Burning Bio News

Steve Kagen, D-WI, introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to make permanent a tax credit for paper companies that burn “black liquor.” Kagen’s effort may instigate a fight with fellow lawmakers who have been trying to eliminate the credit for paper companies, which they say has cost taxpayers $10 billion. –mj: It seems to me the paper companies should get recognition for the efficient use of their biomass residuals as fuels.

U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday said they would close a loophole that lets paper companies claim a valuable tax credit for making biofuel that is already a byproduct of paper production. – mj: There is an apparently large group of folks who want to penalize the paper industry for being more efficient than the rest of the economy. In the last few decades the paper producers have learned to make fuel from their byproducts. Now they are also getting a production tax credit through the biofuel policies and some believe it is a ‘loophole.’ The paper producers are doing good work they should be recognized for it.

The North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance has opened a new online commodity-trading Web site for organic materials to help expand the development of the biomass economy. The NC Biomass Trader will help connect those getting rid of such waste products such as waste vegetable oil, restaurant grease, wood waste, manures, food waste, forest products and byproducts and agricultural products and byproducts. The Web site at www.ncbiomasstrader.com

Iowa entrepreneur, Cindy Williams, owns Pellet Pros, a home-use pellet mill. There are several sizes of personal-use machines that have a production range from 65 pounds per hour to 600 pounds per hour with starting prices of around $2,600. Hammer mills are used to reduce the size of biomass, or organic material, before it is put through the pellet mill that actually makes the pellets. Hammer mills will grind straw, switch grass, wood chips and corn stalks and other biomass to size for all pellet mills. Williams will work with clients to develop the proper ‘recipe’ for making good fuel pellets.

Weyerhauser Company, a forest products company, has met 75 percent of its operations’ energy needs through the use of renewable and greenhouse-gas-neutral biomass fuels including wood residuals and other organic byproducts in 2008. Weyerhauser said biomass fuel from sustainably managed forests is considered to have a neutral effect on greenhouse gases in the atmosphere because the regenerating forest absorbs the carbon dioxide released by burning the fuel. In 2008, biomass fuel generated 76 percent of the company’s power in its cellulose fibers mills and 63 percent of its energy supply at its wood products facilities.

The Northwest Missouri State University Alternative Energy Innovation was recently honored by receiving the 2009 Innovator Award from the Southern Growth Policies Board. The Southern Growth Policies Board, a think tank based in North Carolina, chooses one program from each of its member states to receive their prestigious Innovator Award. Northwest’s alternative fuels program has been in existence since 1982, when the University established a biomass energy system that utilized wood chips as fuel. In 1990, the process of pelletizing discarded newspaper, corrugated and cardboard boxes, magazines and other clean paper products to use as fuel added another dimension to the energy program. The most recent upgrade came in 2001, when animal waste from the University farm was used to create a virtually odor-free pellet that can also be burned as fuel. Currently 80 to 85 percent of the University’s thermal energy needs are met using alternative fuels.

Pressure is mounting on Congress to do something about an obscure tax credit that is unexpectedly costing the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars and counting. The beneficiary is one sector of the paper industry, which has been struggling to compete in a sensitive world market. – mj: While I do not understand this issue completely, it sounds like the paper industry is getting credit for using their wastes to power their operations. If the controversy is about mixing diesel fuel with their biofuels to take advantage of the ‘credit,’ then they should get a larger credit not to add fossil fuels. The paper industry figured out how to be efficient before the focus on reducing fossil fuels reached its current levels. They should not be penalized for being innovative.

Food processing waste will be the feedstock for a 5 MMgy ethanol plant in the planning stages at Statesville, NC. The project will be developed as a as a joint venture between Custom Environmental Technology Inc., a wastewater treatment firm based in Matthews, NC, and Green Castle Energy Inc., a new technology firm from Maumee, OH. Phase one of the project will be using wastewater and sludge high in fermentable starches and sugars in a standard ethanol process similar to what is used in the corn ethanol industry. Phase two will incorporate waste paper streams, according to James Bleyer, engineering manager for Green Castle. A third dimension of the project will be to treat the unfermentable solids in an anaerobic digester to produce biogas for process heat.

Resource Management of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, AR, is expanding and adding 40 jobs. Resource Management produces 14 different ‘flavorwoods’ for barbecue cooking and wood pellets for fuel. In addition to relying on fiber residuals from the paper industry, they are adding a sawmill to provide their own ‘fiber procurement’ facilities.

The former Red Shield pulp processing plant in Old Town, ME has been reopened under a different name, Old Town Fuel and Fiber. In addition to producing wood pulp for the papermaking industry, the plant will work closely with researchers at the University of Maine to develop new technologies for converting pulp-processing waste into a renewable biofuel. The facility intends to employ 170 people.

The North Dakota Department of Commerce considers commercial cattail production for paper and fuel. Some preliminary work done by the Commerce Department indicates about 18,000 acres of cattails would produce about 400,000 tons of dry cattails, which is what it would take to run one of the facilities, and that would result in about 100,000 tons of pulp for the paper industry.

University of Maine professor, Hemant Pendse knows how pulp mill owners can make cash from compounds found in wood without disrupting the pulping process. His research has been used to retrofit the Old Town pulp and paper mill in Maine and will be used at a biorefinery to be built next year adjacent to the mill. The plant will be the first where hemicellulose - a polysachharide more complex than sugar, found in almost all plant cell walls - will be extracted from wood chips to make ethanol and other chemicals without compromising the integrity of the pulp, Pendse said.

The state is funneling $1 million in federal grant money to the Gorham Paper Mill in northern New Hampshire, hoping to help it cut fuel costs and stay in business.