broad range of tree chippers, grinders, flails, debarkers, stump grinders, mulchers and brush cutters, plus related aftermarket spare and wear parts. Morbark products are sold through a network of independent dealers with about 300 sales locations. The company, with approximately 720 employees, is based in Winn, Michigan, with subsidiary operations in Wooster, Ohio, and Roxton Falls, Quebec. &nbsp; Fagus GreCon introduces new intelligent detector Fagus GreCon is now offering new intelligent detection technology (IDT). The DLD 1/9 detector identifies ignition sources in every environment and is able to differentiate between sudden interfering light and ignition sources such as sparks or embers. IDT not only identifies hazardous moving ignition sources before a fire breaks out, the DLD 1/9 detector is also able to differentiate between dangerous sparks or harmless incidence of extraneous light due to porous or damaged pipes or an opening of an inspection flap. Fagus GreCon Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fagus-GreCon Greten GmbH &amp; Co. KG in Alfeld, Germany, with its North American headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Pinnacle signs off-take contract with Mitsui Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. announced Oct. 17 it has secured a new long-term, take-or-pay offtake contract with Japan-based Mitsui &amp; Co. Ltd for the supply of 100,000 metric tons of industrial wood pellets annually, beginning in the third quarter of 2023. Pinnacle said pellets supplied under the contract will be used for power generation in Japan. In a statement, Pinnacle CEO Robert McCurdy said the new relationship with Mitsui represents the fourth contract Pinnacle said signed this year with Asian customers. Sweet launches enclosed belt conveyor The fully-enclosed belt conveyor, with a patent-pending design, features auxiliary belt alignment rollers, idler access doors, heavy-duty liners, a self-cleaning tail, and built-in sensor ports. The hip roof allows snow and rain to easily slide off. Available with 24-inch to 60-inch belts, the EBC is designed for capacities up to 72,000 BPH. The conveyor features a heavy-duty, 45-degree CEMA C6 idler that is sealed for life and easy to maintain. U.S. prime G140 galvanized steel and a snub pulley are standard, and a number of options are available for customization. CBI debuts 6400CT horizontal grinder Continental Biomass Industries premiered the 6400CT Horizontal Grinder and Chipper at the 2019 Factory Forum in Newton, New Hampshire. The 6400CT processed steel contaminated railroad ties along with a mix of construction and demolition debris to headline the range of environmental equipment at the show. The CBI Magnum Force 6400CT Horizontal Grinder is an extreme-duty machine engineered for resilience and high production when grinding contaminated demolition debris, railroad ties, whole trees, pallets, storm debris, shingles, logs, mulch, slash, and stumps. The revolutionary new &ldquo;cassette-style&rdquo; clam shell design allows end-users to completely swap out rotors faster than any other grinder in its class. Operators can go from grinding to chipping in half the time as before, and accept jobs with various material demands. Four interchangeable rotors give this horizontal grinder the versatility needed to stay on top of changing markets. Graanul Invest acquires Texas pellet facilities Configure Partners LLC, a leading middle market investment bank, announced&nbsp; completion of the sale of the operating assets of Texas Pellets Inc. and German Pellets Texas LLC. Graanul Invest, one of the largest pellet producers in Europe, acquired the assets for $63 million cash plus additional consideration for working capital assets and assumed liabilities. Configure served as investment banker to Texas Pellets in the sale of substantially all of its assets pursuant to Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Texas Pellets operated a 500,000 metric ton nameplate manufacturing facility in Woodville, Texas, and a pellet storage facility and shipping terminal in Port Arthur, Texas, otherwise known as POPA. The company was an affiliate of German Pellets GmbH and related companies. Texas Pellets filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2016. While operating in Chapter 11, the company suffered two major casualty events&mdash;in early 2017, a fire on its ship loader, and in late spring 2017, a fire inside one of the company's storage silos, eventually causing it to collapse. Over the next two years, Texas Pellets was engaged in rebuilding POPA into a leading storage and ship loading facility that incorporated the latest developments in operations and safety. Forest Service offers $8 million through Wood Innovations Program The U.S. Forest Service announced Oct. 22 that it will invest up to $8 million in grants for projects designed to expand wood products and wood energy markets that support sustainable forest management, particularly in areas of high wildfire risk. The grants are available through the agency&rsquo;s Wood Innovations Program. Funding is available to support a diverse range of activities. The 2020 request for proposals focuses on three main priorities, including reducing hazardous fuels and improving forest health on national forest system and other forest lands, reducing costs of forest management on all land types, and promoting the economic and environmental health of communities. The deadline to submit grant applications is Jan. 15, 2020. Applicants are scheduled to be notified of results in May 2020, with awards issued in August. Pinnacle Renewable Energy appoints Rex McLennan to board of directors Pinnacle Renewable Energy is pleased to announce the appointment of Rex McLennan to serve on the company&rsquo;s board of directors. McLennan is a seasoned independent corporate director and former C-level executive whose career includes over 30 years of leadership experience as a financial executive in large, complex, multinational resource-based companies. McLennan has held numerous senior level positions with both public and private companies during his career, including Imperial Oil Limited, Placer Dome Inc., Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee, and Viterra Inc. McLennan has wide-ranging public company experience serving on the boards of several mining exploration and development companies, as well as Canadian private company board experience. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (Canada) and received his ICD.D designation in June 2013. Hawaii Gas, DMT win ABC&rsquo;s Project of the Year On Oct. 29, the American Biogas Council announced Hawaii Gas and DMT Clear Gas Solutions as the winner of its 2019 Project of the Year award. The city and county of Honolulu&rsquo;s Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant&nbsp; project with Hawaii Gas and DMT was bestowed the distinction for the deployment of DMT&rsquo;s advanced gas cleaning technology on municipal biogas to reduce the carbon footprint of the Honouliuli natural gas system. In late 2018, Hawaii Gas became the first in the state to capture and process biogas into RNG at the Honouliuli WWTP facility, which produces approximately 800,000 therms of energy per year, enough gas for more than 6,000 homes. This first-of-its-kind project is equivalent to eliminating the need for nearly 15,000 barrels of oil and will reduce greenhouse gases by the amount produced by 400 cars annually.

