This week, we received notice from the United Kingdom Pellet Council that the government&rsquo;s temporary suspension of ENplus wood pellet standards would expire Nov. 22. Come then, U.K. traders and customers will be required to move back to using all ENplus certified pellets. Most of you reading this likely know the reason for implementing the suspension, and we have covered this story as it has evolved. In short, the requirement was waived due to Russia&rsquo;s invasion of the Ukraine, via a complete ban of all wood products coming from Russia. This meant 3.5 million metric tons of pellets flowing into the European supply chain was no longer allowed, prompting end users to look elsewhere due to this shortfall&mdash;and not all sellers with tonnage to spare were ENplus certified, for a variety of reasons. The UKPC stated in the memo that the suspension served its purpose, as &ldquo;The U.K.&rsquo;s wood pellet and biomass for heating sectors have witnessed minimal disruption to consumer supply, especially over the winter months when customer demand is usually greater.&rdquo;&nbsp; While there have been assertions that some Russian wood pellets were rerouted, repacked and ultimately sent where banned, producers across the globe were able to temporarily participate in that market&mdash;including in the U.S.&mdash;at least for a while.&nbsp; Mark Lebus, chair of the UKPC, explained, &ldquo;Given the scale of this reduction and the speed in which sanctions were applied, having no interruption to supply for U.K. biomass boiler owners was a major achievement and something which couldn&rsquo;t be done by fossil fuel suppliers who continue to import Russian gas, oil and coal.&rdquo; Moving onto content in this issue of Pellet Mill Magazine, our themed stories include a Q&amp;A with five fire and explosion technology experts on the evolution of the sector and their favorite products, as well as aspects they believe the industry should improve. Check out &ldquo;Innovations in Fire &amp; Explosion Protection&rdquo; by freelance writer Keith Loria on page 19. As well, you&rsquo;ll find a contribution article focused on fiber optic linear heat detection and its benefits to the wood pellet industry on page 28, written by AP Sensing. Additional features in this story include a profile story on Mesa Verde Pellets, a Mancos, Colorado-based wood pellet operation implemented by Aspen Wood Products. They're just commencing startup at the plant, an endeavor the company decided to pursue when the offtaker of its sawdust went away. Staff writer Katie Schroeder chatted with President and CEO David Sitton about the driving force behind the project, as well as challenges and future plans. Finally, I got a brief industry history lesson when I chatted with Bruce Lisle of Lignetics (who sold Energex to the company a few years ago) for our page-24 feature, &ldquo;From the History Books.&rdquo; During our conversation, he told me about how he got into the industry, the history of Energex&rsquo;s Lac-M&eacute;gantic, Quebec, pellet plant, and a little about the domestic heating industry&rsquo;s roots and early pioneers. While this is quite a boiled down version of industry beginnings, I hope you learn something new. On a different and closing note, we&rsquo;re looking for new guests for our podcast. If you&rsquo;re interested, drop me a line&mdash;would love to hear from you. Author: Anna Simet Editor of Pellet Mill Magazine

2023/05/Anna-Simet_16832954988887_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Anna-Simet_16832954988887_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Anna-Simet_16832954988887.jpg

This week, we received notice from the United Kingdom Pellet Council that the government's temporary suspension of ENplus wood pellet standards would expire Nov. 22

Back on the ENplus Track

In October, Pellet Mill Magazine conducted an industry survey to gain insight about some of the challenges wood pellet manufacturers were facing as a result of the pandemic, inflation and lack of workforce. One surveyee cited the difficult insurance environment, commenting, &ldquo;Our plant insurance premium went from $85,000 annually to over $350,000, and only a handful of carriers were willing to even consider insuring wood products manufacturers.&rdquo; Since then, I have heard similar remarks on a number of occasions, which is what led me to pursue our page-12 feature, &ldquo;Ensuring Better Insurance Rates.&rdquo; Being honest, it was a challenge finding sources who would have on-record discussions with me, but the insurance industry professionals I did speak with had some useful information to share about the scenario that wood pellet and other wood product manufacturers are in right now. This included suggestions regarding careful selection of an insurance broker&mdash;one important guideline is to find someone who is familiar with the business, knows how to market your operation to carriers, and is remarketing in proper intervals. As for other content related to dust management and fire/explosion protection, there is plenty&mdash;be sure to check out our page-20 contribution that summarizes industry relevant data from the 2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report. In it, Chris Cloney, managing director at DustEx Research Ltd., provides a summary of the dust fires and explosions uploaded into the combustible dust incident database throughout the year, which analyzes the materials, equipment and industries involved in incidents.&nbsp; Finally, I will highlight staff writer Katie Schroeder&rsquo;s coverage of the European Pellet Conference that was held in Wels, Austria, in early April. The story focuses on global market updates, and includes some summaries of presenters from Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain and Austria. As I expected, it was mentioned several times that the Russian invasion of the Urkaine is predicted to pose challenges for European domestic heating pellet markets (among the other mounting energy challenges), whether directly or indirectly (and you&rsquo;ll find this topic mentioned on several other pages as well). Christian Rakos, CEO of ProPellets Austria and president of the World Bioenergy Organization, touched on the constraints in his presentation, but pointed out a potential silver lining, a note that I will end on: &ldquo;While European producers are bracing themselves for a tight winter with high demand from consumers, the situation does provide bioenergy producers an opportunity to show how renewable fuels can bring more reliability and lower cost to consumers.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Anna Simet, EDITOR <a href="mailto:asimet@bbiinternational.com" target="_blank">asimet@bbiinternational.com</a>
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/Anna-Simet-2018_16522887277338_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/Anna-Simet-2018_16522887277338_thumb.jpg

2022/05/Anna-Simet-2018_16522887277338.jpg

In October, Pellet Mill Magazine conducted an industry survey to gain insight about some of the challenges wood pellet manufacturers were facing as a result of the pandemic, inflation and lack of workforce. 

Insurance, Incident Prevention and Global Market Constraints 

The war in the Ukraine has disrupted commodity markets across the world, including wood pellets. Over the past decade, Russia&rsquo;s wood pellet industry has grown into a significant player, contributing more than 2 million tons of wood pellets to the European market. As sanctions mount and sustainability licenses for Russian producers are suspended, pellet buyers across Europe now move to the challenge of replacing these volumes. Apart from the fact that it is rooted in a much larger story of human misery, the market dynamics created by the sudden stoppage of the flow of Russian pellets to their traditional buyers is amongst the most interesting stories in the global biomass marketplace in a decade. On the surface, the stars have aligned and the solution to this very significant inventory and pellet availability challenge is plain to see. On one side of the ocean, the market is anticipating being short on pellets. On the other, producers serving domestic markets are emerging from a disappointing year, watching inventories swell and throttling back on production. Heating degree days lagged long-term averages in every pellet-burning region in the country, and U.S. producers experienced their lightest sales volume (just over 2 million tons) in four years. While no one is expecting U.S. heating market producers to magically double their production next year and cover all of the Russian volume, all corners of the global pellet industry are being explored for their potential to contribute some meaningful volumes. European pellet interests are not wrong to look toward heating fuel producers in the U.S. When limiting an inquiry to simply a review of the available data, a compelling case could be made that stateside heating market participants could contribute meaningful volumes to European buyers. Monthly production data produced and curated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows manufacturers in the East haven&rsquo;t produced anywhere near full throttle in well over a year. The highest month ever recorded for production in the EIA&rsquo;s East region was in October 2019, at 136,921 tons. The region averaged just 91,902 tons per month in 2021, suggesting that nearly 50,000 tons of production throttle was left untouched each month throughout the year. Turn every 90,000-ton month in 2022 into an October 2019, and producers in the region will have laid up nearly 600,000 tons of additional production in a year. It is back-of-the-envelopment tabulations like these that have wood pellet interests in Europe looking hopefully toward heating producers in the U.S. to satisfy a portion of this vacated supply. These tabulations can reveal what may be theoretically possible, but they fall well short of successfully ramping up production in the right locations and moving product efficiently and cost effectively to market, connecting buyers and sellers who heretofore have not done business together. Layered on top of this are the economic challenges that U.S. producers have been managing for two years, including inflationary pressure across their businesses and increasingly tight labor markets. Finally, stateside producers serving the U.S. heating and barbecue markets will have to perform some delicate calculus as they anticipate demand for the 2022-&lsquo;23 heating season. While recent trends point to shorter and milder winters, producers will have to weigh how much volume they feel comfortable setting aside for export. There is no doubt that some stateside producers will step forward to capture some sales afforded by this unique marketplace opportunity. As to answering questions about how to best integrate this new demand into stateside producers&rsquo; established book of business, work is already underway. While the opportunity to satisfy a portion of these volumes may not be viable for all U.S. wood pellet producers, it isn&rsquo;t difficult to see how it might boost the fortunes of a sector that is emerging from a lackluster season. The economic opportunity emerging in Europe will inspire increased production here across the domestic fleet, and time alone will answer the questions of &ldquo;By whom?,&rdquo; and &ldquo;How much?&rdquo; Author: Tim Portz Executive Director, Pellet Fuels Institute <a href="mailto:tim@pelletheat.org" target="_blank">tim@pelletheat.org</a> <a href="https://www.pelletheat.org/" target="_blank">www.pelletheat.org</a>
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/Portz_Tim_16522888717387_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/Portz_Tim_16522888717387_thumb.jpg

2022/05/Portz_Tim_16522888717387.jpg

The war in the Ukraine has disrupted commodity markets across the world, including wood pellets.

Filling a 2 Million-Ton Hole

Changes to global supply chains brought on by the crisis in Ukraine, as well as increased demand across Europe, have seen United Kingdom producers and suppliers urgently switch to alternative sources of imported wood pellets to ensure minimal impact on the biomass heating market, a sector that currently sees U.K. demand for premium grade wood pellets reaching 600,000 tons per annum. The UK Pellet Council, a trade body representing the premium wood pellet heating sector&mdash;a niche and separate industry to the biomass power market&mdash;is now forging new partnerships with worldwide suppliers to plug an immediate pellet shortfall of 200,000 tons per annum, previously sourced from Siberia but ceased following its EN Plus certification suspension. This has created new opportunities for existing pellet suppliers from the Baltics and the Iberian Peninsula to increase exports (and months ago, were shipping approximately 150,000 tons annually to the U.K.), and potentially, North and South America producers, too, should an excess of premium grade inventory exist. We are very much open for business, with the UKPC and its members now looking for alternative wood pellet producers and competitive supply routes, all working under the EN Plus A1 accreditation scheme or equivalent quality standards. Our market needs to respond to (and accommodate) a short-term issue brought on by the crisis in Ukraine, and whilst overall heating demand is beginning to reduce as we head into the warmer summer months, we must have new supply chains up and running now to prevent any possible shortfall across the whole of Europe next winter. With up to 55% of our annual demand sourced from imports, the knock-on effect would be huge; therefore, we&rsquo;re open to all discussions. Despite these circumstances being brought on by the worst possible events overseas, it is now an opportunity for change and growth. The U.K. is home to many strategic ports located up and down the coastline, with several regions already receiving regular wood pellet shipments via dedicated fuel handling facilities. Storage options may be lower than other European countries at present, but companies operating within the biomass heating market take regular shipments of one-ton bulk bags (25 per container) to 3,000- to 5,000-ton-plus bulk pellet consignments. Working hand-in-hand with a domestic production sector, this is also an area that could also be developed further via major inward investment. Our sector has continuously developed over the past 10 years, being very much supported by the domestic and nondomestic Renewable Heat Incentive scheme. While this has ended, it has meant a seven-year subsidy for domestic heating and 20 years for commercial users based on metered heat use. This ensured that high-quality wood pellets remained competitive against fossil fuels. Looking ahead, the U.K. government has committed to ambitious net zero targets with biomass (wood pellets) being identified to help achieve that, especially for rural off-grid homes and buildings where other technologies simply aren&rsquo;t feasible. The awaited Biomass Strategy, to be delivered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy, is due for release later this year. This program, along with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme that began in April, should allow our industry to be a driving force in encouraging a switch from oil, coal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) systems in the hardest-to-heat properties, as well as challenging and remote, rural off-grid locations. And this is where a major opportunity lies. Our customers include private homeowners and an array of commercial users. Furthermore, independent research has identified that there are approximately 1.45 million (and possibly up to 1.9 million homes) or 7% of the total housing stock, and 200,000 commercial buildings that cannot be decarbonized via the gas grid. Of these, at least 422,000 homes are only suitable for biomass and bioenergy, with this number likely to be much higher when the cost benefit analysis has been completed on electrical grid investment, as urban areas will likely be prioritized. Additionally, 57% of rural homes use oil, coal or LPG currently, producing 20 to 40% more carbon emissions than natural gas in urban areas. Demand for premium wood pellets will increase as people move away from fossil fuel use, and while we will still have a need for premium imported stock, we must also grab the opportunity to upscale our own home-grown, domestic production in line with new woodland creation and sustainable forestry management. Investment and increased government support would help develop more strategic autonomy, allowing us to become more protected from global price surges and a crippling energy crisis. We have a lot of work to do, but the opportunity is now. As representatives of the wood pellet sector and the biomass heating industry, the UKPC is at the forefront of wider discussions to help grow our industry both at home and on an international level. Contact: Mark Lebus Chair, UK Pellet Council <a href="http://www.pelletcouncil.org.uk/" target="_blank">www.pelletcouncil.org.uk</a> +44 (0) 1670 338395
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/col-pellet-ukpc-0222_16522890145232_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/col-pellet-ukpc-0222_16522890145232_thumb.jpg

2022/05/col-pellet-ukpc-0222_16522890145232.jpg

Changes to global supply chains brought on by the crisis in Ukraine, as well as increased demand across Europe, have seen United Kingdom producers and suppliers urgently switch to alternative sources of imported wood pellets.

