Biomass From Forest to Fuel Extraction The future of energy cogeneration lies in the trees. as the North American housing market fights to stay alive dur- ing these tough economic times, some Canadian loggers are rolling with the punches and taking advantage of environ- mental incentives from the government to stay ahead of the game. Founded in 1960 with just a dozer and a skidder, Henson & Tre- gonning Logging in Sault Ste. Marie emerged as one of Ontario’s largest logging and slashing operations. They also earned their place as one of the primary producers of pulpwood and saw timber for one of Sault Ste. Marie’s largest manufacturers, St. Marys Paper Corp. St. Marys Paper pro- duces 240,000 tons/year of supercalendered paper and is participating in the Ontario Combined Heat and Power III electricity request for propos- als, with the plan of constructing a new cogeneration facility at the mill. The wood-fired power plant at St. Marys Paper currently consumes about 450 tons/day of wood. One-third of that, about 150 tons, consists of wood waste generated in its mill yard. The new cogeneration develop- ment at St. Marys would require an additional 750 tons/day of wood, material that Henson & Tregonning would be happy to provide. To provide for St. Marys’ growing needs, Henson & Tregonning began to look into new markets in which to grow as well – markets that would hopefully sustain their business for the next 50 years. They found their niche in August 2008. With the purchase of their first model 3680 Beast Recycler, Henson & Tregonning Logging transformed what was primarily a logging company into a booming biomass fuel producer. Henson & Tregonning founder Barry Henson saw an opportunity to expand his operation and use more than just the log. Adding the Beast to their equipment line-up was the first step. “A majority of the fuel we produce from the logging slash and tops is going into a wood-fired power plant for St. Marys to produce heat and steam for the paper-making process,” explains Vance Henson, Barry’s eldest son. “The paper mill is extremely happy with the high-quality fuel we are producing.” Vance attributes the quality of their chip to the new knife system for the Beast Recycler. This new system, developed in early 2008 for the emerging European wood energy markets, converts existing Beast Recy- clers into whole-tree chippers by exchanging traditional cutterbodies for cutterbodies with knife inserts. Henson’s model 3680 is equipped with a 700-horsepower Caterpillar engine with 30 knives and counter knives The model 3680 Beast Recycler used by Henson & Tregonning Logging is equipped with a 700-hp Caterpillar engine and a chipper knife system. CanadianBIOMASS 27
Canadian Biomass August 2009: Page 27
