NEW EDITORIAL TEAM ON CANADIAN BIOMASS It gives me great pleasure to announce the newly reorganized editorial team at Canadian Biomass. John Tenpenny joins us as editor starting with this issue. John has an extensive background in trade publishing in both manufacturing and professional services. Working with John is associate editor Andrew Macklin, who has been working on our sister publications in forestry and infrastructure. – Scott Jamieson, Group Publisher/Editorial Director CANADIAN BIOFUEL HITS EUROPEAN MARKET Chatham, ON – A five-year contract with Green Energy Group LLC representing an Italian company for biomass fuel pellets is launching Canadian Biofuel Inc. into the European market. Ian Moncrieff, Canadian Biofuel Inc. president and CEO, said the contract will generate about $36 million in gross revenue for the Chatham, Ont.-based company. It will also expand the company’s workforce. “Fifteen people will be hired and the plant will add another three shifts when the production increases to a 24 hour-six-day-aweek schedule to meet the demand for the Italian contract,” said Moncrieff. The Italian contract is already paying dividends for the company. “We are in serious contract discussions with a second company from Italy,” said Moncrieff. “The increasingly high export demand for biomass fuel to Europe has us planning for the future and the possibility of a second and third plant somewhere in southern Ontario.” CORRECTION In the May/June 2012 issue, the story “Ontario pellet production” incorrectly states that Canadian Biofuels Inc. is Ontario’s first production pellet mill. It should have read Southern Ontario's. Canadian Biomass regrets the error. IN BRIEF... TORONTO, ON The Ontario government is moving forward with the conversion of the Atikokan Generating Station from coal to biomass, creating 200 construction jobs and helping to protect existing jobs at the plant. The conversion is the first of its kind in the province. The project will create new economic opportunities for Ontario's forestry sector, which will provide the biomass fuel to the plant, located near Thunder Bay. Demand for biomass pellets from the plant is expected to create or support about 200 jobs. The converted plant will be able to deliver more than 200 megawatts of clean, renewable power and is expected to be complete in 2014. CRANBROOK, BC The St. Mary’s Indian Band’s biomass project will benefit from the fourth round of funding from the First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund with equity funding of $200,000. The project will consist of the construction and operation of a biomass thermal heating system, which will initially hook up two buildings with future plans to hook up the entire village. The St. Mary’s Indian Band has over 5,000 hectares of dense conifer forest and proposes to supply the heating system with wastewood chips. It will also provide the band with an opportunity to receive revenue through wood-chip delivery. SEATTLE, WA Prices for woody biomass in the U.S., whether sawmill byproducts, forest residues or urban wood waste, have been sliding for most of the past three years, but were still higher late in 2011 in most regions than they were five years ago, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review. Wood fiber demand for all planned biomass projects in the U.S. dropped in the first half of 2012 as compared to early 2011. Most of the decrease in wood usage the past year has been that wood used in the generation of electricity for the domestic market in the U.S., while the pellet industry has continuously expanded capacity to serve the growing demand in Europe. VANCOUVER, BC Nexterra Systems recently opened a biomass gasification energy plant at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. The system is the sixth Nexterra system to enter commercial operation. The Nexterra system is a cornerstone of a $94 million Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) for Johnson Controls at ORNL. Nexterra supplied the complete energyfrom- renewable-waste system, from fuel handling and storage through to the exhaust stack. The system converts low-cost waste biomass into a clean burning syngas to produce 60,000 lbs/hr of saturated steam, reducing fossil fuel consumption by 80 per cent.