Case Study Slides

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Case Study Slides

• Biomass Ambassadors These slides contain
  photos and basic information from the Wood to
  Energy case studies. You can adapt them to meet
  your needs and use them in your presentations.

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Burning Sawdust for Heat and Power

• Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia
• More than 4,000 students
• The facility uses sawdust to heat campus
• Trucks transport sawdust
• Plans to provide all heat
• and hot water from wood
• in the future

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Challenges of Obtaining a Wood Supply

• Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina
• 260,000 acres
• Hurricane Hugo debris
• Santee Cooper Electric (state-owned utility)
  pursued a stewardship contract
• Competition for wood was a challenge

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Co-firing with Wood and Sugarcane Waste

• 75 Megawatt plant in western Palm Beach County,
  Florida
• Okeelanta Cogeneration Facility, owned by the
  Florida Crystals Company (produces sugar)
• Fuel in sugar season
• 2/3 bagasse (sugarcane waste)
• 1/3 wood
• Fuel out of sugar season
• 1/3 bagasse
• 2/3 wood
• Wood wastes purchased from urban areas

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Wood storage
Bagasse storage
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The Okeelanta facility uses three water-cooled
vibrating grate stoker boilers.
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Co-firing with Wood and Switchgrass

• Gadsden Steam Plant in northeastern Alabama
• Run by Alabama Power, subsidiary of Southern
  Company
• Uses switchgrass from a local farmer and wood
  from forest thinnings, wood processing, and
  harvest residues

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Gadsden Steam Plant

• Two 70-Megawatt pulverized coal units
• Unit 1 co-fires coal with sawdust and wood chips
• Unit 2 co-fires coal with switchgrass

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Converting from Natural Gas to Waste Wood

• Laurel Lumber company in Laurel, Mississippi
• From 1999 to 2005 price of natural gas jumped
  from approx. 3.00/thousand cubic feet to over
  8.50
• Laurel Lumber needed a less expensive fuel for
  drying lumber
• (Energy Information Administration 2007).

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• Needed to dispose of wood waste
• In 2002 started using waste to dry lumber
• Fuel is stored in a silo
• Biomass program saves company about 200,000
  annually in production costs

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Forest Industry Creates Its Own Power

• Langdale Industries in Valdosta, Georgia
• 12-Megawatt cogeneration facility
• Electricity sold to grid
• Wood resources used
• mill residues (bark, shavings, sawdust)
• chipped logging slash and understory
  (unmerchantable materials)

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• Langdale produces a variety of wood products
  including
• lumber
• utility poles
• marine pilings
• barn poles
• oriented strand board
• medium-density fiberboard
• pattern lumber
• moldings
• doors and windows

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Innovative Fuel Sources Generate Success
Telogia Power facility near Tallahassee, Florida
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Telogia Power, LLC

• Liberty County, Florida
• 14 Megawatts gross electricity production
• 12.5 Megawatts net electricity production
• Fuel190,000 tons/year
• wood (yard waste, forest management debris,
  timber harvest residues etc.)
• paper waste (diaper tailings, unfit currency,
  confidential documents etc.)
• occasionally more unusual sources such as
  contaminated peanut butter
• Currently supplying electricity to Seminole
  Electric
• In operation since 1988

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Powering the Grid with Waste

• Ridge Generating Station in Auburndale, Florida
• Operating since 1994
• Approx. 45 Megawatts gross capacity
• Part of countys waste-management system

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Ridge Generating Station

• Employs forty full-time workers and 10 laborers
• Regional economic impact of 6 million per year
• Fuel sources
• 75 wood waste
• 20 tires
• 5 landfill gas

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Power to the People

• McNeil Generating Station in Burlington, Vermont
• Burns wood (predominantly) and natural gas
• Community input was involved in planning process
• Wood is delivered to the station from a remote
  storage site by rail

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McNeil Generating Station
Wood sources 70 from low-quality trees 25
sawmill residues 5 urban wood waste
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Using a Mix of Fuels to Produce Heat and Power

• New Bern, North Carolina, pop. 25,000
• Craven County Wood Energy sells 50 Megawatts to
  grid daily

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Craven County Wood Energy

• Uses approx. 500,000 tons of waste wood per year
• railroad ties
• wood shavings from poultry brooder houses
• forest thinnings
• pallets
• land-clearing debris
• harvest residues
• sawmill waste
• urban waste wood

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Waste-to-Energy Program
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Cox Interior, Inc.

• Produces 150 tons/day of wood waste
• In 2006
• thermal energy savings--4.5 million
• electrical cost savings--980,000
• profit from electricity sales to East Kentucky
  Power Corporation --48,000

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• Founded in 1983
• Employs 840 people
• Produces interior and exterior finishing products
  such as
• moldings
• doors
• fireplace mantels
• stair parts

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Wood and Paper Trim the Energy Bill

• Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville,
  Missouri
• Approx. 6,500 students
• Provides 65 of the heat for 1,700,000 square
  feet of building space
• Annual savings 375,000/year
• Fuel sources
• local sawmill residues
• local paper wastes, which are pelletized by the
  University

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Wood Power Heats a Public School

• Morehead, Kentucky (pop. 6,000)
• Rowan County High School uses 756 tons of sawdust
  each year to heat the 125,000 square-foot school
  and a 60,000 square-foot vocational institute
• Sawdust supplies come from local lumberyards
• Fuel is stored in a 120-ton silo on campus
• Facility saves the school approx. 21,000 per
  year

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Wood-powered Whiskey 

• Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee
• Company produces its own charcoal for the whiskey
  mellowing process
• Uses approx. 400 tons of wood per day o produce
  steam for distillation process
• Pallets and hardwood waste from local sawmills
• Ash is used for soil conditioner
• or added to compost