UK Wood Pellet Market Open to New Supply Opportunities

CPM debuts new wood pellet technology
CPM has launched new technology designed to improve the efficiency of wood pellet mills. The company's patented Twin Track technology has been developed after a decade of research, with multiple goals of reducing energy demand, ensuring consistent pellet quality and boosting mill capacity. Twin Track uses two rollers inside the pellet mill, and uniquely, each roller has its own track. The system is designed to push pellets with one long, energy-efficient push per die revolution, resulting in less required energy to move the pellet mass than with two- or three-roller machines. At the same time, Twin Track provides a surface area that has 43% more holes in the die than average. CPM's research team validated that a higher hole count in the die also facilitates longer baking time in the die itself to make use of natural binding properties, including added binders, and maintain pellet consistency. Twin Track technology has been extensively tested in real world mill operations, and the higher die hole count has been found to stabilize mill running conditions due to the longer pellet retention times that help dampen fluctuations. Twin Track can be supplied in new machines or retrofitted into a range of CPM machines in as little as four hours.
&nbsp;
Musser Biomass and Wood Products to install second dryer from Dryer One
After a successful launch in 2021, Musser Biomass and Wood Products LLC in Rural Retreat, Virginia, will bring online its second dryer from Belgium company Dryer One at the end of 2022. In addition to the second dryer, the company plans to open a pulpwood and log yard to supply its dryer operations, according to Ed Musser, president. When the new dryer comes online, MBWP will be one of the largest suppliers of dry wood fiber on the East Coast with an annual production of more than 200,000 tons. Musser said the company plans to expand operations in at least two more states during the next three years.
&nbsp;
Groupe Lebel plans new wood pellet plant in Quebec
Groupe Lebel announced in early April that it will continue its investment program by building a new wood pellet plant on the Cacouna, Quebec, site it has occupied since 2002. The company acknowledged the financial contribution of nearly $15 million from key partners for this $40 million project: the Quebec Ministry of Economy and Innovation granted the company a $12 million loan, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Quebec contributed $1.75 million, including funds from Environment and Climate Change Canada; and the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks is contributing $1 million. The first phase of the plant&rsquo;s operations will begin in 2023 with an annual capacity of nearly 100,000 metric tons of wood pellets. Groupe Lebel aims to ship the majority of its production to growing international markets.
&nbsp;
JAPEX announces plans for pellet-fueled power plant in Japan
Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd announced it is working with Maeda Corp., Yonden Business Co. Inc., and Shinko Denso Co. to develop a 50-MW, wood pellet-fueled power plant in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Construction of the project, referred to as Ozu Biomass Power Co. Ltd., is scheduled to begin in June, with commercial operations scheduled to commence in August 2024. Electricity produced at the facility will be sold to Shikoku Electric Power Transmission &amp; Distribution Co. Inc. under the feed-in tariff system for renewable energy. The facility will be fueled by imported wood pellets. Once fully operational, the plant is expected to require approximately 200,000 metric tons per year.

2022/05/bb-pellet-TwinTrack-0222_16522892518508_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/bb-pellet-TwinTrack-0222_16522892518508_thumb.jpg

2022/05/bb-pellet-TwinTrack-0222_16522892518508.jpg

Groupe Lebel plans new wood pellet plant in Quebec 

2022/05/bb-pellet-Lebel-0222_16522892517444.jpg

JAPEX announces plans for pellet-fueled power plant in Japan 

2022/05/bb-pellet-JAPEX-0222_16522892517809.jpg

Musser Biomass and Wood Products to install second dryer from Dryer One 

2022/05/bb-pellet-dryerone-0222_1652289251815.jpg

Business Briefs

When Lumbermen&rsquo;s Mutual Casualty Co. was founded in 1912, it set out with a focus on insuring sawmills. The company was successful for many decades, and at one point was among the largest and most profitable property and casualty insurance companies in the U.S. By the end of 2000, it ranked in the top 20, as well as the top five largest workers compensation insurers in the U.S., with $2.7 billion in net premiums and more than $2 billion in surplus, according to court documents. However, that success came to a near-screeching halt in 2003, with a rapid amassing of industry claims, and ensuing financial catastrophe.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;All they did was insure wood product manufacturers&mdash;from biomass to sawmills to pellet manufacturers,&rdquo; says Will Downing, an insurance broker from CapriCMW. &ldquo;They went bankrupt because they just weren&rsquo;t making money paying out so many claims all of the time, and subsequently went out of business.&rdquo; That left all the company&rsquo;s clients with a short notice and accompanying scramble to find new insurance. &ldquo;There was this surge of wood product manufacturers needing insurance, and carriers charged more than double than they were currently doing,&rdquo; Downing says. &ldquo;But they really didn&rsquo;t have another option.&rdquo; Insurance premiums for North American wood product manufacturers have soared over the past decade. Patrick Tomkow of Aon Risk Solutions, a risk management and insurance brokerage company with clients in over 120 countries&mdash;and a practice in Vancouver focused on wood products manufacturers&mdash;says that pellet mills go for roughly $1 to $4 per $100 of value, depending on construction type, protection and loss history, as well other variables, including whether the mill has silo-type storage or is a stand alone facility, which will typically land in the higher in range, vs. collocated, which are typically on the lower range. &ldquo;The pellet plants that we do are typically only a portion of the overall clients&rsquo; facilities,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They have other locations that are less volatile in terms of historical losses or risk, so we are able to obtain terms that include the pellet plant and all the rest of the clients&rsquo; risks. There is some give and take by the insurers.&rdquo; Tomkow says the company&rsquo;s clients do includea few stand-alone pellet producers, but that generally, they will have a more difficult time getting favorable terms in the insurance market. &ldquo;This is because of historical losses in this space, and no other values to insure to offset the insurer&rsquo;s exposure to the pellet plant,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And as well, insurers wanting top dollar for their capacity.&nbsp; Other items that make these rates fluctuate include deductibles&mdash;approximately $500,000 to $2.5 million&mdash;and values, as an insurer&rsquo;s ultimate goal is an acceptable premium. So, higher-value facilities may get a rate break due to size.&rdquo; Downing says the insurance industry is currently experiencing a hard market&mdash;a period of time, often two to three years, during which insurance carriers increase premiums or stop writing business to increase profits. &ldquo;Then, they will start writing business again&mdash;it has been a factor for the past three or so years.&rdquo; As for keys to getting the best rates in the market whether hard or soft, Downing says it begins with finding a broker who is knowledgeable in the space. Finding the Right Broker&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; From Downing&rsquo;s perspective, knowing who to work with for risk management is critical. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had clients tell us their previous broker got them to pay for a risk report, only to find out that the report wasn&rsquo;t accepted by the insurance carriers for not meeting NFPA or FM Standards,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Often, I have run into those who are having trouble finding someone who understands their business. Basic things you should ask include, do they insure any associations related to the industry? Is the brokerage involved in any conferences or speaking events? There just aren&rsquo;t that many that specialize in a specific area of manufacturing, which is a problem because if you work with a broker who doesn&rsquo;t understand the industry or who they should be approaching, they may be overcharged by underwriters.&rdquo; While Downing focuses primarily on sawmills, he says the company does have a couple of wood pellet manufacturer clients, and there is a lot of crossover in terms of the same problems&mdash;it&rsquo;s difficult to get insurance and premiums are very high. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to change that, because it&rsquo;s just painful going back to a client saying, &lsquo;This is the only option we can get for you, and its 50% more than what it was last year,&rsquo; &rdquo; he says.&nbsp; Two fatal, catastrophic sawmill explosions in British Columbia in 2012 had an impact that reverberated across North America, and insurance rates have been on the climb since. A post-investigation report indicated the main underlying factors in both incidents included ineffective wood dust control measures, ineffective inspection and maintenance, as well as inadequate supervision of clean-up and maintenance staff. &ldquo;Today, these are some of the biggest concerns for insurance carriers when assessing the operations of wood product manufacturers,&rdquo; Downing explains. &ldquo;In B.C., the standards have been raised, and WorkBC makes frequent visits to see whether an operation has a dust control policy and if it&rsquo;s being enforced. Now, companies will get fined if they aren&rsquo;t implementing good risk management practices. In 2013, it might have been a $15,000 fine for not implementing safe controls on machinery, or poor dust control&mdash;now, it is north of $650,000 for that same thing.&rdquo; Downing says his firm has been in discussions with insurance carriers to determine how the situation can be improved. &ldquo;They have been pretty good about letting us know which items we should have in place for them to look at reducing premiums and becoming a better risk, so they become more comfortable writing that type of business,&rdquo; he says. Another item to check off the list is to ensure brokers are remarketing your business to insurers when appropriate. &ldquo;I find that when we take on a new client, we&rsquo;ll go out to all our insurance carriers and present the business to them, and you would be very surprised at how many businesses are not getting remarketed to insurance carriers on a 3- to 5-year basis,&rdquo; Downing says. &ldquo;And when I say remarketed, I mean taking that business to all the insurance carriers that want to write that business. Some may not be doing that because they think it&rsquo;s too difficult to place, too much time and effort required, or that they already have them with the best option. But in doing this, we have found there may be a new insurance carrier that would be very interested in writing this type of business.&rdquo; In an example, Downing says one carrier his brokerage uses hired a risk engineer with significant experience in the wood products manufacturing industry, expertise they didn&rsquo;t previously have. &ldquo;So now, that insurance carrier is much more comfortable writing that type of business,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I submit an application, it gets passed straight on to the engineering department. If they have engineers with a background, they can ask the right questions, and they know how to look at the risk, whether it&rsquo;s good or bad one, and be more comfortable with it. The only way you find out about these new insurance carriers is speaking with them on a regular basis and asking questions. It&rsquo;s something that some brokers just aren&rsquo;t doing.&rdquo; Downing adds that three to five years is the standard for remarketing, unless a facility has made some significant changes within that timeframe. &ldquo;Generally speaking, you won&rsquo;t see too much change from year to year&mdash;it normally takes around three years for carriers to want to be more competitive,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And if you stay with carrier for long enough time, we&rsquo;re in a good position to negotiate as well&mdash;we might be able to say, &lsquo;Over this five year period, look what they did for risk management and policies put into place, as their track record.&rsquo; They will likely come with more favorable terms if they want to keep the business.&rdquo; As for a pellet manufacturer can do to show carriers they are actively reducing risk, Downing says there are a few things. Reducing Risk Third-party risk inspections, documentation and reporting and monitoring, as well as annual maintenance reports are some key bullet points when it comes to reducing risk, Downing says. &ldquo;These are 100% relevant to wood pellet manufacturers and are still the number one way on improving your insurance premiums,&rdquo; he says. While U.S. wood pellet manufacturers and all other facilities with combustible dust hazards were required by OSHA to have completed a dust hazard analysis (DHA) completed by September 7, 2020, they may be completed in-house by a &ldquo;qualified person&rdquo; and currently, there are not any specific certifications they must have. Under NFPA 652, the DHA recommendations/findings must be completed within two years, and DHAs reviewed and updated every five years. &ldquo;The main thing is that the risk report is accepted by the insurance carrier, it should be of high quality and according to NFPA and FM standards&mdash;having them conducted by engineers who have worked for FM Global or are very familiar with those standards is another thing,&rdquo; Downing says. Beyond a risk report, documentation and monitoring is critical, Downing says. &ldquo;For dust control, how often are you cleaning, who is doing it and when, and is it documented? It&rsquo;s all good having a policy in place, but actually getting it enforced is more challenging. It can be a bit of a change in culture, giving somebody a responsibility to make it happen and get it done on a day-to-day basis. There is technology that improves safety, but a lot of it is housekeeping and preventable.&rdquo; In one example, Downing says he has seen businesses use their phones to take pictures on a daily or weekly basis to track dust levels, or keep track of cleaning and checks in an Excel document. As for annual maintenance and upkeep, Downing says it should be focused mainly on the sprinkler and fire protection systems. In some cases, he says seen operations that haven&rsquo;t had their on-site fire hydrants and fire extinguishers checked or inspected for five-plus years, or placards on sprinkler systems updated. &ldquo;There is a budget and cost to having all these things done, but it&rsquo;s a necessary cost of business,&rdquo; Downing says. &ldquo;We had a wood pellet manufacturer have a risk report done and it came with recommendations of what needed to be implemented&mdash;not all quick fixes. But if they work throughout the year at all of the recommendations, if all of those things have been ticked off at the next renewal, they can show that they put in the money, time and effort to reduce risk. They will look at that more favorably, and it will likely put them in a position to negotiate your premium down&mdash;that&rsquo;s exactly what happened with some clients of ours this year.&rdquo; To give a rough calculation as to costs and ultimate savings, a third-party risk report and other recommended risk management items may cost annually $10,000 to $15,000 for a $4.5 million wood processing facility. &ldquo;However, you could see savings of $22,500 per year or $112,500 every five years in insurance premiums,&rdquo; Downing says, adding that risk reports are generally considered valid for about three years. &ldquo;For a best-in-class manufacturing plant compared to one without great housekeeping, poor dust management and sprinkler systems that aren&rsquo;t updated or inspected, you could be looking at a $30,000 to $50,000 difference in premiums.&rdquo; Brand new facilities are often in a better position that existing facilities, depending on the company&rsquo;s experience. &ldquo;If you have a building that&rsquo;s steel-on-steel construction, 100% sprinklered with a couple fire hydrants on-site, immediately that looks like a much better risk,&rdquo; Downing says. &ldquo;Then, they&rsquo;ll look at experience level&mdash;being totally new to the industry might be a red flag, but 20 years of experience in wood products, a risk report and even maybe a health and safety officer on-site to go over documents they will need, with everything tracked and reported, it would be a better risk.&rdquo; Despite the difficulties pellet manufacturers and other wood products facilities face, underwriters do want to write this business, Downing says, but they must be comfortable that what they&rsquo;re taking on isn&rsquo;t a ticking bomb. &ldquo;And each person has different opinions around risk management. We have had cases where we&rsquo;ve&nbsp; told people, for us to get insurance options for them, that they get a risk report done, and they won&rsquo;t actually allow it to happen&mdash;I&rsquo;m not sure why, either they don&rsquo;t want to spend the money, or they are uncomfortable with someone coming into their facility.&rdquo; &nbsp;Tomkow says insurers want to see less losses&mdash;both in frequency and severity&mdash;before rethinking premium calculations, and that for pellet plants, this year likely won&rsquo;t see much relief. Insurance companies are out to make a profit, and if they&rsquo;re having to pay out significant losses frequently, then they&rsquo;re not making money, Downing emphasizes. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll just decide not to write that type of business, or charge a significant premium,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important to be working with a specialist insurance broker that understands the business and the requirements. Underwriters have to get more comfortable with writing your risk, so you really need to find a broker who can present your company in a favorable way, highlighting all of the good stuff that you&rsquo;re doing.&rdquo; Author: Anna Simet Editor, Pellet Mill Magazine <a href="mailto:asimet@bbiinternational.com">asimet@bbiinternational.com</a> 701-738-4961
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/ins-pellet-lede-0222_16522894554687_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/ins-pellet-lede-0222_16522894554687_thumb.jpg

