Wood Bio Show Covers Forest To Furnace

Going into the seventh Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, organizers said the lineup of keynote speakers, on paper, was the best in the history of the event. The real thing was even better. Speakers from their wide-ranging perspectives provided a crystal clear picture of how the wood-based energy industry shapes up today and what to expect moving forward.

The avalanche of insightful information prompted one attendee to comment, “You never get to hear so many important people from the leading companies talk at one event, but we heard them here.”

“Here” was the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Grand Ballroom North, which is where the event has been held since its inception, and this time during March 29-30. Several “big picture” keynote talks were interspersed between two-dozen technical presentations on subjects such as Fire Prevention, Raw Materials, Process Optimization and Developing Technologies.

And when not enjoying the presentations, the attendees were able to comb the exhibit area, where 50 leading equipment and technology companies set up shop.

“The mood was fantastic,” comments Jessica Johnson, managing editor of Wood Bioenergy magazine, which hosted the event. “I think it was a combination of people so looking forward to getting out in-person and the tremendous momentum of the wood-based energy industry.”

As evidenced in the keynote talks, momentum is not only the result of a growing number of production-related projects, but also due to the increasing awareness of the environmental benefits that wood-based energy brings to discussions on carbon emissions, carbon capture, climate change and forestland management.

Novo Power

Or perhaps a better term is “forest restoration,” which was addressed by lead-off keynoter Brad Worsley, president of the biomass-fueled 27 MW power generation operation, Novo Power, based in Snowflake, Ariz. and the only industrial scale such facility in the state. Worsley has had a bird’s eye view of the federal government’s evolving stance on biomass as part of the forest restoration equation.

Worsley reviewed the facility’s history, starting up in 2008 but succumbing to bankruptcy in 2010, before selling to Novo Power in 2013. The facility has come on strong in recent years, with 341 uptime days last year.

Meanwhile, as Worsley noted, due to increasingly catastrophic fires on Arizona’s national forests and a general deteriorating condition of those forests, the Forest Service came up with the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) and initially contracted with a company to mechanically thin 300,000 acres over 10 years, but the project fell extremely short of the stated objectives and a major reason was due to the limited capacity for biomass disposal.

The Forest Service then sought out proposals to restore and utilize more than 500,000 acres over a 20- year contract. Two of the proposals that came in included a sawmill and an oriented strandboard mill, but the Forest Service cancelled the process last September, fearing it would potentially be too risky financially for any one company and possibly for the agency itself. Both of the proposals included Novo Power as part of the solution for biomass disposal and utilization, noted Worsley, who is a co-chair of the 4FRI Stakeholder Group.

Earlier this year the Forest Service announced a national effort to increase forest restoration, driven in part by the Arizona situation. And as recently as March, the agency released its latest Arizona 4FRI preferred plan, which would implement restoration activities on 991,000 acres over 20 years, including a combination of mechanical thinning and prescribed burning.

The plan also emphasizes the role of the forest products industry and specifically logging firms, sawmills and biomass facilities in northern Arizona.

At the same time, Novo Power has proven that biomass power is a well-vetted technology.

Worsley noted that the Forest Service is at a tipping point, as the increased cost of fighting forest fires each year has led to a practice called “fire borrowing” which robs Forest Service budgets set aside for restoration in order to fund the cost of fighting wildfires.

“With the realities of changing climates, the current pace and scale of wildfire is unsustainable,” Worsley added.

Enviva

Thomas Meth, chief commercial officer and cofounder of Enviva, spoke about recent developments with the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, including a new plant in operation at Lucedale, Miss. and one beginning construction in Epes, Ala. (And shortly after the conference ended, Enviva announced it will build a plant in Bond, Miss.) These plants will contribute to the company’s goal of more than doubling its production capacity over the next five years to 13 million metric tons annually.

Meth said everything Enviva does has a purposeful foundation that includes the displacement of coal and fossil fuels, enhancing forest growth and stewardship, and fighting climate change. Meth said Enviva has displaced 16 million metric tons of coal and avoided 31 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Meth said that as of 2025 and moving forward, wood pellets will be cheaper than fossil fuels (including fuel and carbon cost) in Europe; and while replacing oil with biomass requires incremental processing, the latter adds substantial value to be economical. Biomass also compares favorably with other renewables when you consider system costs. And bioenergy with carbon capture storage (BECCS) can deliver large amounts of negative emissions with geological storage, without land use change and at moderate cost.

Meth addressed a range of potential applications including biorefineries, fertilizer, green steel and aggregates, industrial chemicals, process heat, health products, and fuels.

