Pellet Mill Holds Ribbon Cutting Jackson Pellets, LLC in Jackson, Ala., held a ribbon cutting March 22 at the new wood pellet manufacturing plant. Mayor Paul South welcomed the invited guests and introduced Todd Bush, head of CM Biomass North America, the parent company of Jackson Pellets. Bush told the group that the Jackson plant is the crown jewel of all the facilities he’s been a part of. The mill represents a $21 million investment and is expected to employ 45 to 50. CM Biomass, a company based in Denmark, has 10 other facilities in the U.S. Bush said that everything they have learne ..read more

Enviva Issues Statement Following Destructive Weather In Mississippi Enviva Inc. has reported that all of its associates are safe and accounted for following a strong tornado that touched down in Amory, Miss., on March 24, 2023. The storm did, however, damage the company’s 115,000 metric ton per year wood pellet production facility, although Enviva’s larger plants and ports in the region were not impacted. Enviva’s Amory facility insurance covers property damage, inclusive of business interruption and casualty. Operations at the plant have been suspended pending a full review of the damage ..read more

Renova Delays New Biomass Plant Startup Japan renewable power producer Renova Inc recently announced is postponing the launch of commercial operation of the 74.8-MW Tokushima-Tsuda biomass-fired power plant to some time in May 2023. Initially scheduled for a March 2023 startup, the plant is undergoing machine inspections, according to Renova. Located in Tokushima prefecture on Japan’s Shikoku island, the plant is utilizing wood pellets and palm kernel shells as fuel sources. The facility has a 20-year feed-in tariff (FiT) to sell its output, Renova officials said, and is expected to gener ..read more

April 2023 Subscribe Today Inside this issue FROM THE EDITORS Nothing Like Being In The Arena COVER STORY Today’s Technologies For Dryer Islands Throughout the years, the wood-to-energy sector has seen technologies come and go, but one thing has always remained—The Dryer Island. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following companies submitted editorial profiles to complement their advertisements placed in Wood Bioenergy April 2023. Büttner Dryer One Fagus GreCon Hurst LundellTech KraftPowercon Mühlböck PDI Polytechnik Sigma Thermal Stela SonicAire TSI IN THE NEWS Spectrum Moves Ahead At Adel ..read more

Spectrum Moves Ahead At Adel Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC plans to begin construction this summer of an industrial wood pellet facility in Adel, Ga. and expects to commission the plant 12 months later, or summer of 2024. The plant will operate at the site of an idled particleboard facility. “One of the principle reasons we chose Adel was for the considerable infrastructure that was on site,” comments President Michael Ainsworth, referring to the truck dumps, Clarke’s buildings for green and dry material storage and handling. Many of the conveyors in the wood room will be put back into servic ..read more

Basic Research Shows Anaerobic Lignin Effects A group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has shown that anaerobic processes similar to those in herd animal digestive tracts can be effective in breaking down lignin structures in biomass. A key to unlocking biomass’ potential is the cost-effective breakdown of lignin that unlocks cellulose and hemicellulose sugars and compounds that can be used for a wide variety of fuel products. Research showed a naturally occurring digestive tract fungus was found to effectively break down lignin in poplar, sorghum and switchgrass samples in an oxygen-free ..read more

Aspen Wood Products Opens New Regional Pellet Mill Seeking to add value to residuals from two processing facilities, Aspen Wood Products is opening a new fuel pellet and animal bedding pellet mill at its headquarters in Mancos, Colo., where the company operates an aspen excelsior plant and also produces firewood, shavings and bark. A sister company, Aspen Wall Wood in Dolores, Colo., produces paneling and specialty lumber. The new $2 million plant is projected to produce fuel pellets for local and regional markets. Raw materials will come from residuals at the paneling plant and excelsior ..read more

Search North America Adds Senior Recruiter Search North America (SNA), a leading wood products-based search, recruiting, and placement firm, is proud to announce and welcome Dave Rupp as a new Senior Recruiter, mainly focusing on the Western U.S. and Canada. He joins the SNA team with over 40 years of experience in the wood products industry, working with Fortune 500 companies in North America and abroad. Rupp has extensive experience developing strategic alliances within all levels of the business, government, and environmental communities. Rupp’s home office will be based out of the Va ..read more

Büttner Expands Product Range As a globally operating supplier of burners as well as drying and energy plants, Büttner—a member of the Siempelkamp Group—is taking the next logical step by establishing a new environmental technology competence center in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and expanding its product range in the field of environmental technology. Büttner will now be designing and manufacturing dry electrostatic filters to separate ash from hot flue gases in energy plants and wet electrostatic precipitators (WESP) to reduce particles and volatile emissions from the waste air emitted by dr ..read more

Enviva Partners With Girl Scouts Of Greater Mississippi Enviva Inc. and the Girl Scouts of Greater Mississippi (GSGMS) have announced a collaborative partnership to assist the council with programs related to climate change, tree planting and conservation initiatives, and other STEM/natural resources-related education opportunities planned by the GSGMS and Enviva. As an official partner, Enviva will provide financial support to facilitate the long-term forest management and revenue generation plans for two GSGMS owned camps: Camp Iti Kana (Stone County, Miss.) and Camp Wahi (Rankin, Miss ..read more