2 min read

US Industrial Wood Pellet Industry Announcements

Picture of Suz-Anne Kinney Suz-Anne Kinney : October 15, 2012

Wood Pellets

In the wake of the release of new renewable obligation certificate banding levels by the UK government, and announcements by UK power companies about planned conversions from coal to wood pellets, industrial wood pellet project announcements in the US--all with the intention of exporting pellets--surged in September.

Enova Energy Group and its wood pellet industry subsidiary, Enova Wood Pellet Group LLC, announced that it will build three wood pellet projects in Georgia and South Carolina beginning Q1 2012. These facilities expect to produce 450,000 metric tons each by 2014 and will export to the European Union. The first of these is proposed for Waynesville, Georgia. The expected cost of the plant is $330 million.

General Biofuels Georgia LLC will construct a $60M wood pellet manufacturing plant in Sandersville, Georgia with a capacity of 400,000 metric tons per year. General expects to begin production in Q1 2014. The facility will source renewable feedstocks from local lumber producers and Georgia timberlands, transported by railway to the Port of Savannah for immediate storage and export.

Fram Renewable Fuels will be expanding their operations by opening another pellet manufacturing facility in Hazelhurst. Fram will be investing $91 million in this second facility that is expected to produce 500,000 metric tons of wood pellets from pine logs and sawmill residues. Their feedstock will be transported by railway to the Port of Brunswick for export to the European Union.

Point Bio Energy LLC and Sun Plus Inc. signed a letter of intent to lease 133 acres adjacent to the Port of Greater Baton Rouge in Louisiana for 10 years, with an option for another 10 years. Point Bio Energy expects to begin construction in late 2012 on the 450,000 metric tons/year capacity plant. The facility will source wood from “the underutilized wood basket in the Baton Rouge area, as well as by barge from the Mississippi River, Atchafalaya River, Red River, and the Intracoastal Waterway” and export pellets to the United Kingdom and European Union.

Thermogen Industries, a Cate Street Capital subsidiary, has received its air quality permit approval and begun recruiting construction workers to build New England’s first torrefied wood manufacturing facility in Millinocket, Maine. Thermogen plans to open the plant in the fall of 2013 and produce 100,000 metric tons of torrefied wood, which it will export to Europe and the United Kingdom.

This list represents only those facilities that have already been publicly announced. Several other projects are also in preliminary planning stages.