Drax Group

The United Kingdom-based company, Drax Group, which is largely responsible for the beginning of the modern era wood bioenergy industry, was represented by Matt White, executive vice president, North America Pellet Operations.

White noted Drax has undergone a fundamental transition in the past year, including the acquisition of Canada’s Pinnacle Renewable Energy, positioning Drax as the world’s leading sustainable biomass generation and supply business with assets in North America and the UK, and customers in Europe and the Far East.

At the end of last year Drax revealed a new set of strategic objectives, “underpinned by our belief that biomass will play an increasingly critical role as the world seeks to reduce its emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.”

Drax believes the global market for sustainable biomass will grow significantly, which will create growth opportunities to sell pellets to customers in Asia and Europe, and that Drax is well positioned to meet that demand with up to 17 pellet plants and capacity of 4-5 million metric tons and $4 billion in long-term contracted sales to third parties.

Recognizing that a decarbonized power system will be the backbone of a net-zero economy, Drax remains on track to complement the growth of wind and solar with a portfolio of renewable low carbon power that is dispatchable and reliable, White said.

White noted that Japan is accelerating its coal closure— 7GW will come offline by 2030—with biomass use doubling over that time. In the EU, the European Commission predicts biomass use to expand by as much as 70% to meet demand for industrial decarbonization. White also noted that the U.S. long-term strategy set out by the administration recognizes for the first time the need for negative emissions to meet net carbon neutrality.

While obviously continuing to feed its own power generation complex in the UK, Drax intends to double annual sales to third parties from 2Mt to 4Mt by 2030, while increasing annual pellet production capacity from 4Mt to 8Mt. He said they have 1Mt of that growth already “in-flight” with two more plants currently commissioning, and an additional 3Mt will come as they develop new-build opportunities for large plants and satellites primarily in North America.

White said with the first phase of BECCS at its UK operations, Drax will permanently remove at least 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, and that by 2030 Drax could deliver more than 15% of the negative emissions the UK requires from BECCS to achieve Net Zero. “The Drax Power Station will become the world’s largest carbon removal project globally, completing its journey from what was once Western Europe’s largest source of carbon,” White said.

“There is enough sustainable biomass globally for BECCS to provide up to 4GT of negative emissions a year. We have also begun our journey of exploring where next we can optimally deploy BECCS technology, including in North America,” White said, with Drax targeting 4Mt of negative emissions outside the UK.

As for the Drax Power Station, White noted they have reduced CO2 intensity by more than 90% since 1990 by displacing coal with bioenergy. White emphasized Drax’s procurement from sustainably managed forests, and that in addition to certification schemes, Drax places additional processes of checks and audits to ensure compliance. “We also commission studies which go back to the forests we source from which shows that carbon stocks in the U.S. Southeast have increased by over 90% since 1950.”

U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities

Pete Madden, who previously spoke at the Wood Bio Conference when he was president and CEO of Drax Biomass NA, returned this time as president and CEO of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

Madden emphasized the Endowment’s mission to collaborate with public and private sector partners to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest- reliant communities. It was established in 2006 at the request of the U.S. and Canadian governments in accordance with the Softwood Lumber Agreement.

The group manages a perpetual endowment of $270 million and also raises funds to make grants, loans and capital investments. It has awarded more than 200 grants, committing $93 million of its own funds to leverage $875 million from partners. “When possible, we favor market-based approaches to drive outcomes,” Madden said.

Given increasing challenges with catastrophic wildfires, drinking water sources and a high proportion of smaller diameter material from private and federal lands that do not have a market, the Endowment began to focus on wood-to-energy as a priority and as a solution.

As an example, in 2018 the Endowment approved the development of the Restoration Fuels facility in John Day, Ore., intended as a commercial demonstration facility to prove production of torrefied fuel, facilitate large-scale customer trials, and prove out cost structures of integrating this product with existing mills to provide markets for sawmill residuals and small diameter thinnings from restoration and other forest treatments.

Today Restoration Fuels, LLC is a 100% subsidiary of the Endowment, with initial production of 30,000 TPY and expanding up to 100,000 TPY. Construction of the $25 million project, which sources biomass from nearby national forests, was completed in 2021.

It features a range of proven technologies, including low-temp belt drying , a rotary kiln reactor equipped with burner and economizer to recycle thermal energy for the torrefaction and drying process, densification with CF Nielsen briquetting presses and an integrated, centralized control system.

When the pandemic hit, the facility was about 75% complete, and so the project team had to overcome labor shortages, supply chain delays and various other pandemic issues. “The Endowment and our Board stuck with our vision for this project, and we have begun to produce torrefied fuel, biochar and other high-carbon products,” Madden said.

