Pellet Profile Local ownership breathes new life into Atikokan pellet plant By Maria Church little over a year after news broke that U.S. pellet giant Rentech’s northern Ontario operations — Wawa and Atikokan — were struggling, the Atikokan wood pellet plant is once again fully operational under new, local ownership, and looking to expand. BioPower Sustainable Energy Corp. purchased the Atikokan plant from Rentech in December 2017. BioPower is a subsidiary of True North Timber (TNT), a logging contractor based in Chapleau, Ont. Both TNT and BioPower are owned and operated by northern Ontario-born CEO Mark Guillemette. “We had been looking for the right investment opportunity for several years, and this pellet plant was exactly the opportunity Pellet revival we had in mind in northern Ontario. It is clean, innovative and a sustainable energy solution,” Guillemette says. The Atikokan wood pellet plant complements TNT’s existing presence in sustainable woodland operations and allows the company to extend into new emerging markets, he says. Originally a particle board processing mill, Rentech purchased the Atikokan facility in 2013. In the same year Rentech purchased a former strand processing mill in Wawa from Weyerhauser. Both mills were converted to pellet plants and secured long-term offtake contracts, but encountered delays in production due to equipment failures and issues with material handling equipment. A In February 2017 Rentech idled the Wawa mill, citing equipment and operational issues as well as an uncertain market for wood pellets. Atikokan remained open, but reduced its production to 45,000 tonnes per year, just enough to meet the company’s long-term contract with Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) Atikokan generating facility, which is run 100 per cent on wood pellets. Under its new ownership, the Atikokan pellet plant is again fully operational and employs 25 experienced local employees to produce and deliver the OPG contract, which is secure for the next seven years. BioPower will meet the production target of 45,000 metric tonnes of commercial Mark Guillemette, owner of True North Timber purchased the Atikokan pellet plant in December under the subsidiary BioPower Sustainable Energy Corp. Photos by Deb Cain. 18 Canadian BIOMASS MAY/JUNE 2018
Canadian Biomass MayJune 2018: Page 18