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Fagus GreCon introduces new intelligent detector

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Graanul Invest acquires Texas pellet facilities 

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Busines Briefs

The German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) of 2000 succeeded in boosting development of renewable energy such as solar and wind power. The feed-in tariffs guaranteed a fixed income for electricity producers, thus attracting investors, and helped the industries grow exponentially. In late September, Germany published the new Climate Package. The goal is a reduction in CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020 compared to 2009, and by 55% by 2030. With such ambitious targets, it might be assumed that Germany implemented a biomass cofiring strategy, too. However, that&rsquo;s not the case. While other European countries such as the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark subsidize cofiring, Germany is lacking feed-in tariffs for wood pellets and other biomass in coal plants. Additionally, the CO2 price (EUA-Future)&mdash;an important lever for substituting fossil fuels with renewable energies&mdash;averaged the past 12 months at approximately 25 euros per ton (EUR/t). Experts point out the price for CO2 certificates should range between 50 and 130 EUR to be effective. The German Climate Package, however, sets the price at 10 EUR/t from 2021, with a systematic increase to 35 EUR/t by 2025. Unfortunately, this strategy does not support cofiring of biomass in coal power plants at all. If it did, demand would be substantial: At a cofiring ratio of 10%, Germany&rsquo;s demand for wood pellets would exceed 7 million tons annually. CO2 Mitigation Potential is Considerable There is another problem. In 2012, about 150 plants globally operated using cofiring to reduce CO2 emissions, 30 of them in Germany. Yet, only 13 biomass power plants operated permanently, mainly with sewage sludge and waste materials. At the same time, the efficiency of conventional, subcritical pulverized coal-fired power plants was 36%, state-of-the-art coal power plants had an efficiency of 46%, and biomass power plants 25%. Since 2012, the efficiency of biomass-fired power plants has improved from 25% to 36%, whereas state-of-the-art coal-fired power plants average 49% efficiency. Cofiring wood chips and wood pellets leads to a slight decrease in efficiency. Nevertheless, using torrefied biomass does not lead to an efficiency decrease, as it has comparable properties to coal. The main advantage of cofiring biomass is that it leads to up to 50% reduction in CO2 (7% with wood chips, 36% with industrial wood pellets and 50% with torrefied biomass). However, the total cost of cofiring significantly differs. Cofiring wood chips leads to the lowest CO2 mitigation costs, but the investment costs for retrofitting a coal plant are substantial, the cofiring rate is limited, and thus, the overall CO2 mitigation potential is limited. Torrefied biomass, on the other hand, has a high cofiring rate and low retrofit investments. But due to high fuel prices and transportation costs, CO2 mitigation costs are substantial. Therefore, use of industrial wood pellets seems to be the most advantageous option, though all three cofiring options require subsidies or a higher CO2 certificate price. Nothing New in Germany&rsquo;s Biomass Power The installed capacity and the actual electricity generation from biomass reflects the situation in Germany. In 2015, the installed biomass electricity capacity was 6,808 MW with an actual electricity production of 34,850 GWh (6.5% of total electricity production). In 2019, the installed capacity increased by 14% to 7,752 MW (with actual biomass electricity production in 2018 being 40,184 GWh, (7.45% of total electricity production). The share of biomass in Germany&rsquo;s total electricity capacity did not substantially increase from 2015 (3.47%) to 2019 (3.48%) and remains marginal. (Federal Network Agency, SMARD, 2019.) Besides the missing EEG feed-in tariff and a low CO2 price, the most important barriers to cofiring biomass in Germany are the uncertain availability, a wrong interpretation of biomass in terms of energy use, and the already increased competition in the power market. With at least seven million tons of wood pellet demand when cofiring 10%, Germany&rsquo;s risk of lack of supply is very high. Long-term contracts as seen in the U.K. could help de-risk the supply side. On the governmental side, there is a need for rethinking use of biomass in the power sector. Currently, cofiring biomass is led by waste and sewage sludge, and there are high licensing requirements. Biomass from wood chips and wood pellets would need to be treated differently than waste to reduce the licensing hurdles. Finally, German energy producers are still struggling with the nuclear power phase-out. A study of Germany&rsquo;s Energy Agency assumes that German coal plants could cofire up to 50% wood pellets without significant modifications to the existing equipment. Determined steps by German policymakers are necessary to benefit from CO2 mitigation potentials cofiring with biomass holds. The potential of combined-heat-and-power plants, especially with organic Rankine cycle, can turn the tides in favor of biomass as a key part of Germany&rsquo;s energy transition. Author: Holger Streetz Director of Business Development, Bathan AG &nbsp;h.streetz@bathan.ch bathan.ch

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The potential of combined-heat-and-power plants, especially with organic Rankine cycle, can turn the tides in favor of biomass as a key part of Germany's energy transition.