Strategic Biofuels

Stan Parton, VP Forestry at Strategic Biofuels, and well known for his prolonged career with The Parton Group and Forest2Market, addressed one of the more interesting projects in the works—Strategic Biofuels’ $2.507 billion Louisiana Green Fuels project at the Port of Columbia, La.

Parton noted it incorporates proven and leading edge technologies including CCS, “which makes this project the most environmentally beneficial fuels project in the world. But importantly, it converts those environmental benefits into real economic returns.”

The company describes the project not as a liquid biofuels project, but rather a CCS project based on the production of renewable diesel and biopower, he said.

In the past 18 months it has gone from concept initiation into final plant design. Significant investment has been raised. Parton said capital has been spent to advance the project by “de-risking” critical aspects of the project.

The operation will use RFS (Renewable Fuel Standard) compliant forest feedstock for the biorefinery (a little less than 1 mm green t/y), which will produce 33 million gallons per year of diesel (88%) and naphtha (12%). The diesel will be an RFS qualified 2nd generation fuel capturing RIN (Renewable Identification Number) credits.

The 85 MW of electricity required to operate the plant will be from on-site biomass power—71 MW from wood fuel and 14 MW from refinery system generated excess steam.

The environmental and commercial benefit comes from CCS capturing 1.25 million metric tons per year of CO2, equivalent to the emissions from approximately 300,000 vehicles. The refinery generated CO2 is separated using a Rectisol separation system and the biopower plant generated CO2 is separated using an Amine separation system.

The site was selected for two reasons: the proper geological structure for CCS and the availability of supply of biomass feedstocks. The region has recently experienced reduction in demand for thinnings materials associated with the closure of several areas pulp mills. The growth-to-removal ratios and thereby sustainability of supply is very positive with an annual excess of pine of 43% and 73% when considering all wood types.

Because CCS is a cornerstone of the project and its economic returns, last year, only months into the project, an over one-mile deep test well was bored and strata samples collected. The samples confirmed that upper impermeable confining layers exist over lower porous sequestration layers.

Water injection tests were conducted to confirm the ability of the sequestration layer to receive the deposit. The test revealed that the capacity of the layer is an order of magnitude over what is required. It is expected that over the 30-year life of the project, the CO2 bloom will be confined to less than two miles from the injection site.

To establish environmental benefit, renewable diesels are compared to fossil diesel which is given the benchmark Carbon Intensity score (CI) of 100. The carbon emissions associated with biofuels are calculated and expressed comparatively as their CI. A fuel that has a CI of 50 has half the emissions associated with using fossil diesel.

First generation renewable diesel, primarily derived from fats and oils, have CIs which range from 20 to the low 50s. The CI associated with woody biomass biodiesel is between 11 and 25. The RIN values are fixed by the fuel and process used to produce the fuel, i.e. the RIN classification. Unlike the EPA RINs, the LCFS (low carbon fuel standard) values can receive enhanced credits by actions which reduce the CI. “When we incorporated using grid green power and CCS of the biorefinery CO2, the CI score dropped to -101,” Parton said. “We then determined that it was economically viable to generate our own green power on site and capture its carbon emissions even considering the 20 MW required to operate the high pressure CCS compressors. This dropped the CI to -278, we think the lowest CI in the world. In addition to the RIN value, the LCFS credits add an additional economic benefit of almost $12 per gallon.”

Using the ARGUS forecast for RIN and LCFS values and diesel and naphtha values, and related revenue streams and credits, the venture should result in a good return for investors after covering the $2+ billion plant cost, Parton said.

Parton credited Dr. Paul Schubert, founder and CEO of Strategic Biofuels, for advancing the project so quickly.

“He has led the assembly of all required and top quality companies in their respective areas of responsibility of the project. The companies are cooperating as a team, meeting their respective timeline targets driven by the development process gates of FEL1 and FEL2 and now FEL3. We expect FEL3 final design and final cost completion by early 2023 with FID shortly thereafter. We will then enter into an approximate two-year construction period.”

Startup and commissioning is expected late 2025/early 2026. Within two years after startup, Phase 2 will commence, which will increase the plant capacity by 25%. One year after completion of Phase 2, Phase 3 will be undertaken which will double the plant capacity.

Another genuine goal of the project is to improve the quality of life of the local community, Parton added, including people who will work in the plant as well as the logging and wood supply community. An example he offered is that a STEM program has already been established at the local high school by Hatch, a project engineering company.

“It’s a great project for the community. It’s a great project for our investors. It’s a great project to demonstrate the full extent of the environmental benefit that can be derived from using biomass as an energy source and a carbon source alternative to fossil carbon,” Parton closed.