2022/05/ins-pellet-lede-0222_16522894554687.jpg

2022/05/ins-pellet-list-0222_16522894555875.jpg

In a persisting hard market, pellet producers and other wood product manufacturers are struggling with high premiums, but there are some ways to help achieve the best rates.

Ensuring Better Insurance Rates

The landscape of the wood pellet industry has been impacted greatly by Russia&rsquo;s attack on Ukraine. In early April at the European Pellet Conference, representatives of countries across the globe discussed the current state of their pellet markets, including Japan, Brazil, Austria, Germain and Spain. The session was moderated by Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada. &nbsp; Market Growth in Japan Ken&rsquo;ichiro Kojima of the Japanese Pellet Club and CEO of Lab Forest Inc. reported on Japan&rsquo;s wood pellet market, which is largely driven by the country&rsquo;s feed-in tariff. Production is growing a small amount each year, he said, with a total of about 137 factories that collectively produce about 150,000 tons annually. &ldquo;So, each mill produces a very small amount of fuel,&rdquo; he said, adding that about half of production is made from sawdust. Most of the pellets consumed in Japan are used for power generation, which is &ldquo;increasing rapidly,&rdquo; from 3.5 gigawatts in 2019 to an estimated 4.1 gigawatts in 2025, he said. The heating industry is still small&mdash;in 2020, only 1,857 Japanese pellet stoves were sold in the country, and even fewer imported pellet stoves were sold&mdash;a total of 438 units. There are about 1,000 operating pellet boilers and another 1,000 wood chip boilers in commercial industry sectors, according to Kojima. &ldquo;There are very few pellet boilers working in the single-family houses because we don&rsquo;t use hot water central heating systems,&rdquo; Kojima said. &ldquo;So, this is our challenge&mdash;to install [more] pellet boilers in single-family houses.&rdquo;&nbsp; Heating oil is cheaper than wood pellets right now, he added. Japan has two national pellet quality standards, the Japan Industrial Standard and the Japan Agricultural Standard, the latter of which will be published this year and is based on the European standard. According to Japan wood pellet association, Kojima said, there are eight production facilities certified under the old standard that will be changing over to the JAS standard.&nbsp; Pellets are primarily used at power plants due to the feed-in tariff, Kojima reiterated, and growing pellet imports from Vietnam and Canada&mdash;and soon, the U.S.&mdash;will rise from 3 million to 6 million tons annually. One issue of concern is that these power plants don&rsquo;t utilize the generated heat, Kojima said, which he would like to see change with more combined-heat-and-power application. Kojima emphasized that the price of pellets in the domestic market is currently quite high, which may be a hindrance on future growth of the sector. He concluded by emphasizing the importance of energy security in context of the uncertainty caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and COVID-19. Forestry Management in Brazil Afonso Bertucci, a representative from Brazil&rsquo;s Braspell Bioenergia, discussed Brazil&rsquo;s superior forestry management and its wood pellet production potential. Currently, he said, the country only produces a small volume of pellets, &ldquo;1 million tons per year in 30 factories,&rdquo; but that number will rise significantly in the next few years, according to Bertucci. The country&rsquo;s goal is to be carbon neutral by 2050, and Bertucci said forest plantations&mdash;and, potentially, wood pellets&mdash;will play a key role. Bertucci outlined the plan for this forest-based bioenergy program in his presentation, explaining the plant requirements which include the establishment of environmental debates, bilateral agreements and long-term contracts with offtakers, technological agreements with international companies and consolidating carbon dioxide credits market with global coverage. &nbsp;Bertucci said Brazil&rsquo;s forest plantations have supplied the pulp and paper industry traditionally, but in the future, there will be high consumption in biorefineries, especially in second-generation ethanol. In the white pellet sector, traditional markets include power plants and heating, but there are emerging markets like the cement industry, Bertucci said.&nbsp; Brazil is also looking at opportunities in hydrogen, he added. With outstanding figures for forest productivity, Bertucci said Brazil has the potential to produce 1 billion tons of wood pellets annually. When asked if he sees any short-term potential in helping fill the supply shortage expected in Europe during the next couple of years as a result of Russia&rsquo;s invasion of the Ukraine, Bertucci was doubtful, given the timeline of the three large-scale production facilities currently under construction in the Rio Grande region.&nbsp; &ldquo;In the short-term, I cannot see any possibility, because Brazil exports approximately 600,000 tons and all of it is contract, and there are no existing factories to expend additional supply from,&rdquo; he said. The next facility will be complete in two years, he said, and it will be able to supply large volumes to both the export and residential markets. As for wood chips, he added, there is a chance for Brazil to supply some volumes to Europe. Market Pressures in Germany In Germany, there has been a rush on pellet stoves as a way to compensate for rising electricity prices. Martin Bentele, representing the German Pellet Association DEPV, spoke about the pellet market in Germany, which he said is one of the leading pellet markets in the world. &ldquo;As far as pellet production is concerned ... 3.3 million tons were produced in Germany, and 2.9 million tons were consumed in Germany,&rdquo; Bentele said. Many efforts have been made toward quality assurance, he said, offering that nearly 150 pellet producers have received the European ENplus certification for quality. As an exporting country, Germany has not needed much in the way of imports in the past. However, with the impacts the war in Ukraine has had on the market, imports have become more necessary, Bentele said. There has been increased interest in pellet heating systems throughout the country due to the high cost of oil, as well as government legislation that bans the use of gas heating in the future. Bentele explained that imports are becoming harder to acquire since foreign companies are selling their stock at home as demand increases due to high electricity prices. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to get harder to get imports, and the other thing is that low-grade quality will have to be accepted in order to cover the rising demand for industrial plants,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a crystal ball, so I can&rsquo;t tell you what the end result will be, but in terms of security of supply we&rsquo;re going to have to really try very, very hard.&rdquo; Supply Security in Austria Christian Rakos, president of the World Bioenergy Organization, and CEO of ProPellets Austria and Save Energy Austria, gave updates on the Austrian market. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the market for pellet heating has fluctuated significantly with the price of oil, primarily consisting households that are moving from heating with oil to pellets. He explained that fluctuating oil prices and environmental impacts are leading homeowners to choose wood pellet heating as a more secure option, and businesses, too. &ldquo;All the companies that are now worried about the development of gas supply security, of gas prices, of heating oil prices, are now rushing to go for pellets and that is going to have a very serious impact on pellet demand,&rdquo; Rakos said. Rakos also discussed Austria&rsquo;s exports and imports, as well as the issue of pellet storage. Austria exported nearly 900,000 tons of pellets, primarily to Italy. The country imports about 100,000 from Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania, from Austrian companies sited in those countries. Rakos explained that there are concerns it may be difficult to acquire pellets for some traders in upcoming moths. &ldquo;This is an issue that our association has been dealing with for a long time. It&rsquo;s the issue of pellet storage and supply security,&rdquo; he said. The competitive pellet market in Austria has led to producers being unwilling to have extra inventory. &ldquo;And that has an economic reason&mdash;having inventory is, first of all costly, and secondly, it&rsquo;s also risky because if you&rsquo;re stuck with the inventory because of a warm winter, the pellets you put into the storage in the fall may be significantly devalued in springtime when usually pellet prices decline.&rdquo; Due market conditions, there have been serious concerns about supply security, and for this reason, Rakos and other members of pellet market have been lobbying for a requirement that all pellet producers have 10% of the inventory from last winter stored at the beginning of winter. &ldquo;I think that would be very important for the future of our market, because supply failure would be just catastrophic, we cannot afford that,&rdquo; he said. With the current concerns about pellet shortages due to the invasion of Ukraine, Rakos hopes that the legislation will get through to make this requirement a reality. &ldquo;Brown Gold&rdquo; in Spain Pablo Rodero Masdemont, representative the Spanish Bioenergy Association (Avebiom), and president of the European Pellet Council, explained that Spain is primarily importing pellets from Portugal. Recently, wood pellets have attracted the media&rsquo;s attention, inspiring headlines calling pellets &ldquo;brown gold.&rdquo;&nbsp; The rewards of growing demand are being somewhat negated by the rising cost of electricity, however, as it now makes up almost 20% of production cost. The government has suggested capping the price, but Rodero said he is not sure whether that will actually help. &ldquo;Many other producers in Spain are hoping or waiting what the government will introduce a new price of electricity or new support to this, but not only pellets; it is all industries,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So, I guess there will be some measures, but I don&rsquo;t know if they will be enough.&rdquo; Rodero explained that the Spanish pellet market is expected to be tight, even as the demand increases. The troubled times coming off of years of a global pandemic and currently a war in Ukraine, have led to a measure of uncertainty for pellet producers looking to the future. The unrest has led many European producers to brace themselves for a tight winter with high demand from consumers. However, this situation does provide bioenergy producers an opportunity to show how renewable fuels can bring more reliability and lower cost to consumers. Rakos summed this up well, adding, &ldquo;The new thing is supply security, which is really driving markets absolutely crazy. So, price differential is huge, but I think even if that drops again, people will just be frightened off to continue with oil and gas, especially industries. And I believe that we&rsquo;ll see massively growing demand for biomass.&rdquo; The next European Pellet Conference will be held March 1-2, 2023, in Wels, Austria. Author: Katie Schroeder <a href="mailto:katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com">katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com</a>
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

World Sustainable Energy Days was held in Wels, Austria, in early April. The three-day event hosted multiple conferences and workshops, including the European Pellet Conference. 

2022/05/event-pellet-lede2-0222_16522896076701_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/event-pellet-lede2-0222_16522896076701_thumb.jpg

2022/05/event-pellet-lede2-0222_16522896076701.jpg

The recent European Pellet Conference in Wels, Austria, included international pellet market updates. 