Germany's Carbon Mitigation Plan With Biomass

At this summer&rsquo;s Pellet Fuels Institute board meeting, a decision was made to host our fall meeting in Washington, D.C., and pair it with a day of policy advocacy on Capitol Hill. The choice was rooted in the recognition that while the pace of progress on any effort in Washington is agonizingly slow, walking away from federal policy and regulatory advocacy completely just isn&rsquo;t an option for our association. What ultimately grew out of this recognition were arguably the most successful and most energizing three days our organization has had in the past two years. We started by inviting like-minded associations to speak to our board about their approach to federal advocacy. We were interested in hearing everything. What percentage of their annual budget did they commit to the effort? How did they measure success? Did they utilize member fly-ins on a regular basis? How did they manage disappointment within their membership when policy goals weren&rsquo;t achieved or didn&rsquo;t advance at the pace everyone had hoped for? We were joined by staff from the Hearth, Patio &amp; Barbecue Association, Biomass Thermal Energy Council, National Wood Pallet and Container Association, Alliance for Green Heat, Hardwood Federation and the Alliance of Forest Owners. The conversations were lively and robust. Overwhelmingly, our conversations led us to the same place. Despite the ongoing frustration and slow pace of policy work, trade associations need to maintain relationships with their elected representatives on Capitol Hill. During every conversation, education emerged as a theme. If trade associations don&rsquo;t educate senators and representatives about their industry, who will? For anyone who has spent time in the wood energy sector, that thought alone should give them pause. These conversations sharpened our thinking and stoked our enthusiasm for the full day of Hill visits in front of us. Our schedule included meetings with 16 senators and their legislative staff, and 20 representatives. We divided into five teams, worked through our talking points, and strategized about how to best put our industry into context for the policymakers we were visiting. One of the lessons from our conversations with other association leaders was the importance of having a well-articulated policy &ldquo;ask&rdquo; prepared for our conversation. While this may feel like lobbyist speak, I was asked by multiple senators and representatives what our ask was. It makes sense. Our elected representatives vote on federal laws, establish budgets and launch or scuttle federal programs. These are the tools they have available to them, and they expect their constituents to inform them about the policies that are vital to them. In the last full two-year Congress (115th) over 13,000 bills or resolutions were introduced or reintroduced, and just 68 became law (roughly 1%). This was a sobering realization for our entire board and helped us better understand the long road facing bills like the Biomass Thermal Utilization Act, which we have been championing for years. This also brought into sharp focus the importance of maintaining support for these bills and finding new sponsors and co-sponsors in each new Congress. For instance, we were thrilled to meet with freshman Congressman Jared Golden, representing Maine&rsquo;s 2nd congressional district. Golden assumed office just 11 months ago. His predominantly rural district is the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi river and home to several wood pellet production facilities. The BTU Act was originally introduced to Congress long before Golden was elected, yet he has already come aboard as one of nine co-sponsors on the bill. He did so because constituents asked him to, and made a case for how it helped his district.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Perhaps the BTU Act will finally get passed into federal law during Golden&rsquo;s tenure. If it doesn&rsquo;t, someone will need to darken the doorway of the next representative of Maine&rsquo;s 2nd district, educate them about the vital importance of wood pellet manufacturing there, and ask them to support the BTU Act. If not the PFI, then who? Author: Tim Portz Executive Director, Pellet Fuels Institute tim@pelletheat.org www.pelletheat.org

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At this summer's Pellet Fuels Institute board meeting, a decision was made to host our fall meeting in Washington, D.C., and pair it with a day of policy advocacy on Capitol Hill. 

Rebooting Efforts in DC

Since the last issue of Pellet Mill Magazine, I attended the U.S. Industrial Pellet Association&rsquo;s annual conference in Miami. Lots of great discussion, and many fresh topics for future articles. Perhaps one of the most standout points made during panel conversations was made by Rick Taylor, head of fuel at Drax, who emphasized the industry needs to do a better job of conveying its message in a straightforward, concise manner. &ldquo;We need to make it snappy and keep sharing what we&rsquo;re doing&mdash;that it doesn&rsquo;t make sense to use whole trees,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have to keep telling the story and be certain we&rsquo;re clear when sharing our convictions about what we&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo; Further driving those points home, industry advocacy organization Future Forests + Jobs was formally introduced, which Spokesman Brian Rogers said has a main mission of advancing the conversation around renewable wood energy and the forest products sector, and fighting back against misinformation. All of this in mind, fast-forward to this week, when I was contacted by a reporter from a news outlet in North Carolina, asking to reference some pellet map data on our website. I inquired about the type of article that was going to be published, guessing who they had already interviewed (dropping names of the same well-known biomass antagonists who are interviewed in every &ldquo;horror story&rdquo; done by the mainstream news media). He admitted that yes, they were interviewed. But promised that the reporters were doing their best to provide a balanced article. My opinions aside, I said I would be pleasantly surprised if that ended up being the case. My point here is that supporting, following and learning from organizations like Future Forests + Jobs helps the industry push back and stand up for itself when misleading and inaccurate stories are published. If you haven&rsquo;t already, find their Twitter page and website, and catch up on what they have been working on. Other stories in this issue focus on downstream operations. Senior Editor Ron Kotrba wrote a detailed story on pellet handing and storage facility projects at U.S. ports, which will help accommodate increasing exports as producers expand capacities. For exporters, expanding capacity means not only adding equipment and buying more fiber, but addressing many other facets of the supply chain. The upgrades and expansions discussed in &ldquo;Southern Sprawl&rdquo; on page 10 are much-needed as the industry expands to meet rapidly growing global demand.&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, our page-22 contribution is a case study focused on the domestic wood pellet industry, detailing an end-of-line packaging technology that producers interested in better load containment, improved line efficiency and preservation of product quality may want to check out. I&rsquo;ll close with a plug for the International Biomass Conference &amp; Expo, which will undoubtedly cover all the topics discussed above, and more. Wood pellet producers are eligible for free passes, so be sure to join us in Nashville, Tennessee, Feb. 3-5. Author: Anna Simet Editor asimet@bbiinternational.com

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Supporting, following and learning from organizations like Future Forests + Jobs helps the industry push back and stand up for itself when misleading and inaccurate stories are published. 