FORISK Consulting

Amanda Hamsley Lang, COO & VP of Client Services with FORISK Consulting, spoke about timber supply and outlook, noting part of FORISK’s role is tracking mill investments and capacity changes and trends to help clients make decisions on which timber markets to pursue for mill expansions and timberland investments.

Lang said wood pellet production capacity reached 20 million metric tons in North America in 2021, increasing 12% over the previous year, and growth is expected through 2022, reaching 23 million metric tons, with much of the growth in the U.S. South.

Lang said U.S. softwood lumber production will increase 10% this year and growth will continue. She showed a map of announced investments since 2020 in the U.S. South, including 47 mill capacity increases, including 12 new mills and four reopenings.

FORISK forecasts pine sawtimber inventories to increase through 2027 before declining through 2035 in the South. Deferred harvest during the Great Recession (2007-2009) along with improved genetics and silvicultural practices, which have increased timber growth rates by an average of 1% per acre per year for the past 10 years, lead pine sawtimber inventories to peak in 2027 at a level nearly 75% higher than in 2007 for the region. Lang added that the supply story varies across the region, with some states projecting continued increases in inventory while other states begin to see contraction much sooner depending on local market dynamics.

She added that decreased harvesting activity during the Great Recession resulted in fewer replanted forest acres, leading to a dip in the forest inventory for pulpwood- sized trees.

Lang said the average pine growth-to-drain ratio for the South in 2020 was 1.31, indicating a general oversupply of timber, with tight markets in north Florida and south Georgia, and areas of coastal South Carolina and North Carolina, central Texas and Louisiana with relatively balanced timber supply and demand. She said northern Mississippi, Alabama and northeast Georgia show an oversupply of pine growth relative to demand.

But fast-forwarding five years to 2025, the timber supply becomes more balanced across the region, with an average pine growth-to-drain of 1.04, a period during which 10 sawmills and 11 pellet mills come on-line in the region.

Lang also addressed forest carbon markets. “They are interesting, in part, because they force us to revisit the fundamental business model associated with owning forests as financial investments,” she said. “The actual production process, the use and absorption and sequestration of carbon itself, has value to the marketplace.”

“How might carbon initiatives affect forest growthto- drain (supply-demand balances) moving forward?” Lang asked. For industrial markets with strong wood demand and capital investment, expect minimal impact from carbon as the local forest industry economics drive wood flows. In markets that are “out of balance” with excessive or accumulating forest supplies and thin markets, expect forest carbon programs to provide incentives to retain land in trees.

What if the marketplace decides that trees are more valuable as stores of carbon and sources of other environmental benefits and services?

“In that world, wood users would compete with that opportunity cost when procuring raw material,” Lang said. “Forest owners would require a certain level of payment to offset their carbon storage role.”

Fram Renewable Fuels

One of the pioneers of the modern-era wood pellet industry, Harold Arnold, president of Fram Renewable Fuels, was a repeat speaker at the conference. Fram operates three wood pellet facilities— Appling County Pellets, Telfair Forest Products and Hazlehurst Wood Pellets, all in Georgia.

He referred to several developments in the past year that have impacted wood pellet international markets, including a hike in summer consumption due to no wind, creating tight supply, which continued to tighten into 2022 as prices approached $300 with little spot volume availability (given the nature of the pellet industry’s long-term contracts); followed by Russia reducing gas supply by 20% and subsequent gas (and also oil) price increase; and the invasion by Russia of Ukraine in March, adding additional uncertainty to the energy markets. Meanwhile European wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed in the past year.

Looking ahead, Arnold was bully on the wood pellet industry, citing global industrial pellet demand forecasts of more than 30 million metric tons by 2030 and potentially 38 million; and global heating pellet demand approaching 30 million as well come 2030. He pointed to a significant spike in Asia demand in the next couple of years.

Arnold also pointed to potential markets for sustainable biomass, including biodiesel, bio plastics, biochar, aviation fuel and green methanol. The forecast of nonutility pellet demand to 2030 potentially explodes to more than 20 million, he added.

FutureMetrics

William Strauss, president and founder of FutureMetrics, addressed pellet fuel as a significant part of the strategy to decarbonize the power sector in many countries, but what about the U.S.? First he emphasized that the reason this industry exists is because of climate change and the need to mitigate CO2 emissions, showing a staggering chart of increasing climate risk index; another graphic that the world potentially will release (through the use of fossil fuel) most of the geologic carbon sequestered over hundreds of millions of years over a span of 250 years from 1895 to 2145; and a chart that showed the global atmospheric CO2 concentration continues to set a record high at above 420 PPM as recently as earlier this year.

