Wood Bioenergy Conference Reveals Industry That’s Far From Reaching Potential

The message out of the ninth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo was that an industry that was once dominated by the discussion of industrial wood pellets has transformed into something larger, with opportunities bursting at the seams, if only the industry can see them through.

Perhaps no comment expressed the potential of the industry than that of Dru Preston, staff forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission, who said that a single data center requiring 1.2 gigawatts (1,200 megawatt) could be supplied by 12 100 MW biomass power plants using 1.2 million tons of wood chips annually.

In a state where the logging supply chains ranks has taken a super blow due to the loss of 8.3 million tons of timber market because of regional pulp mill closures (approximately 290,000 truckloads of mostly pulpwood timber), the potential biomass for data centers would be a welcome reprieve, with a single 100 MW plant requiring 75 jobs at the facility, 20 logging and trucking crews, numerous forestry and fiber supply jobs, and trickling down the supply chains to additional labor for site prep and seedlings crews—not to mention serving as a chips byproduct market for the abundance of sawmills in the region.

And if that isn’t potential enough, what about the 520 million green tons of biomass that would be required to transform the nation’s annual conventional jet fuel into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)?

Such was the sky’s-the-limit nature of the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, held April 14-15 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta. Hosted by Wood Bioenergy magazine, the event attracted nearly 200 participants, featured 22 speakers and 43 exhibitors in the Grand Ballroom North of the Omni.

Not that the conference overlooked the longstanding industrial wood pellets business. Indeed, the conference served as kind of a “coming out party” for Enviva, the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, which, while maintaining its status as number one, has fought through tough times in the past two years.

But even Scott Bax, executive vice president and COO of Enviva, spoke on the bigger potential in his talk, “From Biomass to Bioenergy and Beyond.” Bax noted that Enviva and the global pellet industry created the first large-scale market for woody biomass as a renewable carbon feedstock; but it’s no longer defined by a single product, “rather a versatile renewable carbon feedstock…replacing fossil electricity with renewable power and replacing fossil carbon with renewable carbon,” with potential in biocoal, biochar, black pellets and SAF.

Bax said Enviva continues to operate 10 pellet production plants with a run-rate of 6.5 million metric tons, including Enviva’s newest plant that has started up in Epes, Ala.

Day two of the conference included a tour of the Hazlehurst Wood Pellets plant in Hazlehurst, Ga., one of the first large scale industrial wood pellet producers in the world, and of the new Telfair Forest Products torrefaction facility in Lumber City, Ga.

Where Wood Bioenergy Is Going

Two dozen speakers will address a range of topics during the ninth Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo April 14-15 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta. If you look through their presentation descriptions you will find words such as: Decarbonization. Carbon Capture. Co-Firing. Biochar. Torrefaction. Cogeneration. Data Centers.

The Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo and the wood bioenergy industry overall has changed drastically since the first conference was held in 2010. It was all about the birth of the industrial wood pellets industry back then, but there’s so much more to wood bioenergy now. Do you remember the comment back then that here we have a new industry that is totally reliant on one market, namely the Drax electricity station in Selby, UK, which was converting from coal to pellets for its fuel, to be supplied mostly by upcoming U.S. based wood pellet mills.

When Drax announced last year, due to the stipulations of the UK government, that it may not need as many wood pellets moving forward, it put an exclamation point on what was already in development: the changing face and expansion of the wood bioenergy industry.

Nowhere is this more evident than with the Advanced Woody Biomass Alliance, which up to two months ago was known as the U.S. Industrial Pellet Assn. The growing role of woody biomass across energy, advanced fuels, and carbon removal markets, and as a climate solution, enticed that group to change its name.

These developments and more will be discussed in the Grand Ballroom North location, where 50 equipment and technology exhibitors will also be set up to showcase their latest offerings.

Registration is closing soon, but walk-ups are invited. Cost of the conference is $499, and includes access to all of the presentations, the exhibitor floor and four food functions.

Bus Tour, Safety Workshop Offered During Bio Conference

Organizers of the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo announce that a Pellet & Torrefaction Mills Bus Tour and a Safe Wood Pellet Storage Workshop are offered as two optional events, in conjunction with the conference & expo, which is scheduled April 14-15 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park.

On Wednesday morning, April 15, the Pellet & Torrefaction Mills Bus Tour will visit the Hazlehurst Wood Pellets mill in Hazlehurst, Ga. HWP—a subsidiary of Fram Renewable Fuels—started up in 2013 and produces up to 500,000 metric tons per year of wood pellets. The facility has undergone regular modernizations through the years.

The bus tour will also visit the torrefaction factory at Telfair Forest Products in Lumber City, Ga. Telfair is also a subsidiary of Fram Renewable Fuels. The torrefaction operation is a collaboration between TFP and TSI, long known for its drying and technologies expertise.

The bus will leave the Omni on April 15 at 7:30 a.m. and return to the Omni at 5:30 p.m. Cost is $75. Attendees can register separately for the bus tour and the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo.

Registration is now closed.

Video Spotlight Bio 2024: Jessica Johnson, Managing Editor, Wood Bioenergy, and Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Wood Bioenergy, give a recap of Day 1.