World of Pellets

How big is the combustible dust fire and explosion problem around the world? That&rsquo;s the question that we set out to answer at Dust Safety Science. Determining how to prevent these incidents and related losses of product, life and limb is the driving force behind this work. Since launching combustible dust incident reporting in 2016, we have recorded 961 fires, 357 explosions, 720 injuries and 126 fatalities from dozens of countries around the world. During those six years, the U.S. has averaged 133 fires, 30 explosions and 36 injuries per year with fatalities ranging between one and six per year. Canada has averaged 15.2 fires, 3.5 explosions and 4.2 injuries over that same time period. A breakdown of the incidents captured each year are summarized in Figure 1. The incident data from 2021 is slightly skewed by a particularly devastating methane gas explosion at a coal mine in Gramotenio, Russia, which led to a subsequent coal dust fire in the ventilation shaft. This tragic catastrophe injured at least 157 workers with 51 of those being fatally injured. Once this large outlier incident is removed from the 2021 data, 83% of the remaining injuries in 2021 occurred due to dust explosions, while 17% occurred due to dust fires. All but one of the remaining fatalities in 2021 were due to dust explosions as well. In general, we see that dust explosions cause larger loss of life than dust fires, while dust fires appear to generally cause larger loss of product and damages to the facility. These results indicate that both dust fires and explosions are important to control to reduce personal, financial and facility loss from combustible dust incidents. Materials, Equipment Involved In 2021, 35 of the combustible dust fires and 14 of the explosions reported involved dust from wood or wood products.These incidents resulted in 29% of the injuries (32 total) and 33% of the fatalities (6 total) reported from combustible dust, again once the outlier Russian mine explosion was removed. Figure 2 provides a breakdown between the different materials analyzed in the incident report. The &ldquo;Other&rdquo; category includes coal, paper, plastic, textile and other materials less frequently mentioned. In past incident reports, dust collectors were the most often-referenced piece of equipment involved in combustible dust fires and explosions. However, in 2021 only 13% of the incidents occurred in dust collectors. Storage silos such as those used for grain and sawdust storage were the most frequently cited equipment involved in dust figures and explosions in 2021, resulting in eight injuries and one fatality. Wood, Wood Product Industry Examples &nbsp;In 2021, at least eight combustible dust explosions and two combustible dust fires that caused injuries to workers were reported in the incident reporting system. Some of the fires captured in the incident report include the following. &bull; One worker was fatally injured in a grinder fire at a lumber mill in Michigan. According to the local investigation, the injured employee was located in the cab of the grinder equipment. &bull; One firefighter was hospitalized for heat exhaustion after fighting a pulp and paper mill fire in Florida. &bull; No workers were injured in a pellet mill fire in Maine. The fire started in the wood pellet dryer and extended into the building, damaging the walls, roof and many wire trays. Some of the explosions captured in the incident report include the following. &bull; One worker was injured in a dust explosion reported in a wood pulp dryer and dust collection system in Ohio. The fire was also reported to have spread on light beams and pipes at the facility. &bull; Three workers were killed and five more injured in a lumber mill explosion in Quebec, Canada. The incident occurred while subcontractors were doing repair work on the roof of the plant. &bull; One worker was killed and seven injured in a large wood processing building explosion in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Not much information is available, but a video of the incident posted online shows a rapid explosion propagating throughout the entire building. &bull; One worker received second- and third-degree burns at a sawmill explosion in Weihenzell, Germany. According to local reports, the employee was fixing a blocked conveyor belt when he saw a three-meter-high jet flame moving rapidly toward him. &bull; Seven workers were injured in an explosion at a frame production plant in Beit Shemesh, Israel. According to local responders, the incident included a well-developed fire involving a lot of sawdust. &bull; Three firefighters were injured and one later died of his injuries, while fighting a fire resulting from an explosion at a sawdust processing facility in Segamat, Malaysia. Two of the firefighters fell 10 meters from the third floor, while the third was hit directly by the explosion involving a boiler and sawdust. &bull; Three workers were injured in a wood chip silo explosion in Schameder, Germany. The facility was listed as a German pellet plant although not much information could be found about the incident. &bull; Four workers were injured in a potential dust explosion at a wood pellet company in Georgia. Little information is available on the incident, but the fire chief suggested that some pellets may have overheated and the product ignited resulting in a flash fire and explosion. Closing Thoughts As stated above, both dust fires and dust explosions are common challenges at wood products, woodworking and pelleting facilities around the world. A comprehensive combustible dust safety program must be in place to address these challenges and avoid loss of product, damages to the facility, and harm to employees or other individuals that are on-site at the facility. A comprehensive combustible dust safety program must include several key components, beginning with proper engineering and design of equipment to minimize dust being released into the surrounding environment, as well as ongoing maintenance and inspection programs and adequate dust collection and housekeeping programs. Fire and explosion prevention and protection systems are necessary to avoid loss from these types of incidents when they occur. Training workers to understand the hazards associated with combustible wood dust is another important factor. In particular, on-site workers, external contractors, fire response personnel and others are known to have suffered injuries and fatalities from combustible wood dust explosions&mdash;all must be included in the training and education programs used. Finally, the absence of previous incidents at a given facility should not be used as a basis for not implementing a combustible dust safety program. Unfortunately, in many of the cases outlined above, employees may have found themselves stating, &ldquo;This has never happened here,&rdquo; right up to the day that the fire or explosion occurred. Author: Chris Cloney Managing director, DustEx Research Ltd. <a href="mailto:chris@dustsafetyscience.com" target="_blank">chris@dustsafetyscience.com</a> <a href="https://dustsafetyscience.com/" target="_blank">www.dustsafetyscience.com</a>
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

Figure 2: Summary of materials involved in combustible dust fires and explosions from the 2021 incident report.

2022/05/fire-pellet-lede-0222_16522898217021_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/fire-pellet-lede-0222_16522898217021_thumb.jpg

2022/05/fire-pellet-lede-0222_16522898217021.jpg

Figure 3: A breakdown of fires, explosions, injuries and fatalities recorded by equipment in the 2021 incident report.

2022/05/fire-pellet-f3-0222_16522898217551.jpg

Figure 1: Summary of combustible dust Incidents recorded from 2016 to 2021. Modified from the 2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report at DustSafetyScience.com.

2022/05/fire-pellet-f2-0222_16522898218312.jpg

Dust Safety Science summarizes the 2021 wood and wood products industries loss history.

2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report

What is the relevance of bulk powder flow testing for biomass? Converting biomass into usable product involves steps such as storage, chute transfer, conveying, mixing and feeding/discharge into a mill or grinder, for example. Effective bulk solids handling is therefore essential, with poor flowability routinely highlighted as a primary cause of operational problems. Poor flowability causes unplanned shutdowns and can limit handling rates, making it a major cause of inefficiency in biomass handling facilities. Bulk powder flow testing can quantify the flow properties of biomass feedstocks, providing insights that can help processors to improve flowability and work more productively. The inherent variability of biomass and the impact of moisture are undoubtedly complicating factors in biomass handling, but there is considerable scope to gain valuable information that can have a direct impact on processing efficiency. &nbsp; How does bulk powder flow testing sit alongside other physical characterization techniques such as particle sizing? Particle size is just one of many variables that impact bulk powder flow. Examples of others that are particularly relevant to biomass handling include particle shape, surface roughness, bulk density and moisture content. It&rsquo;s quite easy to see the impact of these variables in practice and their effects are widely recognized. For example, bulk solids can be transformed from free-flowing to a solid-like mass by moisture ingress, and more regular-shaped particles tend to be associated with better flowability than elongated analogues with the propensity to mechanically interlock during transfer. When a biomass feedstock doesn&rsquo;t behave as required, the default may be to investigate whether changing particle size will improve things and to what extent, not least because particle size is relatively easy to measure. But as the preceding observations make clear, this approach is fundamentally flawed. It involves measuring just one of many influential variables as a proxy for the behavior of interest. Measuring bulk powder flow properties is more productive because it directly quantifies the behavior of interest. Such measurements support systematic investigation of the factors that can be manipulated to improve flowability and promote more robust optimization of the feedstock. For example, longer drying times may be a far more beneficial strategy than particle size reduction, but there is no scope to compare these options with particle size measurement alone. What are the options when it comes to measuring powder flow? Engineers and scientists have been devising techniques for measuring the flowability of bulk solids for decades, so there are plenty of commercial options to consider. The lowest cost, such as angle of repose, tapped density and flow through an orifice, involve very simple, manual tests, with the trade-off being poor repeatability and minimal insight. All these tests are somewhat dependent on operator technique, so there may be significant variability in the data, compromising sample differentiation. With flow through an orifice, there is also the danger of an uninformative &ldquo;null&rdquo; result&mdash;no flow. These techniques also offer no control over the test environment, so it is hard to relate the data to specific processes; notably, to determine the impact of in-storage consolidation or how the sample might behave when aerated, for example, in a pneumatic conveyor. Shear cell testing was developed in the 1950s, and has the distinction of being the first scientific approach to bulk powder testing. It quantifies the ease with which a consolidated bulk transitions from the static to dynamic state, and generates parameters that are used for hopper design. This is a helpful technique for investigating the impact of storage and hopper discharge behavior, but it is less informative when it comes to determining how powders behave in low-stress regimes&mdash;for example, during gravitational transfer. The 1990s saw the introduction of dynamic powder flow testing with what would become the FT4 Powder Rheometer, an instrument that quantifies flowability from measurements of the powder in motion. It became possible to test powders in a consolidated, moderately stressed, aerated and even fluidized state to gain information of relevance to a wide range of different processes. At the same time, this instrument&rsquo;s ability to measure dynamic, shear and bulk powder properties increased awareness of the practical benefits of multifaceted powder testing. Today, those working at the forefront of bulk materials handling rarely, if ever, rely on a single number approach, instead measuring multiple parameters to piece together different quantifiers of flow behavior and form a complete picture. In summary, modern options for powder testing range from the simple and manual to the more sophisticated and highly automated. There are corresponding differences in upfront costs, but it pays to be aware of the total cost of ownership; powder testing with some instruments can be manually intensive. The relevance of the resulting data also varies substantially. What features should be looked for in a powder tester? Picking up on the last point, the most important feature of a powder tester is its ability to generate information of value. Biomass samples are often fairly coarse and highly variable, so check whether the instrument can handle all the materials you are interested in. Then consider how the information generated might be used. What behavior do you need to understand? Powder properties measured under one set of conditions cannot be robustly extrapolated to another, so being able to measure under relevant test conditions will substantially increase the likelihood of generating useful data. Also consider practicality. How easy is it going to be to measure samples? How much training is likely to be required and how much ongoing effort? Automation can make a major difference to the day-to-day productivity of an instrument while simultaneously improving data integrity. Think about who will use the tester, how much effort will be involved and the likely payback in terms of information flow. Look for evidence that the instrument can deliver a solid return on investment by solving expensive problems. What can be learned from bulk powder testing and differentiating biomass feedstocks with respect to pelleting energy consumption? In this example, four biomass feedstocks were used to make pellets (Figure 2). The associated energy consumption varied considerably, but no robust correlation was observed with particle size, moisture content or particle shape (aspect ratio). Can bulk powder testing provide relevant differentiation? The data in Figure 3 shows that it can. Compressibility values rank the feedstocks in terms of the energy required for pelletization, since more compressible materials poorly transmit compressive forces, thereby consuming more energy. What Insight can bulk powder testing provide? Figure 1 shows two samples of cellulose-based biomass&mdash;one untreated the other post-acidification. These two samples are visibly different, but what does this mean for ease of processing? Can bulk powder testing provide any relevant insight? Data shows that it can. Repeatable values of basic flow integrity, a property that quantifies dynamic flow behavior (Figure 4) were successfully measured for both materials. These show that the untreated material presents greater resistance to flow than the treated material under low-stress, forced-flow conditions, as applied during processes such as blending. Both samples are highly permeable, but this test indicates that the treated material is less permeable and more sensitive to consolidation (applied normal stress). These differences are relevant to storage and hopper discharge behavior. What are some last tips for just starting out with powder testing? In my experience, those working with bulk solids, whatever their industry, ultimately conclude that bulk powder behavior, notably flowability, cannot be quantified with a single number. Therefore, it is advised to be to very realistic with respect to expectations if you are considering investing in instrumentation with limited capabilities, and avoid doing so if possible. Another recommendation is to check out a tester with some of your own samples. Bulk solids and powders vary enormously, so don&rsquo;t rely on performance with a material that is very different from your own. Where possible, get some samples measured, because then you&rsquo;ll be able to see whether the results highlight differences that you know are relevant. Finally, though many professional engineers and scientists have minimal knowledge of powder testing, it is easier to access useful information than you might think. Look for an instrument that is easy to use, backed by relevant application support and easy-to-digest literature, and you could be successfully troubleshooting your biomass feedstock in weeks. And the rewards can be substantial, particularly when it comes to solving long-standing problems. Author: Jamie Clayton Operations Director, Freeman Technology <a href="https://www.freemantech.co.uk/" target="_blank">www.freemantech.co.uk</a>
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

Bulk powder flow testers can quantify biomass feedstock flow properties, yielding data that can help improve flowability and productivity.

2022/05/feed-pellet-lede-0222_16522899950495_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-lede-0222_16522899950495_thumb.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-lede-0222_16522899950495.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-f4-0222_16522899949103.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-f2-0222_16522899949504.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-f3-0222_16522899949847.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-pic2-0222_16522899950226.jpg

2022/05/feed-pellet-pic1-0222_16522899950916.jpg

Effective bulk solids handling is essential in biomass operations, with poor flowability routinely highlighted as a primary cause of operational problems.

