Stemming back several years, the Economic Development Authority in southwest Georgia’s Randolph County has striven to identify the economic strengths of the area and industries that could take advantage of them. Given the county’s rich history of farming and timber harvesting, these activities have been the focus of the EDA’s efforts. Armed with a good understanding of the large timber basket and an excellent undeveloped site, the EDA has been working to attract companies engaged in producing wood fuel pellets and liquid transportation fuels.

The benefits to the community could be significant, in both added tax base and additional employment. Total direct investment has potential to reach $400 million to $500 million, and the manufacturing facilities would each employ 60 to 80 people. However, the greatest benefit to the region would be logging crews reaching into the hundreds, with thousands of direct and indirect jobs created. Added to all of this is expansion of the business community, supporting both the manufacturing operations and expanded population.

Opportunity here is great. And perhaps the most pressing question—how much excess growth is available of the region’s most abundant natural resource (trees), is available—has already been answered, via a study completed by the Georgia Forestry Commission.

Gauging Resources
In 2012, The Georgia Forestry Commission completed a study, the results of which were very encouraging, showing the annual timberland growth over removal is 4.7 million tons.  From a landowner perspective, this means that timber prices are down. However, from the emerging biomass-to-energy industry perspective, it represents a very large raw material base that can be used to produce wood fuel pellets and liquid transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel.

The EDA has an undeveloped site that appears ideal for both a pellet mill and a renewable fuels facility. The property is located just north of Cuthbert on the east side of U.S. Highway 27 where the railroad crosses the highway. The site and area infrastructure (railroad, highways, wastewater treatment plant, and high-pressure natural gas pipeline) can meet or be modified as needed to support any large-scale manufacturing operation that utilizes trees and other biomass as raw material. 

Based on the very positive results of the Forestry Commission study and the availability of an excellent undeveloped industrial site, the EDA has been working to engage the interest of companies in the biomass conversion business. 

Community leadership has been working to understand what is needed to manage the impacted community infrastructure required to support these types of companies.  A number of preliminary engineering studies have been done to assess the cost of providing natural gas, water for fire suppression, additional land, and roadway expansion to handle the large number of logging trucks that would deliver raw material daily.  Because of this work, it’s now possible to show the companies that not only are infrastructure and raw material available, but that the community is proactive and supportive of industrial growth in the area.

The Georgia Forestry Commission study, “Forest Resource Analysis for Cuthbert, Georgia,” substantiated the viability of providing wood as a raw material on a large scale. As aforementioned, it showed that excess of timber growth over removals is estimated at 4.7 million tons annually. This excess is large enough to support the raw material needs of both a pellet mill and a renewable fuels refinery, still leaving in excess of 2 million tons available annually. There is a good supply of softwood and hardwood within an economic radius of 60 miles for harvesting and delivering to the manufacturing site. Of the 4.7 million tons, 3.1 million is softwood and 1.6 million is hardwood. It is also significant that over 95 percent of the timberland is privately owned, which ensures numerous timber purchasing sources. It was noted in the study that there is a good balance in age class for the pine, which would provide a balanced harvest profile in the future. Almost all of the pine growth is located on pine plantations, which is particularly important because European market demand for wood fuel pellets requires sourcing of wood from timberland meeting certain criteria, including tree plantations.

Site and Infrastructure
The EDA currently owns 240 acres on five tracts of land on the east side of U.S. Highway 27 and south of the railroad track and right-of-way.  This property was used many years ago as a wood yard. It has a driveway access onto U.S. Highway 27 with a median cut allowing for both north and south travel. U.S. Highway 82 is located three miles south of the property. Timber harvesting will occur from all directions, and having these two highways available greatly facilitates truck deliveries. The site also has a well, a serviceable building and level terrain. Fortunately, the land surrounding the property is undeveloped timberland, and should the need arise, additional land may be available.

The Genesse and Wyoming Railroad owns the track and right-of-way serving the site, and has an extensive track and rail switching capabilities on the west side of U.S. Highway 27.  This is certainly one of the most valuable infrastructure advantages available, especially to facilities that ship large tonnages of products. The railroad has the ability to ship material anywhere, but is especially competitive in moving product to the Gulf Coast. This will become very important once the port at Port St. Joe, Florida, is reopened, providing a viable export point for wood fuel pellets serving the European market.

Southern Gas Co. has a high-pressure natural gas main line that runs through Randolph County from north to south and is three miles from the manufacturing site. Natural gas would be needed by either a pellet mill or renewable fuels refinery. The demand will vary significantly, but a 4 inch pipeline from the high-pressure main to the site would be adequate. The city of Cuthbert, which receives its gas from Southern Gas, has a gas and water department that provides operation and maintenance services for the city’s gas distribution system. Discussions with the mayor have indicated that they could serve a similar role for the pipeline that will serve the site. Preliminary engineering work has been done to develop a scope of work necessary to route a 4 inch pipeline from the high-pressure main line to the manufacturing site. 

A sufficient supply of water for an extensive fire suppression system will be the most important and most expensive part of meeting the water demand at the manufacturing site.  Fire suppression will be needed for the timber receiving and processing areas and the processing equipment areas. Because of the large area involved, a fire would require a large instantaneous flow of water. The city of Cuthbert’s current water distribution system can serve an important part of meeting this demand and a number of options have been evaluated. At this point, the scope of demand is not developed well enough to do an engineering evaluation. However, there is a design basis to build on since an engineering analysis was done to assess firewater needs if only a pellet mill was being built.

Focusing On Pellets
Georgia has greatly benefited from the European market demand for wood fuel pellets.  Currently, there are a number of pellet mills operating and being built to meet this demand. 

The success of the pellet mill business is not only dependent upon a large, readily available raw material supply, but the cost of moving the product from point of manufacture to customer. To be competitive with other U.S. companies selling wood fuel pellets into the European market, the cost of the rail shipment to a port is an important factor. 

While the supply of raw material is more than adequate, the distance from Randolph County to an operating port is long. Currently, Savannah is viewed as the most viable port for exporting pellets from Randolph County to Europe. This has been a sticking point in moving forward with building a pellet mill to date. However, the potential exists for the reopening of the port at Port St. Joe, Florida, which is 100 miles closer to Randolph County than Savannah.  With this change, the logistics costs of serving Europe could be competitive with an export point on the east coast of Georgia.

Two notable project risks are the cost of the products sold and strength of market demand.  As discussed, rail shipment costs to the port are a major factor in siting a pellet mill.  Unfortunately, the location of Randolph County is unfavorable in this regard, but it is expected that opening Port St. Joe will mitigate this cost concern.

The other market risk is European companies’ demand for pellets as a renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels such as coal.  The European Union passed a renewable fuel initiative that calls for 20 percent of the energy used to be from renewable fuel sources by 2020. The U.S. is well-positioned to meet this demand, especially the Southeast, but a negative impact of changing the legislation for fuel mix in Europe could mitigate pellet demand. 

Risks are a part of any project, however, and they must be identified early on and monitored to ensure success.  In the case of Randolph County and its potential to host a pellet mill or biofuel plant, much of that has already been done.


Author: D.F. Wallis
Chamber Board Member
Randolph County Economic Development Authority
855-782-6312
rcchamber@hotmail.com