Boiling Down Our Message

Appalachian Wood Pellets Inc. in Kingwood, West Virginia, produces and packages wood pellets into 40-pound plastic bags, distributing them around the U.S. Originally, the 50,000-ton-per-year plant deployed a method of securing and protecting its palletized products by using stretch wrap, which was applied by semi-automatic stretch wrapper in conjunction with top sheets or pallet bag covers. The top sheets and bags were applied manually, and maximum throughput was approximately 26 pallets per hour. With a desire to automate its packaging line and improve upon its existing packaging methods, Don Wagner, general manager at AWP&rsquo;s Kingwood facility, began searching for stretch hood equipment suppliers, with the goal of finding a supplier whose equipment improved his line&rsquo;s efficiency, load integrity and appearance, and reduced cost per load and cost of ownership of the end-of-line packaging. After screening various stretch hooding equipment manufacturers, he narrowed his search to Signode and its Lachenmeier stretch hood equipment line. The new machine was integrated in line with an upstream automated bagging line along with a robotic palletizing system. Wagner says he thinks the most impressive feature of the Lachenmeier Power Flex T1 stretch hooder is its ability to automatically lower the top hood applicator down to floor level, which eliminates the safety risk of an operator having to climb to the top of the machine to complete routine maintenance. &ldquo;Previously, when any of my employees were going to conduct work off the ground, it was typically a two-person process, which takes twice as long,&rdquo; Wagner says. &ldquo;This increases down time, costs and safety risks. The workers must be harnessed in or tied down to the equipment to prevent the risk of falling.&rdquo; The stretch hooder&rsquo;s four-legged structural support provides more machine stability, allowing the stretch frame to travel smoothly up and down, while applying the film over the load. Traditional models use two-legged support structures and cantilever design, which can be less stable and cause the top of the machine to sway when the stretch frame starts and stops during the film application process. The cantilever design can create pinch points and binding when the stretch frame is attempting to apply the film. Finally, the machine&rsquo;s film delivery system allows for complete control of the film-stretching process before it begins applying it to the load, as well as during the application process, with the benefit being that the film is flatter to the top of the load, thus reducing the risk of the film gussets being exposed to wind while in transit. It also reduces the film consumption per load, reducing the cost per load.&nbsp; Moisture Protection Water that gets trapped between the layers of film adds weight to each pallet load. A customer of Signode&rsquo;s reported that previously, trapped water and moisture absorbed into product added an additional 150 pounds to each pallet&mdash;significant, as the company ships 28 pallets on a truck. Multiplied by 150 extra pounds per pallet, that equates to an additional 4,200 pounds per shipment. Because the stretch hood is one solid piece of film, consisting of a sealed top and four sides, there is nowhere for rain, dirt, animal dropping, etc. to get inside the hooded load. Top sheets and stretch wrap are very easily penetrated by these contaminants, which can work their way between the layers of film. The result is a load with poor visual appearance, dirty and potentially damaged products. Besides the waterproof packaging, the film used for wrapping is a colored film preventing the actual product bags from getting &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; by the UV light from the sun when being stored outside. Clinging, Tearing No cling, a characteristic of Signode&rsquo;s stretch hooding film, is another important factor when loads are being moved and transported onto a flatbed truck or into a box trailer. To increase storage space or reduce freight costs, loads are generally very close to each other, causing them to rub. Stretch film can be very clingy, and often, it will tear when rubbed by another load. As a result, the loads may have to be rewrapped. For those loads that were already shipped, the tears will not be evident until they reach the distributor, box store, etc., a point at which it is too late. The load appearance is poor, the film is torn, and the ultimate result may be a leaning load, potentially damaged products, an unhappy customer and unanticipated costs to the supplier. Customers overwhelmingly prefer the arrival condition and appearance of a stretch hooded load versus a stretch wrapped load. &nbsp;&ldquo;Since installing the Lachenmeier system, the end-of-line packaging process has operated much more efficiently,&rdquo; Wagner says. &ldquo;The finished products are more stable, much more appealing to the eye and have saved us on operating and labor costs and have reduced cost per load. In general, all the drawbacks of our former stretch wrap equipment have been offset.&rdquo; Author: Joseph Albert VP of Sales, Americas sales@lachmeier.com

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With a desire to automate its packaging line and improve upon its existing packaging methods, Don Wagner, general manager at AWP's Kingwood facility, began searching for stretch hood equipment suppliers.