Q&A: Biomass and Bulk Powder Flow Testing

By now, most companies and people throughout the manufacturing sector have heard of combustible dust, as it has become a widely discussed topic. As a review, combustible dust fires and explosions are caused when a combustible atmosphere of dust, or a layer of flammable solids, is introduced to an ignition source. These ignitions can be made worse if there are significant levels of dust accumulation present in surrounding areas, and hazard mitigation techniques are not properly utilized. One of the best ways to identify these dust fire and explosion hazards, as well as being the first step in putting a mitigation action plan together is a combustible dust hazard analysis (DHA). Besides being a great first step, it is also a required one according to the NFPA standards 652 and 61.
Dust Hazard Analysis A DHA is a systematic method for conducting a risk analysis of a facility and process to identify any pieces of equipment and areas that pose potential for combustible dust to be present, as well as identifying the potential ignition sources to which the dust can be exposed. According to NFPA standards, the DHA &ldquo;shall be led by a qualified person, who possessed a recognized degree, certificate, professional standing, or skill and who, by knowledge, training, and experience, has demonstrated the ability to deal with problems related to the subject matter, the work or project.&rdquo; Besides the notion of a DHA being a good practice and the requirements to have one conducted in accordance with national consensus standards, there is the question of &ldquo;Can these requirements be enforced?&rdquo; The answer is yes, but not always in the ways industry typically thinks about safety and enforcement. NFPA writes the standards, but they do not have enforcement powers on their own. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have regulations specifically covering combustible dust, though they do have some industry-specific regulations (e.g.,1910.272 for grain handling facilities), as well as a combustible dust National Emphasis Program. NEP states that OSHA prioritizes combustible dust-related inspections and utilizes the general duty clause to cover combustible dust hazards not otherwise covered by regulatory requirements like lockout/tagout, fire protection, electrical, etc. Also, we have been seeing an increase in insurance carriers requiring industrial facilities conduct a DHA before awarding coverage, and local fire marshals and building code enforcement requiring a DHA be conducted to determine building occupancy codes or before awarding a building permit. Hazards and Associated Mitigation Techniques While there are several potential hazards that translate across the manufacturing sector, especially related to combustible dust fires and explosions, there are some inherent to the pellet industry that correlate to the materials and equipment used, as well as some to the particular processing techniques involved. One such example relates to the widespread use of bucket elevators as a method of mechanical conveyance. Bucket elevators commonly have a hazardous dust atmosphere, as they convey dry material. Additionally, there can be quite a few ignition sources present, from a bearing that may overheat, metal buckets that could generate a spark, tramp metal entering the system, etc. In accordance with NFPA 652, some mitigation techniques include: &bull; Bearings should be external. &bull; Elevators should be outside and equipped with protection and venting. &bull; Magnets at the elevator infeed. &bull; Monitors for bearing temperature, with a cutoff and alarm at 80% speed, monitor at head and tail, pulley alignment. Besides these systems being required by the standards, they are also good industry practices. Using a poly bucket instead of metal will minimize the potential for sparks. Magnets will limit the potential for foreign metal from entering the elevator. Bearing monitors and sensors will stop the system before an overheated bearing causes heat to transfer into the unit. Even the use of explosion relief panels along the outside of the elevator casing will safely relieve the pressure of an explosion in the event of a combustible dust incident, minimizing the cost of repairs and significantly reducing equipment downtime. Along with bucket elevators, dust collection systems that are used to convey sawdust or provide aspiration for equipment are also susceptible to combustible dust hazards. Dust collection systems regularly have a hazardous dust atmosphere during operation and during filter cleaning. All that is needed for a potential catastrophic incident is the introduction of an ignition source. The most effective mitigation method for this hazard is to prevent the ignition source from going through the conveyance line or into the unit. Per NFPA 652, can be done on the upstream equipment with: &bull; The use of magnets and metal detectors to prevent tramp metal from entering the system. &bull; Routine inspections and preventative maintenance to prevent equipment breakdowns and chips from being conveyed. &bull; Ensuring the system is balanced so that tramp metal is not able to be picked up, utilizing spark detection and suppression or extinguishing system, etc. A method to mitigate the severity of an incident is to equip the units with explosion protection and venting (e.g., deflagration relief or rupture panels, flameless vents, chemical suppression, etc.), as well as installing deflagration isolation systems (e.g., backblast dampener, abort gate, etc.) on the inlet line in accordance with NFPA 68 and 69. It cannot be reiterated enough that housekeeping and inspecting the dust collection lines is a vital piece of this puzzle, as it will help prevent a buildup of material that a hot piece of tramp metal or burning ember could make contact with. Another hazard commonly identified in wood pellet and other timber processing facilities is the accumulation of green sawdust and wood material throughout a mill building, especially within storage areas. While green sawdust has on average a moisture content of about 40% to 50%, it does not take long for the material to dry out, making the sawdust easier to ignite. For example, the green end of a mill in Georgia had a significant accumulation of green dust throughout the infeed area of the mill. A DHA was conducted at this mill in the summertime, and dust samples were taken. Samples of fresh green dust and dust that had accumulated over three days were tested. The moisture content of the green dust that had accumulated over three days had reduced from 45% to 3.5%. At 3.5% moisture, the dust is considered dry combustible dust and poses a severe flash fire and secondary explosion hazard. For this reason, housekeeping procedures and schedules are an important aspect to review during a DHA. There are plenty of hazards that could be present in a facility with relation to combustible dust and fires, and there are many different techniques for minimizing or eliminate those hazards. The first step is to have a DHA conducted. After the DHA, review the recommendations for hazard abatement, and determine a feasible priority and corrective action plan to move toward safety and compliance. Author: Adam Haroz Director of Engineering, Conversion Technology Inc. <a href="mailto:aharoz@conversiontechnology.com" target="_blank">aharoz@conversiontechnology.com</a> 770-263-6330 Ext. 105
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/dm-pellet-lede-0222_1652290173685_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/dm-pellet-lede-0222_1652290173685_thumb.jpg

2022/05/dm-pellet-lede-0222_1652290173685.jpg

There are many different methods of minimizing or eliminating dust hazards at wood pellet facilities, the first of which is a dust hazard analysis. 

Combustible Dust Hazards and Abatement Techniques

Wood pellet production involves operations that are often conducive to the generation of sparks and fire.&nbsp; Size reduction operations such as the hammermilling of dry wood material are often a source of sparks that are transported in the material flow through the pneumatic system. Fires and burning embers may also result from the drying process due to the presence of high temperatures and possible upset conditions with the dryer. Other processes such as pelletizing, pellet cooling, screening and product load out may also produce ignition from sparks, overheated pellets and mechanical friction sources. If not addressed, fires and explosions resulting from normal production processes can have devastating consequences for a business, whether large or small. This is an ever-present problem in this industry that requires continual management to ensure workplace safety, asset protection and business continuity. The design, installation, operation and maintenance of automatic fire protection systems play a critical part in the effort to mitigate these hazards.&nbsp; Spark detection and extinguishing systems have long been recognized by the industry and loss control community as an effective measure in the prevention of fire and explosions in dust collection and air filtration systems. Introduced to North America in the late 1970s, the FLAMEX Spark Detection and Extinguishing System became the first system of its type to gain a Factory Mutual Approval. These systems have proven to be an invaluable part of an overall protection design in wood pellet facilities. FLAMEX Inc. has been involved in protecting industrial facilities from the hazards of fire and explosion for more than 40 years. The company specializes in the prevention of ignition in facilities that handle combustible dust. Vast experience in the industrial wood pellet industry has given FLAMEX Inc. a deep understanding of the risks inherent in the production process, and how to address them in a manner that eliminates or minimizes production downtime. As part of a major global fire protection organization, FLAMEX Inc. has a wide range of detection and suppression components available to meet the specific protection requirements of varied applications that may be present within a single manufacturing facility. FLAMEX Inc. continually strives to improve its product offerings in step with the latest technological advances. Accordingly, the company recently introduced a new, powerful tool to combat fires effectively from a safe distance. The MX One firefighting turbine can spray 1,000 gallons of water per minute,&nbsp; project a water stream up to 260 feet, and water mist up to 130 feet. The unit can be controlled automatically or manually by a remote device. Applications in the wood pellet industry include process operations, storage and loading areas.
Printed in Issue 2, 2022 of Pellet Mill Magazine

2022/05/logo_Flamex_16522903309666_largethumb.jpg

2022/05/logo_Flamex_16522903309666_thumb.jpg

2022/05/logo_Flamex_16522903309666.jpg

As part of a major global fire protection organization, FLAMEX Inc. has a wide range of detection and suppression components available to meet the specific protection requirements of varied applications that may be present within a single manufacturi

Vast Experience in Fire and Explosion Hazards

As the demand for alternative and renewable energy sources has grown, the wood pellet industry has emerged as a significant player in the global energy market. In recent years, fiber optic linear heat detection (FO LHD) technology has become a game-changer by providing an advanced and reliable solution for detecting and preventing hotspots and fires. Protection against fire may not be the primary concern with wood pellets themselves. Nevertheless, operators and users of biomass plants and wood pellet-burning points must ensure the operational safety of their plants, also in terms of fire protection and early fire detection. The production and storage of wood pellets are associated with risks, including the potential for fires. The use of FO LHD technology can mitigate these risks, providing an effective way to monitor temperature changes and detect fires before they become a hazard. Fiber Optic Linear Heat Detection FO LHD is a type of fire detection system that utilizes fiber optic sensor cables to detect temperatures along the entire asset that the sensor cable is monitoring. These sensor cables are made up of thousands of measuring points that can detect changes in temperature along their length, making them ideal for use in monitoring large areas such as warehouses, factories, conveyors and storage facilities. Sensor cables can have a length of up to 16 kilometers (16,000 meters) on each of the one, two or four channels.&nbsp; Wood Pellet Monitoring In the wood pellet industry, FO LHDs are used as a suitable and tested special fire detector for a wide variety of areas including storage silos, conveyor belts and other areas where the risk of fire is high. These can be used in expolosive gas and dust environments up to zones 2 or 20 on pipelines, conveyor belts and in hot ambient conditions of biomass and wood pellet plants. Often, these systems are also coupled in conjunction with larger rooftop or greenfield solar systems. The energy generated is transported to the point of use via medium-voltage energy cables; here, too, fiber optic linear heat detectors utilize sensor cables 4 millimeters in diameter to pinpoint temperature measurements (maximum temperature and rate-of-rise, plus hotspot detection) and provide early alarming even before the development of an open fire. Advantages The advantages of using FO LHD systems in the wood pellet industry are numerous. For example, the system is highly sensitive and can detect heat changes before they become a fire hazard, allowing for early intervention and prevention. This is especially important in the wood pellet industry, where fires can spread quickly due to the combustible nature of pellets. FO LHD systems can detect temperature changes in real-time, allowing for immediate action to be taken. Another advantage is that these systems are highly accurate and can pinpoint the exact location of a temperature increase, allowing for targeted interventions and reducing system downtime and disruptions to the production process.&nbsp; Unlike other fire detection systems, FO LHD systems are immune to industrial conditions including electromagnetic interference (EMI), dirt, dust and corrosion, extreme temperature changes, and explosive environments due to gas or dust, making them ideal for use in harsh industrial environments. The system is almost maintenance-free, as the optical fibers do not require any calibration or replacement, reducing the overall cost of ownership and ensuring that maintenance can be conducted without entering the protected area. Lastly, FO LHD systems are cost-effective and provide complete fire detection that is suitable for insurance purposes.&nbsp; AP Sensing’s FO LHD solution has the most thorough set of type tests and certifications on the market with incredibly fast detection and a low false alarm rate. This solution utilizes a single passive fiber to cover the longest range on the market and offers extremely accurate localization of temperature changes and absolute values. Success Story: Biomass Power Plant in Japan Biomass power generation uses biological materials as fuel to generate electricity. Wood chips, wood pellets and palm kernel shells are used as biomass fuel. Using biomass fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels enables the reduction of CO2 emissions during power generation. By nature, woody fuels are flammable. For example, when wood chips stick to moving parts of conveyors, they may cause fire. To prevent this, continuous monitoring along the entire conveyor of biomass fuels is necessary. Therefore, a renewable energy company selected an AP Sensing FO LHD system for monitoring a newly constructed biomass power plant in Japan. AP Sensing’s system provided many benefits to the customer, including: • One continuous sensor, monitoring the 4-kilometer conveyor 24/7, 365 days a year • Pinpointing of temperature measurements for rotors as well as conveyor-side atmosphere • Graphic display shows real-time temperature • Historical temperature trace data • Maximum reliability under harsh, explosive, and EMI environments • Integrates easily into existing fire detection systems or fire control panel Conclusion The use of FO LHD technology provides a wide range of benefits to the wood pellet industry, including continuous, complete fire and hotspot coverage and detection, a reduction of costly downtime and damages, as well as loss of reputation.&nbsp; FO LHD technology is a cost-effective tool for the wood pellet industry, offering a highly sensitive, accurate and reliable solution for detecting temperature changes and preventing fires. As the demand for renewable energy sources continues to grow, the wood pellet industry is set to expand, and FO LHD systems play a critical role in ensuring the safety and reliability of wood pellet production and storage. Contact: Felix Heck FO LHD Manager AP Sensing GmbH felix.heck@apsensing.com

2023-05-13 - Fiber Optic Linear Heat Detection: Enhanced Fire, Hotspot Sensing (Biomass Magazine)

There are many advantages to using fiber optic linear heat detection at biomass power and wood pellet plants. These systems are highly sensitive and can detect heat changes before they become a fire hazard.

