Seneca on the grid Eugene, OR – The Seneca Sustainable Energy project, to be located on the Seneca Sawmill Company mill site north of Eugene, Oregon, will use a biomassfired CHP plant to generate up to 18. 8 megawatts of electricity and provide heat for the sawmill’s dry kilns. The electricity produced by the plant will be sold to the local power grid and will meet the annual energy needs of more than 13,000 homes. Additionally, the CHP plant will displace the annual use of 70 billion BTU’s from natural gas that is consumed to produce steam to dry lumber, eliminating 3,500 tons of carbon per year resulting from this gas combustion. The Seneca Sustainable Energy project includes the design and installation of a Wellons 200,000 PPH wood-fired steam generation system supplying steam to an 18,000 kw electrical generation facility, with lowpressure extraction steam going to Seneca’s nearby lumber drying facility. The CHP steam generation boiler, operating at 900 PSIG and 900°F, is fired by a Wellons furnace system with six combustor cells featuring automatic ash removal. Secondary particulate emissions control is provided by a Wellons four-field modular dry electrostatic precipitator. Electrical generation is provided by a Wellons supplied, refurbished automatic extraction- condensing steam turbinegenerator set. Wellons is also providing additional support and project services, including foundation design and installation, mechanical installation, piping, permit assistance, extended training of plant personnel, and ongoing water treatment services provided by Wellons Water Technology. Two British columbia companies receive funding Vancouver – The BC Bioenergy Network (BCBN) has awarded funding of $1.82 million to Lignol Innovations Ltd. And $3 million to Nexterra Energy Corp for two biomass pilot projects. Lignol uses biorefining technology to turn wood waste into fuel-grade bioethanol and biochemicals and is commissioning a fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant. Nexterra develops gasification systems that turn wood waste into heat and power and is launching a newgeneration biomass power system for businesses, municipalities, and public institutions. Pellet market report launched London, UK – Argus Biomass Markets is a new weekly report that offers insight into the emerging global trade in industrial wood pellets. The report contains the Argus Biomass Index, a weekly spot price benchmark for pellets delivered CIF northwest Europe. The report also offers assessments of forward prices for up to a year ahead and spot assessments for FOB export prices from North America. Detailed market commentary will analyze fundamentals and price drivers in Europe and North America. “Argus’ expertise in coal, gas, power, emissions, oil, and freight means that we are uniquely positioned to assess the emerging biomass markets and to aid the development of liquidity through the provision of reliable price benchmarks,” says Argus chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks. Manitoba funds biomass studies Winnipeg, MB – The province of Manitoba is providing $895,000 to programs that use crop and forestry byproducts as heat and power sources. Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) will work with Manitoba Science, Technology, Energy, and Mines under the biomass energy initiatives and crop residue burning mitigation program to fund several projects. These include a feasibility study of using wood biomass for heating and power, an assessment of the feasibility of converting Assiniboine Community College, the Pine Falls paper mill, and other large industries to biomass energy, development of a Manitoba biomass energy strategy, and a project to provide an alternative to burning crop residue on fields. An additional $450,000 is going to the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute for a prototype machine for mobile crop densification to convert very bulky crop residue into a compact, dense format more suitable for transportation to its final destination for use as a fuel source. IN BRIEF ... Biomass for NS Power Nova Scotia Power is considering a power purchase agreement for renewable energy from biomass. The proposed project would involve NewPage Port Hawkesbury Corp. and Strait Bio-Gen, which would develop a 60 MW biomass-fueled electrical generation facility, taking advantage of existing infrastructure at the NewPage paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton. More biomass power for BC Hydro BC Hydro and Tembec have agreed to the key commercial terms of an electricity purchase agreement that will increase BC Hydro’s purchase of wood biomass-generated electricity from Tembec’s Skookumchuck pulp mill. Tembec will enhance its power plant operation to increase the amount of electricity provided to BC Hydro from 123 to 228 Gwh/year. Gasoline produced from biomass Dynamotive’s research facility in Waterloo, Ontario, has successfully produced significant amounts of renewable gasoline and diesel from biomass in a two-stage bio-oil upgrading process. The process involves the pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass to produce bio-oil, which is then hydro-reformed to a gas-oil equivalent liquid fuel. The liquid fuel can be used directly in blends with hydrocarbon fuels or can be upgraded to transportation-grade liquid gasoline or diesel. Bioenergy power contract inked PG Interior Waste to Energy of Prince George, British Columbia, has signed a contract to supply electricity under phase 1 of BC Hydro’s bioenergy call for power. The plant will use beetle-killed timber and sawmill waste to produce 8 MW of electricity to start. It will also produce charcoal and bio-oil. Electricity production is expected in 2010. First Nations considers biomass industry Biomass Secure Power and the Lower Nicola Indian Band, both of British Columbia, signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2009 that proposes a joint venture to build a 15 MW co-generation plant and pellet mill. Biomass Secure Power is also working on two other BC proposals. BC funds bioenergy British Columbia’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund is providing more than $22.6 million to support 19 projects in rural and off-grid communities. Four of the projects use woody biomass to produce electricity and/or heat, and another will produce cellulosic ethanol and lignin. BC is also providing $10 million in funding for eight liquid biofuels projects, two of which involve the production of cellulosic ethanol from woody biomass. PEI school uses wood pellets A biomass heating system demonstration project is now operating at École Évangéline in Abrams Village, Prince Edward Island. The school is now using a pellet-fuel furnace as its primary heat source, with a supplemental oil heating system. The $180,000 heating unit was funded by the provincial government through the Trust Fund for Clean Air and Climate Change. Small-scale