Increasing Packing Line Throughput 

The USDA is fully on board with sustainable U.S. wood pellet exports. It is committed to biomass energy in general, largely because of the jobs it provides, domestic energy generation it supports, and its environmental benefits. That&rsquo;s according to Daniel Whitley, associate administrator of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, who outlined the FAS&rsquo;s mission of increasing ag product exports and decreasing barriers, at USIPA&rsquo;s annual conference in Miami in early October. &nbsp;Currently, he said, the FAS has offices in 95 countries, and the U.S. has 45 percent of the global market share of ag export products. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re always looking for ways the FAS and industry can partner.&rdquo; Whitley highlighted wood pellets and ethanol as two of the fastest-growing U.S. ag exports, and described current trade environments in Europe, China and India. He described the European trade markets as difficult, as Europe is adamant in not including ag in negotiations, and as for the U.K., the FAS is working toward a free trade agreement, a scenario that would only work if the U.K. is not bound to European standards. &ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s a big market for you all, and a free trade agreement would shore up that market share that you have,&rdquo; he said. Whitley said FAS is interested in a deal that includes correcting China&rsquo;s behavior regarding intellectual property theft, but &ldquo;the problem with negotiations is that it&rsquo;s all or nothing, and we can&rsquo;t complete it unless all teams make a deal.&rdquo; On India, Whitley said it is a difficult and complex trading partner representing hundreds of commodities. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a tough time and think they need to open their markets ... we&rsquo;ve made some progress, and there may be some news in the coming weeks about a small deal.&rdquo; As an end note, Whitley pointed out that every $1 billion in ag exports supports 9,000 jobs, meaning U.S. wood pellet exports alone represents 16,000 jobs. Analyzing the Supply Chain For power producers abroad, the past year was a roller coaster. Elaborating, Fabien Mehu, head of biomass trading at Engie, described the difficult pellet-sourcing market as &ldquo;not even a shortage, but dried out.&rdquo;&nbsp; Panelists agreed on the need to strengthen the supply chain, particularly the addition of more fuel storage facilities. Rick Taylor, head of fuel at Drax, said that while the market has since balanced, things change quickly. &ldquo;In hindsight, it&rsquo;s easy to see what happened, but it&rsquo;s not easy to see it as it&rsquo;s happening,&rdquo; he said. Panelists continued to discuss respective operations, consumption, market conditions and energy strategies&mdash;in particular, phasing out coal. Orsted is finishing commissioning of its final coal-to-biomass conversion, said Soren Alsing, Orsted head of fuel, which may bring Denmark to the point of leveled off demand. &ldquo;There might be a little more industrial demand, but most left are small-scale conversions or wood chip users,&rdquo; he said. Orsted&rsquo;s demand for chips and pellets varies quite a bit, Alsing said, ranging from 2.5 million to 3 million tons combined, up to 1.5 million of which is wood chips. Panelists also agreed the importance of conveying a simple, clear message to the public about what the industry is doing when it uses biomass as an energy source. &ldquo;We struggle as an industry when it takes us three or four pages to respond to a headline&mdash;we need to make it snappy and keep sharing what we&rsquo;re doing, and that it doesn&rsquo;t make sense to use whole trees,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;We have to keep telling the story, and be clear when sharing our convictions about what we&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo; Current, Future Markets Global pellet supply and demand is very tight, as production capacity has failed to keep up with demand, according to John Bingham, Hawkins Wright. Demand growth rate grew by about 11.9 % in 2018, he said, while supply capacity only grew by about 7.2%. Pellet prices hit record heights in the first quarter of 2019 amid supply shortages, Bingham said, though the market has since been relieved and prices have dropped to $160 to $170 level (per ton). &ldquo;That trend will continue through the third quarter with dampened demand from European utilities, technical issues at Lynmouth and planned maintenance at Drax.&rdquo; However, global structural shortages won&rsquo;t be resolved until new pellet mills are built, or pellet consumption is curtailed. For the European market, demand will increase over the next two years as projects that have been financed come online, but will loosen up when subsidy support schemes are scheduled to stop&mdash;in 2027 for Drax and Lynemouth. Hawkins Wright predicts global demand for 2019 to top out between 15 million and 16 million tons, Bingham said. As for the five-year outlook on major import countries, he said industrial demand in Europe will plateau and possibly decline, while Asian demand will grow rapidly. &ldquo;By the mid-2020s, wood pellet demand in Japan and South Korea are expected to exceed that of Europe,&rdquo; he said, emphasizing that supply remains a challenge, though producers are working to accommodate, with Pinnacle Renewable Energy and Granuul Invest alone having 2 million metric tons of planned industrial growth. Net capacity additions have slowed since 2016, he said, &ldquo;largely due to the collapse of pellet prices&mdash;it took the wind of out the sails for many. Further growth in production is needed to meet this growing demand.&rdquo; Other potential countries for growth include Germany, which has plans to withdrawal from coal by 2038, requiring the closing of 43 GW of capacity, and the U.K., due to its stalled nuclear program that leaves a hole in its supply mix. On production, southeast Asia&rsquo;s industry has been growing rapidly, a market that has been traditionally made up of many smaller mills, but has recently seen development of large-scale mills. &ldquo;Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia produces more than 1.1 million tons in 2018 based on their exports, up from 620,000 MT in 2017,&rdquo; Bingham said. Bingham emphasized that he believes that there are ways biomass can thrive without subsidies. &ldquo;Subsidy-free isn&rsquo;t something to be afraid of ... they aren&rsquo;t meant to always be there. There is life after subsidies, and it can be embraced and worked through.&rdquo; Japan, South Korea FutureMetrics&rsquo; William Strauss rounded out the conversation on market supply and demand, focusing on Japan and South Korea market dynamics. As for South Korea, its support scheme is based on traded RECs, the demand and supply of which is dictated by power generators. Strauss said a dramatic drop in renewable energy credit, or REC, prices has had ripple effects&mdash;prices have collapsed, and they are about half of what they were a year and a half ago.&nbsp; &ldquo;There are too many being generated and not enough purchased ... low REC prices means utilities are burning less fuel, and wanting to pay less for it.&rdquo; As a result, South Korean imports from Vietnam have dropped, an industry that has been built on the back of the South Korean market. Excess supply in Vietnam has created pressure on Canadian exports to Japan, Strauss added, where Canada has lost some market share, as excess supply from South Korea is finding a home in Japan. He expects that to change, due to Japan&rsquo;s soon-to-be-released sustainability criteria, which he said he believes Sustainable Biomass Partnership certification will be sufficient to comply. On growth, Strauss said it&rsquo;s highly possible there may be more full coal-to-biomass conversions in Japan. Right now, there is about 58,000 MW of coal capacity, operating or in the pipeline. There are hundreds of small or independent biomass power projects, operating or planned, according to Strauss. 70 have received FIT approval and are very likely to be built, starting in 2020 or later, totaling about 3,104 MW, he said. Based on an assumed capacity factor of 80 percent, 38 percent assumed efficiency and 40 percent of the fuel as biomass, that would account for 4.7 million tons of new pellet demand. &ldquo;We think these are pretty reasonable assumptions,&rdquo; he said. As for palm kernel shell&nbsp; imports, according to Strauss, when Japan&rsquo;s sustainability criteria is in place, pellets will have to replace them. Strauss ended his discussion pointing out there are structural hurdles for pellet imports to Japan&mdash;in particular, the fact that the country&rsquo;s pellet imports are spread across many ports that cannot accept large vessels. &ldquo;Solving logistics constraints is one challenge,&rdquo; he said. Producer Insight Several pellet producers discussed the past year, as well as operations, growth, strategy and challenges during one of the conference&rsquo;s final panels. Though the company has long-term off-take contracts in place with customers from Japan, Thomas Meth, Enviva executive vice president for sales and marketing, acknowledged the difficulties accessing in the Japanese market, where financers have a big say in how feedstock is secured for 20 years. The U.S. Southeast has created a lot of comfort for Japanese financers, he said. &ldquo;There are still quite a few projects looking for supply ... and some non-feed-in tariff projects emerging. The driver seems to be that there are increasing signals that there are nuclear plants not coming online, or back online ... there&rsquo;s quite a runway to develop projects, the question is how do we mobilize the biomass from the U.S., and how do we create a story that isn&rsquo;t just about the U.S.?&rdquo; Barry Parrish, director of procurement and sustainability at Georgia Biomass, said it&rsquo;s the plant&rsquo;s ninth year of production, and the first year of nearly reaching capacity. He attributed this to gaining an understanding of parts reliability and being able to predict when they will wear out, replacing them before they do, as well as using more residuals and less energy, particularly on drying materials. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking forward to the best year yet,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp; Zilkha Biomass Fuels CEO Larry Price said its Selma, Alabama, plant is making black pellets from a steam-explosion technology and is experiencing growing marketplace success. &ldquo;We have good partners working with us to help us solve problems,&rdquo; he said, adding that Zilkha is looking at three new mills in the Southeast, but recognizes that &ldquo;there is lots of wood on the West Coast that needs a home.&rdquo; Richard Peberdy, vice president of sustainability at Drax, discussed the company&rsquo;s pellet manufacturing and export assets, emphasizing the complicated nature of the pellet-to-power process, and experience needed to perfect the process. &ldquo;The pellet is just one part of the supply chain,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It takes time and money, and there is a lot to learn with every stage of logistics.&rdquo; Author: Anna Simet Editor, Pellet Mill Magazine asimet@bbiinternational.com 701-738-4961