2023/05/Cont1-AP_Sensing_16832941529715_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Cont1-AP_Sensing_16832941529715_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Cont1-AP_Sensing_16832941529715.jpg

Fiber Optic Linear Heat Detection: Enhanced Fire, Hotspot Sensing

In an article dated May 11, 1982, United Press Canada reported that BioShell Inc.—a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Canada Ltd.—was planning to build a “wood densification plant” in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, to produce fuel pellets from wood waste. The plant was to be the first of its kind in the province, but similar to others the company had in Hearst and Iroquois Falls, Ontario, including BioShell’s initial densification operation—a sawmill residue-to-brick plant that was built in 1980.&nbsp; The Lac-Mégantic plant would come at a price tag of about $5.7 million and have an annual capacity of 105,000 metric tons of finished product. Construction was to begin “immediately, with the plant scheduled for a start-up in December 1982.”&nbsp; Fast-forward 42 years, and that plant is still operating, a relic and one of the oldest members of the North American wood pellet plant family. And, as demonstrated in local newspaper archives, the first shipper of transatlantic wood pellets (see sidebar). The plant has not changed hands much over the years; BioShell owned it for just over a decade. For Bruce Lisle, buying the plant from BioShell at an opportune time when Plan A didn’t come to fruition has resulted in a 30-plus-year career in the industry. Working Up Plans “I was actually looking at coal briquetting in the mid-80s, and I formed a relationship with a guy who had developed a binder to briquette coal fines—it was so clean you could put a briquette in your pocket and not turn it black,” Lisle tells Pellet Mill Magazine. “My deal with him was to build a plant in Canada, in Nova Scotia, which had coal mines at the time.” Lisle met his wife during his work travels and subsequently moved to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where he began working with the Nova Scotia Research Foundation to conduct a residential market study for those coal briquettes. “It was a great product, but nobody would buy it because there just weren’t many coal clients,” he says. “In the meantime, I read an article on wood pellets in what was then called Wooden Energy—which ultimately turned into Hearth &amp; Home Magazine—and they said it was a bullseye. Long story short, I then spent several years trying to build a plant (pellet production and cogeneration facility) in Cape Breton. I had an office, an engineer, a wood procurement guy … we were very close to building it and had raised $16 million, but ran into an unfriendly government.” Ultimately, Lisle came across the opportunity to purchase the plant in Lac-Mégantic from BioShell. “On March 5, 1992, I called the president of BioShell—a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum, in their nontraditional business unit—to see if there was interest in developing a plant through a joint venture. He told me that out of the three plants they had, one was basically already dismantled, another was shut down because its long-term contract was canceled, and the plant in Quebec was running at 50% capacity, selling bark pellets to a paper plant in Maine—and it was for sale.” When Shell invested in these plants in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Lisle says, the company planned to build many more. “In Quebec, they really expected to push this forward, but Quebec Hydro—with its very cheap power—began subsidizing the installation of electric boilers in the province, which basically blew Shell’s plan to expand wood pellet fuel operations. So, they decided to consolidate back to their core oil and gas business and get rid of all their nontraditional business units.” &nbsp;Fast forward one year to the date of when Lisle called the president of Shell, and he signed the purchase agreement to buy the Lac Mégantic plant, taking over in early June 1993. “That’s how I got my start,” he says.&nbsp;&nbsp; Only running bark pellets at the time, Lisle added a packaging facility and began bringing in clean sawdust to make a residential product. “Energex was built from there,” he says. In 2000, another plant would be added to the company's portfolio—Energex merged a West Virginia pellet plant with another in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, and created Energex American Inc. Industry Pioneers Backing up again to the purchase of the Lac-Mégantic plant, the very next day, Lisle found himself in Nashville, Tennessee, setting up a trade show booth at the Hearth &amp; Home Expo. There, he met Averill Cook of Catamount Pellet, who produced the Stove Chow brand, and Barb Shine of Dry Creek Products. “The three of us were the first to establish mills for the Northeast residential bag market,” he says. “We were the 'three amigos' who really pioneered wood pellet fuel on the East Coast—everybody else came later.”&nbsp; Each of them would eventually become presidents of the Pellet Fuels Institute, which was established in 1994—and the industry continued its buildout over the years, the result of determination, collaboration and resilience. And, of course, a strong passion for wood heat.&nbsp; Lisle reflects on a remarkable coincidence that would eventually emerge: Energex ultimately bought out Catamount and its Stove Chow Brand, and in 2020, Lisle sold Energex sold to Lignetics. In a final intertwining of fate, in 2021, Energex bought BioMaxx, which at the time owned the Dry Creek brand. “The three amigos were all under one roof,” Lisle chuckles. Still Pushing Forward Lisle notes that one facet of the domestic wood heating pellet industry that he is proud of is that it was developed on free market economics without subsidies, and stakeholders have based their investment and expansion decisions on supply and demand. He adds that there have been shortage years in recent decades and that when new capacity is built in response, it does take time for the market to absorb that additional capacity.&nbsp; Today, Lisle continues to work for Lignetics on strategic initiatives. A love for the industry has been passed down in the family, as his son, Kenny Lisle, also works for Lignetics as director of national accounts. Among his industry endeavors, Lisle sits on U.S. Department of Commerce’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee. “I call myself the token biomass guy,” he says. “I have put together recommendations on biomass, and one of them last year was that we need to develop manufacturing plants for pellets on the West Coast to service the Asian markets,” he adds. “It takes the canals and some logistics out of it, and importantly, it’s fire mitigation.”&nbsp; --------------------------------------------------- SIDE BAR ---------------------------------------------------- Under BioShell’s ownership, the first documented shipment of transatlantic wood pellets was sent overseas from the company’s Lac-Mégantic plant. “At the time, [BioShell] decided there was a worldwide market for pellet fuel, which was starting to take hold in Europe,” Lisle says. In 1991, a 5,000-ton shipment of bark pellets was loaded at the Port of Quebec and sent to Helsingborg, Sweden. “But the Europeans didn’t realize they were getting bark pellets, which are a completely different animal than premium grade fuel,” Lisle says. “They average over 3% ash, and when you burn high-ash products in boilers, depending on how it’s burned, can cause issues like slagging—this was before there were any fuel standards.” Lisle notes that bark pellets can work great in the right burn climate. “You can do it all day long without a problem,” he says. “We were shipping 50,000 tons to a paper plant in Maine and they loved it, as they knew how to handle that kind of high-ash fuel. Through my Lac-Mégantic plant, I used to take excess capacity and probably shipped 15 to 20 loads myself—this was in the 2000s. The last time I sent a ship was a few months before Lignetics bought the plant in 2020.” -------------------------------------------------- SIDE BAR ----------------------------------------------------- Author:&nbsp; Anna Simet asimet@bbiinternational.com

2023-05-17 - From the History Books (Biomass Magazine)

Energex's Lac-MÃ©gantic, Quebec, wood pellet plant is one of North America's longest-running wood pellet facilities. Today, it is owned by Lignetics Inc. 

2023/05/Feat3-Plant_16832943205666_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat3-Plant_16832943205666_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat3-Plant_16832943205666.jpg

2023/05/Feat3-Newspaper-bw_16832942799797.jpg

2023/05/Lisle_Bruce_16832942800168.jpg

Energex Inc. is one of the longest-running fuel pellet plants in North America. Former owner Bruce Lisle chats with Pellet Mill Magazine about the early industry, the plant's history and how he came to buy it. 

From the History Books

Improvements and innovations in fire and explosion protection have come at a steady pace in recent years, as more companies are investing in products to make things safer and easier while complying with regulations. Pellet Mill Magazine spoke with five industry experts about the latest trends, innovative products and what they believe should be future priorities. Interviewees include: Jeramy Slaunwhite, chief technical officer, explosion safety for Rembe Inc.; David Grandaw, vice president of sales for IEP Technologies; Allen Wagoner, president of FLAMEX Inc.; Jason Krbec, sales engineering manager for CV Technology Inc.; and Eric Peterson, CEO of Fagus GreCon Inc. PMM: What do you think has been the most significant innovation in fire and explosion protection in recent years? &nbsp; Slaunwhite: Holistically, the higher awareness and regard for dust explosion hazards and mitigation strategies in industrial processing facilities have greatly improved. Considering combustible dust fires and explosions have been occurring for as long as dusts and powders have been handled, the development and refinement of flame-arresting technology over the past few decades has provided feasible explosion protection solutions for many facilities and industries. Flameless venting allows for reliable explosion protection without harmful fireballs and pressures inside buildings and occupied areas. Krbec: The most significant innovation is the more cost-effective and advanced design isolation systems, specifically explosion isolation systems for the inlet lines to dust collectors and also the clean air exhaust return lines from dust collectors. We&rsquo;ve seen more reliable solutions developed, as well as some really improved testing standards for those type of products. It&rsquo;s been a point of emphasis, because it&rsquo;s where we see one of the largest gaps in the process industry. Grandaw: The electromechanical suppressor used for active explosion suppression and isolation systems. For many decades, all styles of high-rate discharge extinguishers used for explosion suppression or isolation systems used some version of pyrotechnical device to activate, such as electro-explosive actuators or gas cartridge actuators. Besides the safe handling considerations necessary for these types of devices, there were often challenges with shipping, as some of these devices required special licensing. In addition, most of the pyrotechnical actuating devices required periodic changeout to ensure proper operation of the extinguisher. Peterson: As everything gets a little more technically advanced, having things become more intelligent and smarter on their own&mdash;as we struggle with labor and a lot of different parts and pieces&mdash;is important. The interconnectedness and equipment that delivers things just a little bit easier is very helpful. It&rsquo;s still new in the fire and explosion side of things. Wagoner: It&rsquo;s a broad area, and encompasses a lot. A number of processes employed in the manufacturing of wood pellets present a fire and explosion hazard that must be addressed to ensure workplace safety, protection of assets and avoidance of downtime. Drying and hammer milling of wood material are particularly conducive to the generation of sparks and fire within the pneumatic transport system. Other processes such as pelletizing, pellet cooling, screening and product load out are also subject to possible ignition from sparks, overheated pellets and mechanical friction sources. To combat the all too common problem of dust collector fires and explosions in woodworking industry, we pioneered the use of a new technology in North America by introducing the FLAMEX Spark Detection and Extinguishing System in 1977. Since that time, thousands of have been installed in a variety of industrial facilities across North America, including many medium and large industrial wood pellet operations. PMM: What product or service designed for this space is your company the proudest of? Krbec: We developed a completely passive isolation device for clean air exhaust for dust collectors, and one that uses the same technology as our flameless vents&mdash;to have an isolation point that doesn&rsquo;t require any moving components. We call it the Interceptor&ndash;QV and developed it a few years back, and we have had a lot of success with it in various industries&mdash;not just biomass. It&rsquo;s won a couple of design awards for safety products. Grandaw: From a product standpoint, it would be our SmartDS detection system. Most explosion suppression or isolation systems use pressure-activated explosion detectors to initiate explosion control. This is a detection method well proven for many decades. With the SmartDS system, we use a rate-of-pressure rise detection technology that is programmed to respond to explosive rates of pressure rise, thus minimizing false actuations due to process pressure issues. The system has a history buffer that provides graphical evidence of the pressure increases just prior to and during any event leading to a system discharge. This is a great investigation tool for determining that an incipient explosion has been suppressed, resulting in the post-event investigation focusing on corrective action to address the ignition source.&nbsp;&nbsp; Slaunwhite: At REMBE, one of our major shining achievements is the development of flameless venting technology for dust explosion venting, several decades ago with the Q-Rohr. This has led to our Q-Box flame arrestor and particulate retention device, a flameless explosion vent. The Q-Box is a versatile, economical and third-party tested and certified solution for safe indoor explosion protection in many industries, including food and wood processing. Peterson: One is a spark detector that has been on the market for about a year and a half. It can basically adapt whether there&rsquo;s light or not, and actually gets smart and adjusts to the light over time. So, if there&rsquo;s a hole in the duct work or a flap that opens up, historically, the sensor would just fire off. This one will get smart and realize there&rsquo;s a certain amount of light, and adjust to it. That type of detection obviously has a lot of benefits for anyone who has extraneous light. The other is GreCon IEM, an intelligent extinguishment system that we just came out with this year. It will monitor the wear of the nozzle and it will also monitor the flow. It helps with proactive maintenance. Wagoner: Our extinguishing turbine, the MXOne Firefighting Turbine, represents a new generation of stationary firefighting. The system has a 360-degree operating range and allows the application of water mist from a long, safe distance and with high accuracy. When extinguishing a fire with water mist, the water is atomized under high pressure, producing a dramatic increase of water surface which allows a greater efficiency in the absorption of heat. When water evaporates, its volume is increased many times over, which causes a cooling and suffocating effect on the fire. The volume of water consumed during the firefighting effort, as well as the consequential damage caused by the water, are extremely low. The control and direction of the extinguishing turbine can be done fully automatically upon detection by IR Flame Detectors, remotely by mobile devices or manually. Various stationary and mobile control variants can be implemented according to the operator's requirements. PMM: What aspect of fire and explosion protection could use improvement? Slaunwhite: In my opinion and observations, the most widespread shortfall regarding combustible dust explosion safety is the do-it-yourself approach to protection equipment with a &ldquo;good enough&rdquo; mentality. There are recognized standards for design, performance testing, application and reliability of explosion safety equipment that ensure the equipment will do its job if called upon. The nature of dust explosions is highly chaotic. As such, these standards use testing and calculations based on actual explosion testing to ensure reliable protection. In a high quantity of site inspections, especially in the wood industry, I have observed uncertified and undocumented explosion relief vents and isolation devices, often with visible deterioration. Unlike other fire safety system such as sprinklers, which must be designed and certified by an engineer with listed and approved components without question, dust explosion protection is too often under-designed with no accountability, using questionable equipment. The awareness and standards have certainly been evolving over the past few decades, as has much of industrial technology.&nbsp; &nbsp; Grandaw: Regular periodic inspections of fire and explosion protection systems. While it is true that these systems are designed for use in the challenging conditions found in industrial plants, if these protection systems are compromised due to lack of proper maintenance, process equipment damage, injury to personnel or worse can happen. Fire and explosion protection systems are like other process-related equipment, needing periodic inspections, and sometimes component replacement when compromised. Krbec: One of the major things that need to be improved is some of the training and awareness of protection systems themselves. A lot of that goes to the plant operations side. Much of the explosion and fire protection systems are not completely hands-off; they do require some understanding of how to operate and use them properly if you&rsquo;re doing certain types of process activity. That communication and training is still one of the big gaps we see. Peterson: One of the big challenges is that most everything in today&rsquo;s systems and facilities is all wired. There isn't a lot of wireless. Being able to move into some sort of cloud environment where we can go into a lot of different places and not have everything connected back to a system would certainly be extremely beneficial from a time, cost and maintenance perspective. Anything we can do to start connecting these pieces would be big plus. &nbsp; Wagoner: Owners or operators of a facility where materials determined to be combustible or explosible are present in an enclosure are responsible for obtaining a dust hazard analysis (DHA) in accordance with NFPA 652, Chapter 7. A DHA is a written document that is prepared by a qualified individual to identify specific hazards in the facility, and to provide prescriptive measures to be taken to address those identified hazards. The DHA is to be reviewed and updated every five years. Many facility owners are unaware of this requirement or have failed to take steps to have one conducted. It is widely believed that this is the first step in addressing the dangers of potential fires and explosions that are largely inherent in facilities that handle combustible dusts. Author:&nbsp; Keith Loria Contact:&nbsp; asimet@bbiinternational.com

