AEG, GRP form joint venture to install CoalSwitch plants

By Erin Voegele | October 19, 2018

London-based Active Energy group recently announced it has entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement with U.S.-based Georgia Renewable Power LLC for the installation of CoalSwitch facilities. GRP currently operates a bioenergy facility in North Carolina and is developing two projects in Georgia.

Information released by AEG indicates the JV, named Active Energy Renewable Power LLC, has been incorporated in North Carolina and owned equally by AEG and GRP. The JV will install CoalSwitch manufacturing facilities at GRP’s three power plant sites in North Carolina and Georgia.

AEG’s CoalSwitch process converts low-value forestry and agricultural waste into high calorific, high-bulk-density biomass pellets via a multistep process.

 The first installation will be at GRP’s Lumberton, North Carolina, facility. The plant will utilize some existing facilities and equipment currently owned by AEG and located at its Utah site. The companies aim to commence work immediately, and have a commercial facility installed by the end of the year. During the first half of the year, the JV plans to double the production of CoalSwitch at the Lumberton facility to 10 metric tons per hour.

Following the initial installation at the Lumberton plant, the JV plans to add CoalSwitch facilities to GRP’s biomass-to-energy plant locations in Carnesville, Georgia, and Colbert, Georgia. GRP’s Georgia plants are currently under construction and are expected to be commissioned by mid-2019. The JV plans to install CoalSwitch facilities at each site within the next three years, each with a production capacity of 25 metric tons per hour. Depending on feedstock availability and market opportunity, the JV said it could expand CoalSwitch capacity in the region to 100 metric tons per hour in the future.

In addition to the installation of CoalSwitch plants at the three GRP locations, the joint venture also plans to create LitterSwitch pellets, a beneficiated pelletized fuel derived from poultry litter, and develop several coproducts. In addition, the JV, through AEG, plans to develop a commercial market for high-density baled dry wood chips.