The U.S. Industrial Pellets Association annual conference was held at the Fontainbleu Miami Beach Hotel in Miami, Oct. 6-8. 


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John Bingham, special advisor, Hawkins Wright

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Thomas Meth, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Enviva;  Soren Alsing, head of fuel, Orsted; Martin deWolff, head of biofuel trading, RWE Supply & Trading; Christian Joore, biomass trader, Vattenfall;  Fabien Mehu, head of biomass tradi

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Mike Williams, business development, Westervelt Co.; Barry Parrish, director of procurement, Georgia Biomass; Harold Arnold, president, Fram Renewable Fuels; Richard Peberdy, vice president of sustainability, Drax; Rob McKenzie, managing director, Hi

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William Strauss, president, FutureMetrics Inc.

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Daniel Whitley, associate administrator of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service 

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The U.S. Industrial Pellet Association's annual gathering in Miami drew attendees from across the globe, representing all facets of the supply chain.

On The Horizon

When Hurricane Michael stormed onshore Florida&rsquo;s panhandle Oct. 10, 2018, between Mexico Beach and Panama City, it was the first Category 5 hurricane to reach the U.S. mainland since Andrew in 1992. Michael was the third-most intense hurricane on record to hit the U.S. with wind speeds clocked at 160 miles per hour. The damage caused by this monstrous storm is estimated to have exceeded $25 billion, placing it among the top 10 most costly hurricanes in U.S. history. Port Panama City was ravaged, suffering approximately $17 million in damages, says Wayne Stubbs, the port&rsquo;s executive director. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not a huge port, so that&rsquo;s significant,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Almost every building we own was damaged to one degree or another. Eighteen of 19 buildings throughout the port had damage. The primary wood pellet handling facility had serious roof damage, a 200-foot section was missing and the integrity of the rest [of the roof] was questionable. We weren&rsquo;t very sure how long we could rely on what was still up there. So that&rsquo;s what we were dealing with.&rdquo; After three days, power was restored to the port. &ldquo;Our employees did a remarkable job getting us back in business, despite most of them also dealing with personal problems as a result of the storm,&rdquo; Stubbs says. Following the hurricane, the area experienced more than a week of good, clear, dry weather. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s usually the case after a hurricane,&rdquo; Stubbs says. &ldquo;The pellet warehouse roof damage had occurred late in the storm, so not a lot of cargo was wet from the rain. A little was, but not deep into the stockpile. We were able to scrape off the wet product and dispose of it and get a ship in here within a week to load the remaining cargo, before it suffered any more degradation.&rdquo; After assessing the damage, Stubbs says more than half of the warehouse was usable while repairs were arranged. &ldquo;We had a temporary patch on the roof within two weeks,&rdquo; he tells Pellet Mill Magazine. &ldquo;That was about the time it took for the pellet producer (Enviva) to get its mill back in operation and for the railroad to clear thousands of trees off 50 miles of tracks.&rdquo; The permanent repair to the pellet warehouse took six months to complete and cost $2 million. &ldquo;We were totally insured and were able to maintain all our businesses and keep our customers happy,&rdquo; Stubbs says. &ldquo;Some had to make temporary diversions, but all returned to normal operations as soon as we were ready for them. For the pellets, we were able to bring ships in early on a regular basis and load them earlier than we normally would have, to use them for storage. We ended up achieving the budgeted amount of shipments last year. That was a nice success story for them, and for us. Getting hit with a Class 5 hurricane&mdash;we can check that one off our bucket list. All things considered, we managed the situation as well as we could have. Looking back, we lost $1.5 million in total revenue as a result, but we still had a decent year.&rdquo; In July, Port Panama City announced it was receiving a $10 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration in combination with a $2.7 million grant from the Florida Department of Transportation to construct a new biomass storage dome, expanding its current bulk pellet storage capacity. The new dome will be capable of storing up to 20,000 metric tons of pellets and, along with the new handling infrastructure, will allow for an additional 200,000 to 300,000 tons of annual throughput, pushing the total annual pellet export capacity of wood pellets to 1 million tons.&nbsp; In 2014, Enviva announced its intention to acquire the 650,000-ton Green Circle Energy wood pellet mill in Cottondale, Florida, and the acquisition was finalized in early January 2015. &ldquo;This was one of the first plants built in the U.S.,&rdquo; Stubbs says. Green Circle went into operation in 2008. &ldquo;We were one of the only ports with a dedicated wood pellet handling facility,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The total production of that plant is exported through this port. We&rsquo;re located 50 miles from that plant, 100 percent of which relies on railcars operated by Bay Line Railroad.&rdquo; Stubbs says Enviva is the sole shipper of wood pellets serviced by Port Panama City. Enviva is the port&rsquo;s customer via a terminal operating agreement. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a multiyear contract to handle their product for an agreed-upon rate,&rdquo; Stubbs says. &ldquo;In turn, they ship a minimum volume for those years per a volume agreement.&rdquo; Port Panama City consists of east and west terminals. Wood pellet storage and handling reside in the west terminal, which features a 36-foot-deep channel, allowing for the possibility of Panamax vessels but, as Stubbs says, &ldquo;We mostly see Handymax ships in the 30,000-ton range.&rdquo; The current pellet storage warehouse is also sized at 30,000 tons. &ldquo;That matches the size of the vessels coming in,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We see a high frequency of vessels&mdash;twice a month for 700,000 tons a year.&rdquo; The additional pellet storage at Port Panama City will provide several benefits to both Enviva and the port. &ldquo;It gives Enviva 20,000 more tons of storage so the constraint on vessel size now is not the depth of water but storage in the port,&rdquo; Stubbs says. &ldquo;Enviva can use larger ships and handle more pellets per year that way.&rdquo; The other benefit of building the new dome is provision of storage redundancy. &ldquo;We had a fire in 2012 and Hurricane Michael last year, so the new dome gives us more storage and provides a more dependable structure in terms of hurricane damage&mdash;it&rsquo;ll have a greater wind-load rating than our current building. We&rsquo;ll then have two buildings, which gives the shipper more assurance of continuity following a natural disaster. So, on top of additional capacity, it&rsquo;ll provide redundancy and resiliency.&rdquo; The actual construction of the project, however, depends on Enviva&rsquo;s commitment to expand the Cottondale mill. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all contingent on their commitment,&rdquo; Stubbs says. &ldquo;Their commitment to expand the plant is the largest investment of this agreement and will have the greatest economic impact. They are reviewing the plan now. Once they make their decision, then we will conclude our agreement to build, which will be an expansion of our current service agreement. Our award of the grants sets the table for expanding here at the port and allowing them to expand their plant. We&rsquo;re looking forward to their decision. We have up to 24 months to begin construction under the terms of the grant, and we wouldn&rsquo;t want to spend that money without [Enviva&rsquo;s] commitment.&rdquo; Enviva had little to say about the project or its plans to expand the Cottondale facility. &ldquo;The grants from federal and state governments will allow for higher throughput capacity at Port Panama City, therefore allowing for expansion of production capacity at our Cottondale plant,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Enviva tells Pellet Mill Magazine. &ldquo;We are currently evaluating this potential expansion opportunity.&rdquo; Port of Greater Baton Rouge Drax Biomass, a Monroe, Louisiana-headquartered subsidiary of U.K.