2023/05/Feat2-Fire-Embers_16832945973758_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Fire-Embers_16832945973758_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Fire-Embers_16832945973758.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Grandaw_16832945974224.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Peterson_16832945974507.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Wagoner_16832945974773.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Slaunwhite_16832945975036.jpg

2023/05/Feat2-Krbec_16832945975369.jpg

Innovations in Fire & Explosion Protection

Southwest Colorado is home to a new pellet facility. In the small mountain town of Mancos, which is dubbed the “Gateway to Mesa Verde” due to its proximity to the national park, construction of the plant was ultimately prompted by COVID-19. The result of research, innovation and creativity, the facility turns a waste product with no immediate end market into a valuable coproduct. Mesa Verda Pellets is now one of three associated businesses including Aspen Wall Wood, a lumber mill that specializes in aspen paneling, and Aspen Wood Products, which makes a wood fiber product called excelsior, or wood wool. CEO and President David Sitton purchased Aspen Wood Products in 2018—formerly Western Excelsior Plant—after it experienced a catastrophic fire the year prior, and rebuilt it. The new pellet mill, colocated with the wood fiber facility in Mancos, is a beneficial solution for wood waste generated at both Aspen Wood Products and Aspen Wall Wood. Sitton explains that this project has been in the works for at least two years. “We anticipate after we get up and running that we will be pretty much a zero-waste operation overall, utilizing all parts of the tree,” he says.&nbsp; Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company's sawdust found a market as horse bedding at local racetracks, Sitton explains. Unfortunately, the racetracks shut down during the pandemic and failed to recover, leaving the sawdust and wood waste without a place to go—and it began to build up.&nbsp;&nbsp; When Sitton and his team began considering possible solutions, pellets were not their first resort, but after a fire broke out at the lumber mill—burning 20,000 cords of waste wood—they decided to change course. This led to the acquisition of a mill from a local pellet plant that had also shut down during the pandemic, and company leadership decided to pursue wood pellet production. Through conversations with Colorado Mill Equipment, however, it was discovered that it was actually a grain pellet mill.&nbsp; The company continued conversations with CME to determine what was needed to make wood pellets. “We then made the decision to go [to] a much bigger scale than what we had initially looked at, and we felt like there was opportunity in the market regionally for us with pellets,” Sitton says. “And so … it kind of morphed over a little bit of time.” The feedstock used for the pellets will include sawdust from Aspen Wood Products and Aspen Wall Wood, and products other than logs (POL) including spruce, fir and ponderosa pine that are not suitable for wood fiber or lumber products. “Because we have to harvest that timber, we have log decks that [make us] wonder, ‘What are we going to do with this?’” Sitton says. “We will begin utilizing all of that timber—chipping and drying—and also turning it into pellets. Our pellet operation is a way to utlize our waste and logs that we kind of were struggling [to know what to do with].” Aspen Wood Products and Aspen Wall Wood primarily source their feedstocks from public lands, including the San Juan National Forest, Colorado state lands, Utah state lands, northern New Mexico andU.S. State Forest Service lands, along with some sourcing from private ranches.&nbsp; All of the pellet feedstock will be waste wood from Aspen Wood Products process, Sitton explains. MVP will not purchase any sawdust or chips from other sources. Initially, the pellets will only be produced with aspen wood. In the long-term, however, Sitton and his team intend to use POL as well, to create a pellet that blends a variety of wood types. The plant will annually produce 18,000 tons of pellets on a single shift, pushing 30,000 tons on a double shift once markets develop, Sitton explains. Plant Specs Building the facility itself required innovation and a blend of new and reused components. MVP uses three pellet mills from Colorado Mill Equipment. Rated at two tons an hour each, the mills are capable of producing six tons per hour “to start with at least,” Sitton explains. The cooling tower, grinder and cooling system were also purchased new from CME.&nbsp; Dust collection and fire suppression systems did not need to be bought new due to the fact that Aspen Wood Products already had those installed. “Because of the other products we make in our plant, we already had dust collection and fire suppression in place, both in the building and then for collection of dust off of the other systems that we have in place,” he says. “So, we just extended that and right-sized it for wood pellets.” The material moving systems and conveying systems in the pellet facility were built in-house and made out of repurposed materials, due to difficulties in attaining new parts because of supply chain delays. “We’re a pretty typical sawmill in that we reuse equipment, and we have to fabricate and manufacture lots of equipment that we normally use on a daily basis anyway—it’s kind of in our DNA,” Sitton says. He and his team took elements such as motors, motor controls and gear boxes used in their milling system and repurposed them for the pellet line.&nbsp; MVP is a member of the Pellet Fuels Institute and is in the process of getting their pellets certified with PFI’s Quality Mark, which, according to PFI, indicates pellet producers who receive regular third-party plant inspections and lab testing. Startup Challenges As of late March, MVP was still in the process of startup. Sitton explains that there has been some problem-solving to get the plant running properly. Some of the challenges they have been facing with startup include supply chain difficulties, material handling and feedstock moisture. “When we started, we anticipated that making pellets was more of a science than an art, but we’re finding that it may be more art than science,” Sitton says. The primary feedstock MVP currently uses is aspen waste wood, and one of aspen’s unique qualities is its highly absorptive nature. This quality is great for some of the products Aspen Wood Products makes, including aspen A/C pads that absorb water for air cooling and erosion control products. “By nature, it absorbs and releases moisture, so part of our challenge is that we’re having to remove moisture to be able to make a pellet that’s quality,” Sitton says, explaining that moisture degrades the material’s size after it’s ground, negatively impacting the quality of the final product. He and his team are working to resolve the issue by installing a drying system to keep the aspen at a consistent entry moisture level.&nbsp; MVP was originally planning on commissioning in summer 2022, but supply chain issues delayed startup until early April 2023. These bottlenecks made it difficult to acquire a variety of components, particularly electrical and plastics.&nbsp; The material moving system has been the most challenging element of the facility, Sitton explains. The first day the plant was started up, he and his team discovered the material moving system was not working properly. “We had to modify our vents to handle the material better, so that took us a couple of weeks by the time we got parts, motors and bearings, and all the stuff that it required,” he says. The material handling needed for a pellet mill is different than what Aspen Wood Products and Aspen Wall Wood normally use. “We’ve never really ground sawdust,” Sitton says. “We’ve never really moved fine material like that. So, material handling, material moving, specifically for pellets, is [a] different process than we’re accustomed to.” Phase two of the project will be introducing a grinding system that can handle POL into their system. “We peel our logs today to make our products, so we’ve got peeled log decks waiting to make pellets,” Sitton explains. These other wood types would be added to the aspen already in the process and be used to make blended or non-aspen pellets.&nbsp; Markets and Benefits MVP has found a market for both the heating pellets and animal bedding pellets locally, and plans to eventually produce both products. Aspen Wood Products currently sells bagged shavings for livestock and pet stores, Sitton explains. “Being a part of those markets already, we intend and expect to begin making a bedding pellet maybe as much of a focus for us as heating pellets are,” he says. “Only yet to be seen is what the markets do as far as getting into business. We are working on labeling, bagging and all of that … specifically for animal bedding—those pellets will be purely aspen pellets.” Down the road, Sitton hopes to also start making cat litter.&nbsp; As production commences, Sitton finds it rewarding to see all of the sawdust going directly into the pellet line and being turned into a product rather than waste wood. “We’re real tickled about the ability to make our operation a lot more efficient, by having the pellet mills in place,” he says. “And it’s cool to see the pellets actually coming out of the machines turning sawdust—which has always been a challenge for any sawmill—into a product like this. It’s a thing that we really appreciate.” Author: Katie Schroeder Katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com

2023-05-16 - Mountain of Ambition (Biomass Magazine)

2023/05/Feat1-MtnForest_16832948184367_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat1-MtnForest_16832948184367_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Feat1-MtnForest_16832948184367.jpg

Colorado Milling Equipment assisted Aspen Wood Products in determining the right mill to fit the pellet plant's needs. 

2023/05/Feat1-Photo1_16832948184708.jpg

The Aspen Wood Products team used innovation and creativity to fabricate parts of the pellet process by repurposing parts the company had on hand. 

2023/05/Feat1-Photo3_16832948185007.jpg

Once all three mills come online, the pellet facility will be capable of producing 18,000 tons annually on a single shift.

2023/05/Feat1-Photo2_1683294818532.jpg

Mesa Verde Pellet's parent company, Aspen Wood Wall, manufactures excelsior, a naturally strong, durable fiber made from aspen logs that is used for
erosion and sediment control, packing and shipping, and a wide variety of applications.

2023/05/Feat1-Photo4_16832948185628.jpg

A Colorado wood product company has implemented heating pellet production to make use of its process waste. Southwest Colorado is home to a new pellet facility. In the small mountain town of Mancos, which is dubbed the “Gateway to Mesa Verde” due to its proximity to the national park, construction of the plant was ultimately prompted by COVID-19.

Mountain of Ambition

Season 2, Episode 6, of the Biomass Magazine podcast featured Brandi Colander, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer (CSO) at Enviva. Colander assumed the role in January, and is charged with maintaining and enhancing Enviva&rsquo;s leadership in sustainability and environmental stewardship. Colander is armed with extensive policy, sustainability and external affairs experience, most recently leading the enterprise sustainability portfolio at WestRock as chief sustainability officer. Colander holds a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in urban and environmental planning from the University of Virginia, a Juris Doctor from Vermont Law School, and a master&rsquo;s degree in environmental management from Yale University. Colander joined the podcast to discuss the current landscape of the biomass energy industry, misconceptions, trends and more. PMM: In our industry, there are a lot of misconceptions. What do you wish people understood about biomass? Colander: I would start with tree and forest management practices. I encourage people to look outside of Enviva to understand those, and look at academic institutions, organizations like the U.S. Endowment &hellip; Preferred by Nature &hellip; there are many organizations, like the Society of American Foresters&mdash;so many that don&rsquo;t have a business model around advocacy; their business model is around conversation. If you really want to understand the sustainability of technologies that require natural resources, you have to get to know the conservation organizations that do this work every day. And I say this having actually spent time in advocacy organizations and have tremendous respect for them. I am also fully appreciative of the work conservation organizations do with businesses to support scaled opportunities to provide resources to customers in a thoughtful way ... I would go back to early education around forest management practices. If you look around the country with what&rsquo;s happening with wildfire season, it&rsquo;s devastating. A lot of that is because we have unmanaged forests. There is brush that&rsquo;s easy to catch flame, and now it&rsquo;s completely uncontrolled. One of the things that&rsquo;s exciting about a company like Enviva is that we have effectively created a market for these resources in the forest that includes brush, slash, trees that are small in a diameter and would have absolutely no utility at a sawmill ... those are now resources that, instead of getting burned in open fields, now actually have another life and currency. It's helpful for forest management practices, and it&rsquo;s also incredibly helpful at a time when the geopolitical landscape has, in a really devastating way, changed the energy needs abroad. PMM: For those interested in this space that you&rsquo;re in, or for current CSOs, do you have any thoughts or advice to offer them? Colander: I think we&rsquo;re still searching for community. [In order to] stay current, there is a support system that&rsquo;s necessary for CSOs, because frankly, people are passionate about the issues and believe it gives them a license to think they know what you should be doing all the time&mdash;perhaps not realizing that you&rsquo;ve been thoughtful about your role, that you have a remit, and that there is accountability around that remit. And I think there is some creep around mission with sustainability practitioners that can be really challenging. Sometimes, you&rsquo;re fitting the mold of a processor, sometimes you&rsquo;re shaping comms and narratives ... I think most CSOs would be well served to figure out what their support system looks like to develop their community. I would also encourage them to find and very actively seek opportunities to stay engaged in the messaging and the conversations about the work they&rsquo;re shepherding forward. These things change a lot, but the core tenants don&rsquo;t. I think staying engaged and relevant however you see fit is one thing that&rsquo;s important to do because you want to show that your company is considerate of change&mdash;a lot of this does deal with change&mdash;but is not willing to change so much that you can&rsquo;t count on commitments that are made, relationships that are established, etcetera ... At the end of the day, what you&rsquo;re really trying to do is better align those negative externalities, make sure they&rsquo;re adequately accounted for, build credibility, and the last thing I think is really important is developing data management systems that create good guiderails for your company to continue to operate accordingly. Listen to the rest of the podcast: www.biomassmagazine.com/pages/podcasts Don't Miss an Episode: Biomass Magazine&rsquo;s podcast series: S2 E6 Setting the Standard: Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship Featuring Brandi Colander, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer S2 E7 Maximizing Anaerobic Digester Performance Featuring Will Charlton, CEO of Valkyrie Analytics Inc.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; UPCOMING S2 E8 Sam Schutte, CEO, Synthica Energy Interested in being a guest? Contact Danielle Piekarski at dpiekarski@bbiinternational.com

2023/05/Brandi-Colander_16832950207288_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Brandi-Colander_16832950207288_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Brandi-Colander_16832950207288.jpg

Season 2, Episode 6, of the Biomass Magazine podcast featured Brandi Colander, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer (CSO) at Enviva. 

