On another thread we talked about this some but most thought it was alost cause but I have some questions and would like to hear from others. Locally aspen stumpage is going for about $30 per cord to the OSB plants they pay just over $100.00 per cord delivered. A local logger has been paying over $100.00 a cord stumpage tying up alot of wood on Fed and state sales and as you can imagine the other loggers were irate with him. I just found out he got a 20 year contract for biomass at two power plants as exclusive supplier. Any of the rest of you know anything about biomass? wondering if this is anywhere else is this the future?
In Florida, train loads of chips go to the power plants every day. Takes a lot of trees to fuel power Plants ::)
Whitepine, the 2005 Michigan Forestry Magazine is out and has a big story in it about Biomass. You can request a copy from the Michigan Association of Timbermen. It s free of charge.
http://www.timbermen.org/forestrymag.shtml
I helped to site one of those plants a number of years ago. To make it worthwhile, you must have a secondary use for the trash steam, and have a pretty good electric buyback rate. This plant is a 21 Meg plants with the trash steam used in food processing. Annual usage is around 210,000 tons.
We had one guy that wanted 90% of the contract. I steered them away from it, stating that they would be too dependent on one contractor. Many small contractors will offer a better supply at a cheaper rate.
Depending on your area, biomass might be feasible again, if fuel prices stay high. In PA, we have an over capacity of electricity thanks to the 9 nuclear plants, dozens of culm burning plants, and a big surge in natural gas plants that have long contracts.
Buying stumpage at $100/cd seems a little high. You can buy chips delivered in at about $30/ton or so, and that beats that price without the logging.
We had guys who had discussions with co-gen producers and went out and tried to corner some biomass markets. Without a plant being built, its all speculation. Most got burnt.
The tail end that Ron stated reminds me of the Flour Mills here in the east that talked the farmers into setting up a grain coop. They had been around and gave out awards for the grain being produced by local farmers. Everyone was gung-ho and all buttered up. Right from the start they had shipping troubles, they found falt with everything imaginable and they didn't want to pay a decent price. It was cheaper to send it to feed mills and less hassle. In the end they closed the grain coop up. ::)
They have a BioMass plant in Fort Fairfield that are supplied with hogfuel that can't be used for pulp. It's a 33 MW plant, built by a Canadian outfit (Boralex Inc.) They have some 50 MW plants as well. They seem to haul steady over there from mills in Victoria and Carleton County. I'm sure there is lots of waste being hauled in from some mills in Maine, they are practically next door to Huber in Easton. I think they built a Biomass plant in Ashland and 3 other locations in Maine.
Boralex Inc (http://www.recyclingtoday.com/articles/article.asp?Id=4280&SubCatID=29&CatID=7)
Apollo Biomass (http://www.apolloalliance.org/strategy_center/reports_and_resources/clean_energy_101/biomass101.cfm)
Thanks for the links Tom
I know a new one is set to open soon in the New England area, I think commissioning will begin in the new year. I believe it can burn coal as well as it uses one of those hot bed of sand arrangments. (Fluidized bed combustor)
go to www.esf.edu and search the keyword biomass