-based Drax Group plc, owns three large pellet mills in the southern U.S. and announced plans in July to significantly expand production at its existing mills by a combined 350,000 tons annually. Currently, Drax Biomass has about 1.5 million tons of pellet production capacity. Construction on Morehouse BioEnergy in Bastrop, Louisiana, sized at 512,500 tons annually, was completed in April 2015. The company simultaneously built its Amite BioEnergy mill in Gloster, Mississippi, with the same capacity as its Morehouse plant, which was completed in February 2015. Two years later, Drax Biomass acquired German Pellets&rsquo; mill in Urania, Louisiana, and commissioned the facility in 2018. This plant, called LaSalle BioEnergy, is scaled at 450,000 tons. In addition to Drax Biomass&rsquo; plans to expand production at its three existing mills, on Nov. 19, the company announced its intention to develop an additional 3 million tons of capacity by 2027. To accommodate exportation of significant tonnage from its two then-newly built mills in Louisiana and Mississippi for use in Drax Group&rsquo;s U.K. power plants, Drax Biomass began work in 2013 at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. According to Lloyd Wedblad, Drax Biomass&rsquo; director of logistics, the cost of the project was approximately $50 million, and contractors involved in the building of the terminal include Gray Construction, Amteck, AHR and Bruks, to name a few. &ldquo;While various pieces of equipment were commissioned in the later part of 2014, the port&rsquo;s final commissioning took place during the loading of the first vessel in April 2015,&rdquo; Wedblad says. &ldquo;This was a green field site before Drax began construction.&rdquo; Drax and the Port of Greater Baton Rouge enjoy a long-term lease agreement, Wedblad says. &ldquo;The port remains the owners of the land and Drax the owners of the assets,&rdquo; he tells Pellet Mill Magazine. &ldquo;Our Baton Rouge transit facility is the first port facility for Drax in the U.S.&rdquo; Currently, Drax Biomass does not have positions in any other ports. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not to say we wouldn&rsquo;t in the future,&rdquo; Wedblad says. In May, Drax commissioned a new rail spur linking its LaSalle BioEnergy plant to the regional rail network and its port facility in Baton Rouge. &ldquo;This will increase transportation efficiency, provide economies of scale and reduce both cost and carbon footprint,&rdquo; the company stated in its financial report for the first half of 2019. &ldquo;We expect to benefit from further economies of scale in rail associated with the commissioning of an enlarged chambering yard at the Port of Baton Rouge, allowing 80-car train sets to operate from our LaSalle and Morehouse sites.&rdquo; Greg Johnson, business development director of the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, tells Pellet Mill Magazine that the chambering yard project is not an expansion of an existing chambering yard&mdash;as suggested by the words &ldquo;enlarged chambering yard&rdquo; in Drax&rsquo;s financial report&mdash;but rather it is greenfield construction of a new chambering yard. The term is railroad lingo for a logistics facility that holds overflow unit trains waiting for delivery in such a way that it does not impede other rail activity. &ldquo;No other operations are done there except to hold the train for delivery,&rdquo; Johnson says. The project stems from Drax Biomass&rsquo; need to have additional rail storage. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s happening now, with only one track interchange, is the railroad has to drop an 80-car unit-train load in two pieces, 40 cars each, and bring the load in 40-car increments, unload, then pull out and reassemble. It takes a lot of coordination effort right now, only accommodating one train at a time at the port. With the new chambering yard, we&rsquo;ll be able to handle three unit-trains at any given time. The purpose of the chambering yard is to be able to land two additional 80-car unit trains, either loaded or empty, to accommodate rail deliveries from three individual pellet mills.&rdquo;&nbsp; According to Johnson, the chambering yard project at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge involves construction of three railroad tracks, with a total of 22,549 track-feet, two ladder tracks capable of handling 80-car unit trains, one runaround track and two mainline turnout spurs. The location is off-site, about a mile away on property owned by the port. The total cost of the chambering yard project is $21.5 million, $14.5 million of which will be spent on construction, $5.5 million on utility protection and relocation, and $1.5 million on Union Pacific switches and connection, Johnson says. He adds that the state of Louisiana Capital Outlay Program is contributing $5 million toward the project while the Port of Greater Baton Rouge is contributing another $5 million, with the balance being funded through a state bond issue. When asked whether Drax Biomass was paying any of the cost, Johnson says, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to garner more tonnage, so we&rsquo;ll be dedicating the fees from the additional tonnage to pay out the chambering yard project over a 12-year period.&rdquo; Bids for construction were accepted July 10 and the contract was awarded to Brown Industrial Construction LLC of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Notice to proceed was issued Nov. 14, according to Johnson. &ldquo;The project is currently under construction,&rdquo; he says. Completion is expected in August. Port of Pascagoula To meet rapidly growing demand from Europe and Asia, Enviva is further building out its wood pellet production portfolio in the southern U.S. The monolithic pellet producer currently has eight manufacturing plants throughout the Southeast, capable of producing more than 4 million metric tons of pellets, three of which are under expansion to produce an additional 550,000 tons. Enviva plans to develop several more plants, with its Lucedale, Mississippi, project currently under construction. A spokesperson for Enviva says the Lucedale plant in George County, Mississippi, is permitted to produce more than 1 million tons of wood pellets per year but will initially produce about 700,000 tons a year. Its Epes, Alabama, proposed facility, scaled at the same size as the Lucedale project, is expected to begin construction early next year, pending approval of required permits. Given Enviva&rsquo;s immense scale of production and vast exportation activities, the company owns or operates out of several terminals in port facilities throughout the Southeast. Existing terminals wholly owned by Enviva include its Port of Chesapeake terminal in Virginia and its Port of Wilmington terminal in North Carolina. Third-party terminal agreements include the previously mentioned Port Panama City in Florida and the Port of Mobile in Alabama. On Nov. 7, the company broke ground on what will be its newest wholly owned deep-water marine terminal in the Port of Pascagoula, Mississippi. &ldquo;The Pascagoula terminal is expected to be a &lsquo;build-and-copy&rsquo; replica of our existing Port of Wilmington terminal,&rdquo; a spokesperson for Enviva tells Pellet Mill Magazine. Pellets from the Lucedale plant will be transported primarily on railcars by the Mississippi Export Railroad to the Port of Pascagoula, where they will be exported to Europe and Asia. Pellets from the Epes plant in Alabama are expected to be transported primarily by barge on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway destined for the Port of Pascagoula where they too will be exported to Europe and Asia. The cost of the new terminal in Pascagoula is $90 million, $60 million of which Enviva is paying for while the remaining $30 million is being covered by the Jackson Port Authority. Two on-site domes will provide storage capacity for up to 90,000 tons of wood pellets and will be serviced by state-of-the-art handling equipment. Enviva would not disclose with which companies it was working on the terminal project. &ldquo;Today we take a major step in helping to meet the increasing global demand for sustainable biomass fuel, and to ensure greater security of supply to our customers, particularly for the rapidly growing demand from our Asian customers,&rdquo; said Nic Lane, Enviva&rsquo;s executive vice president of human capital, in a Nov. 7 press release. &ldquo;We are thrilled to be partnering with one of the top-ranking ports in the U.S., the Port of Pascagoula, a major commercial engine and key driving force in local, regional and international economies.&rdquo; Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said, &ldquo;I am thrilled to have Enviva Biomass as a Mississippi business partner. Their work in renewable energy is vital to the global economy.&rdquo; The terminal construction project is expected to be complete in early 2021, timed with completion of its Lucedale plant. Enviva said it expects the number of vessels calling the port will grow as it develops greater production capacity in the region. Author: Ron Kotrba Senior Editor, Pellet Mill Magazine rkotrba@bbiinternational.com 218-745-8347