This is a proven and widely used strategy for decarbonization of the power section, Strauss said, noting that at least one Panamax size vessed is loaded every day with about 65,000 metric tons of pellet fuel that replaces coal in utility power stations in Europe, the UK, Japan and South Korea.

He said the UK is the largest importer of industrial pellet fuel (about 9.2 million metric tons in 2021 of the 22-23 million imported worldwide in 2021), and that the UK grid is currently supported by about 3,000 MWs of generation capacity from 100% pellet fuel.

The leading exporter is the U.S. at 7.5 million in 2021 (up from 1.9 million in 2012), to as many as two dozen countries. Russia/Belarus/Ukraine exported 3.2 million in 2021 (with Russia at 2.24 million), and this presents a significant disruption moving forward.

“The spot market for pellets is way into record territory,” Strauss said, citing COVID and Russia, with spot prices ticking up to $300 this spring.

Meanwhile, most coal fueled utility power stations are losing money on every MWh generated, he said, especially adding in the cost of carbon emissions.

“But what about the U.S.?” Strauss asked. “Will we see co-firing or full-firing of pellet fuel in the U.S.?”

Coal fueled generation in the U.S. still accounts for 20% of U.S. power, and as of January there were 479 units generating power from coal with generation capacity of 226,978 MW. Close to half of those units (mostly older ones) have announced a date for retirement in the near future.

However, there are 37 units less than 15 years old and some of these are located near existing pellet factories and/or in highly productive wood baskets.

Without the need for transoceanic shipping, the delivered cost per metric ton will be significantly less than what is being paid for pellet fuel in the UK, EU, Japan and South Korea, Strauss said, adding there would be no need for the CAPEX and OPEX associated with the port pellet storage and ship loading infrastructure; no shipping costs; no need for port unloading, handling, and loading the pellet fuel for transport to the power stations.

The demand for renewable carbon neutral fuel that replaces coal may reach 43 million metric tons per year in 2027. “Will U.S. policy evolve and join the other nations that include this strategy in their decarbonization strategies?” Strauss asked. He pointed to a plant in Germany that will be co-firing soon, and even at 30% cofiring yields a savings of nearly $85/MWh over coal.

Based on known and evolving policy growth, new pellet fuel production capacity will be needed, Strauss said, as by 2027 demand could be about 22.6 million tonnes per year greater than supply.

Even greater technical, production and cost advantages can be claimed by using “Version 2.0” steam explosion pellets, Strauss said, citing as one technical example better grinding characteristics allowing a more seamless integration with existing coal pulverizers.

Strauss concluded his talk addressing bioenergy carbon capture and storage, and specifically mentioned that it will be implemented at the Drax Power station in the UK, and when fully deployed about 2,000 MWs of generation CO2 emissions will be pumped under the North Sea resulting in the permanent removal of 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year from the atmosphere while generating on average about 8% of the UK’s power demand.

AFRY Management Consulting

Pedro Campilho, principal with AFRY Management Consulting, also addressed converting coal power plants to BECCS. “Is it an economic reality or sustainability risk?” he asked.

Campilho said IEA’s World Energy Outlook net zero emissions scenario charts a narrow but achievable roadmap to 1.5°C stabilization in rising global temperatures by 2050 and that the required BECCS capacity could reach 152 GW, generating 842 TWh of electricity.

“Going forward, BECCS capacity is likely to be developed using different biomass feedstock, based on both domestic and international supply chains, applied to existing and new assets with different capacity sizes,” he said.

He pointed to several BECCS projects in the pipeline, with projects beginning commissioning more rapidly from 2025 onward, while regulatory support for BECCS commercial implementation still needs to be defined. He mentioned Drax and Teeside in the UK are both bidding for funding. He said China has multiple CCS pilots and large scale plants, but there’s no indication of rapid CCS expansion or any focus on projects that involve carbon removals.

Coal phase out and conversion to biomass is an obvious path to BECCS, and he noted that all G7 countries have committed to ending new support for coal-fired power and China has pledged to end support for building new coal plants abroad.

Campilho said black pellets have a set of advantages compared to white pellets, including better transport efficiency, higher heating value, better grindability, higher bulk density and higher water resistance.

However, the post-combustion flue gas capture process will impact the power plant performance by sacrificing a portion of steam from the power cycle and by additional electricity consumption. A postcombustion carbon capture plant could represent an investment cost between 650-850 million EUR for a coal station converted to biomass with a gross installed capacity of 600 MW, equivalent to 3.8 million tonnes of CO2 captured, he said.