Podcast Preview with Brandi Colander, Enviva

The U.S. EIA released its January Monthly Densified Biomass Fuel Report on April 3, with data collection including 79 operating manufacturers of densified biomass fuel. These manufacturers had a total production capacity of 13.05 million tons per year and collectively had an equivalent of 2,544 full-time employees. In January 2023, the monthly respondents purchased 960,000 tons of raw biomass feedstock, compared to 1.55 million tons in January 2022. Production was at 910,000 tons of densified biomass fuel, up approximately 120,00 tons from the same month of last year. Sales were at 650,000 tons of densified biomass fuel, down from 740,000 tons in January 2022. Domestic sales in January 2023 totaled 150,000 tons and averaged $210.94 per ton, compared to 110,000 tons at $195.19 per ton last year. Exports in January 2023 were approximately 500,000 tons averaging $191.31 per ton, down from 630,000 tons but up in price from $168.38 per ton from the same reporting period last year. The EIA noted that some totals in the report may be relatively smaller for January, as the agency withheld some values to avoid disclosing individual company data. The European Commission on March 30 reached a provisional agreement on the Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III) that aims to increase targets for renewable energy. It also includes provisions to strengthen bioenergy sustainability criteria. The provisional agreement raises the European Union&rsquo;s binding renewable target for 2030 to a minimum of 42.5%, up from the current target of 32%. Negotiators also agreed that the EU would aim to reach 45% renewables by 2030. For bioenergy, the agreement strengthens bioenergy sustainability criteria in line with the increased climate and biodiversity ambition of the European Green Deal. In the future, the criteria will apply to smaller installations of 7.5 MW or above, rather than the 20 MW threshold in place as part of the current directive. The agreement includes provisions to ensure that forest biomass is not sourced from certain areas with a particular importance from a biodiversity and carbon stock perspective. In addition, wood biomass will have to be used according to its highest economic and environmental added value. Financial support will be banned for energy produced through the use of saw logs, veneer logs, industrial grade roundwood, and stumps and roots. The U.S. Industrial Pellet Association is welcoming the agreement, calling it &ldquo;positive for the climate, forests and the continued contributions of sustainable biomass toward supporting both.&rdquo; Enviva Inc. issued a statement on March 16 thanking the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality&rsquo;s permit board for the unanimous approval of the construction permit of Enviva&rsquo;s Bond, Mississippi, facility. According to Enviva, the permit was issued after an extensive review process that included a public comment period, a well-attended public hearing and numerous public comments. The proposed facility will be designed to produce approximately 1.2 million oven dried tons per year of wood pellets and will be equipped with maximum achievable control technologies to curb emissions to the greatest extent possible. In a subsequent announcement, Enviva said that John Keppler, who temporarily stepped down as chairman and CEO to address a health condition, has returned to the company as executive chairman. Thomas Meth will continue to lead the company as president and CEO, and the company&rsquo;s interim chairman, Ralph Alexander, will transition to the role of lead independent director of the board. The U.S. exported 632,043 metric tons (MT) of wood pellets in February, down from 637,518 MT the previous month, but up nearly 3,400 tons from February 2022, according to data released by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service on April 5. The U.S. exported wood pellets to approximately 12 countries in February. The U.K. was the top destination for U.S. wood pellet exports at 405,390 MT, followed by the Netherlands at 144,394 MT and Japan at 76,895 MT. The value of U.S. wood pellet exports reached $117.99 million in February, up from both $114.66 million in January and $82.71 million in February of last year. Total U.S. wood pellet exports for the first two months of this year reached 1.27 million MT at a value of $232.65 million, compared to 1.28 million MT exported during the same period of last year at $185.36 million. As part of its goal of investing in rural America, the Biden-Harris Administration announced on April 6 that $33.7 million from President Biden&rsquo;s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will fund projects to strengthen the wood products economy and promote sustainable forest management. The program is focused on forest restoration byproducts such as small-diameter timber and woody biomass with little market value, and provides $29 million to establish, reopen or improve businesses that purchase and process these byproducts from projects on federally managed lands or tribal lands at risk of wildfire, insects and disease. More than two-thirds of the funded businesses will use byproducts from forest restoration and hazardous fuels reduction on landscapes identified in the Forest Service&rsquo;s Wildfire Crisis Strategy. The USDA on March 31 announced more than $1 billion in grants available under the Rural Energy for American Program to help agricultural producers and rural small businesses invest in renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements. The funding was allocated by the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides more than $2 billion in funds for the REAP program through 2031. The USDA is offering $1.055 billion through six quarterly competitions that will be held throughout the remainder of 2023 and 2024. The REAP program was first created by the 2008 Farm Bill to award grants and loan guarantees to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements to their operations. Eligible renewable energy systems include renewable biomass, including anaerobic digesters and biogas, wind, solar, small hydro-electric, ocean, geothermal or hydrogen derived from any of those sources. According to the USDA, numerous changes are being implemented to the program with inclusion of funds from the IRA. Changes include increasing the maximum grant size from $250,000 to $500,000 for energy efficiency products, and from $500,000 to $1 million for renewable energy systems. The agency is also raising the federal share to 50% for all energy efficiency projects, all zero-emission renewable energy projects, and all projects in designated energy communities and projects submitted by eligible tribal entities. All other projects are eligible to apply for grants of up to 25% of the total project costs. The USDA is also taking action to ensure that small projects have a fair opportunity to compete for funding by setting aside at least 20% of the available funds until June 30 of each year for grant requests of $20,000 or less, including the grant portion of a combined grant and loan guarantee request. The United Kingdom Pellet Council recently released a notice indicating that the government's decision last year to temporarily suspend the need for large U.K. users to only use ENplus A1 standard wood pellets will come to an end on Nov. 22. The suspension was part of a&nbsp;&nbsp; complete ban of all wood products (including pellets) coming from Russia since April 2022, which removed up to 3.5 million metric tons of pellets from the European supply chain.

2023/05/EIA_16832953033205_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/EIA_16832953033205_thumb.jpg

2023/05/EIA_16832953033205.jpg

Pellet News Roundup

In the past year and a half, the Pellet Fuels Institute has found itself in the vexing position of testifying before two different committees within the International Code Council, defending the renewable nature of wood pellets for home heating. On its homepage, the ICC says it is a &ldquo;leading global source of model codes and standards and building safety solutions that include product evaluation, accreditation, technology, training and certification.&rdquo;&nbsp; ICC&rsquo;s model codes serve as a reference point for municipal, state and federal regulators in the development of their own building codes. The council makes recommendations on the items you would expect to fall within the purview of commercial and residential building codes, such as guidance on the R-value requirements of insulation to the moisture barrier requirements in home foundations. Increasingly, however, the ICC is pushing beyond these traditional areas of focus and ratcheting up its energy efficiency and sustainability efforts with an eye on driving carbon out of the world&rsquo;s residential and commercial building stock. While those ambitions are honorable and the work is important, the opportunity to get some things wrong, particularly the treatment of wood heating within the International Energy Conservation Code, is very real. Specifically, the question before both the commercial and residential committees within the International Energy Conversation Code is what kinds of biomass-derived energy would be considered renewable for new residential construction. Increasingly, devisers of building codes are looking for guidance on how to include renewable requirements in their code structure for new construction. It isn&rsquo;t difficult to imagine communities requiring a certain minimum level of renewable energy production and consumption to be built into the home. To support that, there must be a list of technologies that do and do not qualify. The code currently identifies &ldquo;Energy derived from solar radiation, wind, waves, tides, landfill gas, biogas, biomass or extracted from hot fluid or steam heated within the earth&rdquo; as technologies that can be considered. Believing that &ldquo;biomass&rdquo; was far too broad, the New Buildings Institute, a committee member, introduced new language to further clarify biomass and exclude wood and wood-derived fuels. Specifically, NBI suggested revised language, changing &ldquo;biomass&rdquo; to &ldquo;biomass waste&rdquo; adding a definition of biomass waste that stated, &ldquo;but excludes wood and wood-derived fuels (including black liquor) biofuels, feedstock, biodiesel and fuel ethanol.&rdquo; With the adoption of this language, anyone using the ICC&rsquo;s International Energy Efficiency Code as a reference for their own renewable energy requirements in building codes would similarly exclude wood and wood pellet heating. The Pellet Fuels Institute cannot let language like this be forwarded for consideration without objection. The motivations for the introduction of this amended language stems from a misunderstanding of the domestic wood pellet industry mixed with with a heaping teaspoon of the anti-biomass rhetoric the industry has been fighting for years. During a committee hearing, proponents of the language stated that &ldquo;we need to stop burning things for energy&rdquo; and that the wood pellet sector was resulting in &ldquo;deforestation in the Southeast [U.S.].&rdquo; The deforestation assertion has been and will continue to be disproven by growth versus drain data. Moreover, wood pellets for home heating are not manufactured using softwood fiber from the Southeast, but rather, from hardwood residues from sawmills and secondary wood product manufacturing sites all across this country. The Pellet Fuels Institute made this point and numerous others in public comment forums and will continue to do so on behalf of its manufacturers. Most bothersome of all is that this proposed language and definition welcomes biomass energy sources that aren&rsquo;t even relevant for a home&mdash;like sludge waste and agricultural crop byproducts&mdash;but slams the door on a proven (and yes, renewable) technology that millions of American households are using successfully today. The good news is this proposed language was rejected, and before it was it galvanized, the impressive ad-hoc group of wood heat defenders who won this battle recognized that the effort to defend wood heating as a renewable and sustainable technology will be a much longer campaign, indeed. Author: Tim Portz Executive Director, Pellet Fuels Institute tim@pelletheat.org www.pelletheat.org

2023/05/Portz_Tim_16832953770649_largethumb.jpg

2023/05/Portz_Tim_16832953770649_thumb.jpg

2023/05/Portz_Tim_16832953770649.jpg

In the past year and a half, the Pellet Fuels Institute has found itself in the vexing position of testifying before two different committees within the International Code Council, defending the renewable nature of wood pellets for home heating. 

Pellet Mill Magazine Issue 2

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

Back on the ENplus Track

Insurance, Incident Prevention and Global Market Constraints

Filling a 2 Million-Ton Hole

UK Wood Pellet Market Open to New Supply Opportunities

Codifying Wood Pellet Heating's Renewable Bona Fides

Featured

Ensuring Better Insurance Rates

World of Pellets

From the History Books

Innovations in Fire & Explosion Protection

Mountain of Ambition

Contributions

2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report

Q&A: Biomass and Bulk Powder Flow Testing

Combustible Dust Hazards and Abatement Techniques

Fiber Optic Linear Heat Detection: Enhanced Fire, Hotspot Sensing

Departments

Vast Experience in Fire and Explosion Hazards

Podcast Preview with Brandi Colander, Enviva

Pellet Mill Magazine Issue 2.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Business Briefs

Business Briefs

Columns

Back on the ENplus Track

Insurance, Incident Prevention and Global Market Constraints

Filling a 2 Million-Ton Hole

UK Wood Pellet Market Open to New Supply Opportunities

Codifying Wood Pellet Heating's Renewable Bona Fides

Featured

Ensuring Better Insurance Rates

World of Pellets

From the History Books

Innovations in Fire & Explosion Protection

Mountain of Ambition

Contributions

2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report

Q&A: Biomass and Bulk Powder Flow Testing

Combustible Dust Hazards and Abatement Techniques

Fiber Optic Linear Heat Detection: Enhanced Fire, Hotspot Sensing

Departments

Vast Experience in Fire and Explosion Hazards

Podcast Preview with Brandi Colander, Enviva

Pellet Mill Magazine Issue 2