The 30,000-ton wood pellet storage building at Port Panama City underwent $2 million in repairs after Hurricane Michael damaged the roof  and nearly every other structure at the port in October 2018. 

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A stevedore inspects the conveyance system at the Drax Biomass terminal at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, which is currently the sole port out of which the pellet producer exports product. 

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As shown in this rendering, Port Panama City plans to build a new 20,000-ton pellet dome to better service Enviva and will begin construction once the pellet maker finalizes its decision to expand the  Cottondale mill. 

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The Port of Pascagoula, shown here, is the site for Envivaâ€™s newest wholly owned, $90 million deep-water marine terminal in Mississippi, which broke ground Nov. 7.  

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With completion of a new rail spur connecting its LaSalle plant to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, along with a new chambering yard project to facilitate more rail traffic at the port, fewer trucks like these will be delivering pellets to the port. 

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Some of the biggest names in the wood pellet industry continue to make port infrastructure investments in the southern U.S. to facilitate exportation of added tonnage from pellet mill construction or expansion projects. 

November/December Pellet Mill Magazine

Business Briefs

Busines Briefs

Columns

Germany's Carbon Mitigation Plan With Biomass

Rebooting Efforts in DC

Boiling Down Our Message

Featured

On The Horizon

Southern Sprawl

Contributions

Increasing Packing Line Throughput

November/December Pellet Mill Magazine.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Business Briefs

Busines Briefs

Columns

Germany's Carbon Mitigation Plan With Biomass

Rebooting Efforts in DC

Boiling Down Our Message

Featured

On The Horizon

Southern Sprawl

Contributions

Increasing Packing Line Throughput

November/December Pellet Mill Magazine