gasification for CHP Vancouver – Nexterra Energy has launched a program to commercialize a new application of its biomass gasification technology to generate power and heat by directfiring syngas into high-efficiency gas engines. This initiative follows two years of work by Nexterra to upgrade the syngas made by gasifying biomass so that it meets the fuel specification of General Electric (GE) Energy’s Jenbacher internal combustion engines. The plan is to combine the gasification technology with a Jenbacher gas engine to form small-scale, modular biomass combined heat and power (CHP) plants of 2–10 Mwelectric. The new biomass CHP system is designed for on-site applications at public institutions such as universities, hospitals, and other government facilities; industrial operations such as food and beverage plants, waste management facilities, and forest products mills; and stand-alone power for independent power producers or electric power utilities. Nexterra and GE plan to test and demonstrate the new power application in two phases. The first-phase plans are for Nexterra’s syngas conditioning technology and a GE Jenbacher engine to be installed and tested at Nexterra’s product development center in 2009. The second-phase plans are for a commercial-scale 2 Mwe plant to be demonstrated at a customer site. SK may get cellulosic ethanol plant Rapid City, SD – KL Energy Corporation and Prairie Green Renewable Energy have signed a letter of intent to develop a project to build a cellulosic ethanol plant near Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, which is located northeast of Saskatoon and near the Manitoba border. The Northeast Saskatchewan Renewable Energy Facility will use KL Energy’s design and engineering to produce ethanol from wood waste. The plant would initially provide 5 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol annually to the Saskatchewan market. Plans include a second facility that would allow production to double. NB solicits proposals for Crown biomass Fredericton, NB – In mid-April, the New Brunswick government received proposals from parties interested in gaining access to biomass material from Crown forests, with the intent to award access by summer. “The Department of Natural Resources has developed a Crown land forest biomass harvesting policy, and in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick we have developed the assessment tools necessary to ensure that biomass material is harvested from New Brunswick’s Crown forests in a sustainable manner,” says Natural Resources Minister Wally Stiles. Eligible applicants included individuals, corporations, and other provincial bodies with existing or proposed New Brunswick-based processing facilities. An estimated 550,000 oven-dry tonnes of biomass material will be available for allocation, depending on the amount of timber harvested. First Nation proposes sawmill, CHP , pellets Thunder Bay, ON – Whitesand First Nation Chief Allan Gustafson has announced a community sustainability project proposal to construct a small sawmill, wood pellet plant, and combined heat and power (CHP) biomass plant. The project would provide electricity for Whitesand First Nation, Armstrong, and Namaygoosisagagun, located north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, near Wabakimi Provincial Park. The 4 MW CHP plant would replace some of the communities’ dieselgenerated power and provide heat to dry pellets and lumber. The proposed pellet plant could produce up to 88,000 tonnes of pellets annually. Project partners include Armstrong Resource Development Corporation, Confederation College Forestry Centre, Lakehead University Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Environment, FPInnovations, and others. Pellets plans for Ingleside Cornwall, ON – Canadian Bio Pellet Inc. has plans to build its first pellet plant in Ingleside, near Cornwall, Ontario, with a planned capacity of 450,000 tonnes/year of pellets. It cites the advantages of close proximity to feedstock from Quebec, Ontario, and the United States, as well as to major transportation networks such as CN Rail, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and a major Ontario highway. Its primary focus would likely be to supply Ontario Power Generation with pellets to replace coal. “It’s a great opportunity to establish Ingleside as a production hub,” says company vice-president Dan Stasko. More wood pellet plants Fibre Brain Company of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is planning to own and operate a wood pellet factory. It is a locally owned start-up company that will source raw material from local forests. The company is in the process of applying to the province for a wood plant operating license. Fibre Brain expects to be operating by fall 2009 and hopes to produce 32,000 tons of wood pellets per year. A BC economic development agreement was signed with four Secwepemc First Nations: the Whispering Pines/Clinton, High Bar, Shuswap, and Little Shuswap Indian Bands. The agreement allows the bands to apply for up to three million cubic metres of timber over 15 years to support an estimated $20 million wood pellet project. The bands’ joint company, Pelltiq’t Energy Group Ltd., is working to secure construction, operating, and harvesting partnerships, and a plant site. The facility is expected to be running in the Kamloops area by the end of 2010, with targeted production of 175,000 tonnes of wood pellets. Not enough waste for pellets Belledune, NB – Shaw Resources’ wood pellet plant in Belledune, New Brunswick, has received a temporary allocation of 50,000 cubic metres of birch and poplar from Crown land. “This temporary allocation will allow the company to meet its customers’ needs, and maintain all 15 jobs,” says NB Environment Minister Roland Haché. The plant, which began production a year ago, was designed to produce wood pellets from sawmill byproducts such as sawdust and shavings. The anticipated supply has been affected by slowdown in the sawmill industry due to the slump in lumber sales to the United States. The allocation will be purchased from companies that are already carrying out harvesting operations on Crown timber licences 1 and 3 within a 100-km radius of Belledune. “All the roundwood we’ve been buying so far is from private woodlot owners, through the [North Shore Forest Products] marketing board,” said Gordon Dickie, general manager of Shaw Resources. “If I can buy all of the roundwood that I need, competitively, from the private woodlot owners, then that is our first choice.” SDTC funds clean energy Mississauga, ON – Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has awarded $53 million in funding to 16 new projects that develop and demonstrate emerging clean technologies. Four of these projects involve the use of biomass in new processes to produce clean energy. These new investments bring SDTC’s total portfolio value to over $1.3 billion.