Business Briefs

2. PHOTO: Rural Energy

July 11, 2016

BY Pellet Mill Magazine Staff

1. Fecon adds regional manager
Fecon Inc. has added Devin Chambers as regional manager of its Mid-South region, covering Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Chambers has more than a decade of territory management experience. He is also experienced in the development and implementation of sales and marketing strategies, dealer recruitment and development, sales and service training, and direct sales.

2. Rural Energy earns certification
U.K.-based Rural Energy has completed the combined-heat-and-power design and installation training course from Bosch Commercial and Industrial. The course was comprised of two days of training and means the biomass specialist is now a certified technology partner of Bosch, a manufacturer of heating and cooling products.

3. UK official appointed
Alex Chisholm has been appointed as the new permanent secretary for the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change. Chisholm previously served as chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority.

4. UNTHA adds team member
UNTHA has added Andreas Senkbeil to its team. Senkbeil has worked in the waste management sector for the past four years and will be responsible for the company’s growth in the Asian Pacific market, including Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, China and Australia. 

5. WPAC appoints president
Michele Rebiere resigned as president of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada in May, citing a need to focus on her role as chief financial officer of Viridis Energy as the company pursues the sale of its business. She served on the organization’s board for five years, and spent one year as president. WPAC has appointed former Vice President Rene Landry as president. He will assume the role until the next general meeting of the membership is held in September. Landry is director of pellet operations for Nova Scotia-based Shaw Resources, which operates two plants in Atlantic Canada.

6. PFI qualifies new facilities under standards program
The Pellet Fuels Institute has announced the qualification of pellet fuel manufacturer Northeast Wood Products Jasper LLC of Jasper, Tennessee, into the PFI Standards Program. New England Wood Pellet also got its Allegheny plant in Youngsville, Pennsylvania, added to the program. Georgia Biomass of Waycross, Georgia, and Smith Flooring of Mountain View, Missouri, are two more recently qualified additions. The PFI Standards Program now represents 15 pellet manufacturing companies with a combined 24 facilities.

7. SBP approves PwC as certification body
The Sustainable Biomass Partnership has announced PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Canada has become the third SBP-approved certification body. PwC has provided evidence that it meets the SBP requirements regarding its existing accreditations and has demonstrated sufficient resources and competence to manage the SBP certification scheme under the SBP Framework, which enables producers of woody biomass to demonstrate that they source their raw material responsibly and that the material complies with regulatory requirements, including sustainability requirements, applicable to power generators burning woody biomass to produce energy. PwC has been approved for certification of biomass producers in the U.S. and Canada. These producers typically include pellet or woodchip mills and the biomass supply chain.
 
8. Enviva Forest Conservation Fund announces awards
The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has announced the recipients of its 2016 grants. The fund, established by Enviva Holdings LP and administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, is awarding $500,000 in 2016 to preservation and conservation programs that span more than 2,000 acres of environmentally sensitive bottomland and wetland forests in North Carolina and Virginia. The four awards were made to the Nature Conservancy North Carolina Chapter, the Triangle Land Conservancy, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Nature Conservancy Virginia Chapter.

9. Doosan Babcock wins contract
U.K.-based energy engineering firm Doosan Babcock has been awarded a multimillion-pound contract to deliver the combustion and emissions systems for the biomass conversion of Lynemouth power station near Newcastle in the U.K. The power station’s three 140 MW coal boilers are being converted to biomass.  Under terms of the contract, Doosan Babcock will deliver the complete scope of boiler works, including the modification of mills and electrostatic precipitators, and the replacement of fans, a low-NOx combustion system and ash-handling systems. Once complete, the  plant will consume approximately 1.4 million metric tons of sustainable wood pellets per year for the next 10 years.

10. UNTHA announces new shredder
Austrian-based UNTHA has announced a new electric-drive shredder. The UNTHA XR shredder has been designed and engineered to increase capacity, profitability and safety levels in the wood recycling and biomass market. A slow-speed, high-torque drive allows the XR to consistently process up to 40 metric tons of wood per hour. The system significantly minimizes dust levels, which reduces the risk of fire. It is available as either a static or mobile solution. Trials have shown that the XR produces fines as low as 5 percent. As a result, the shredder yields up to 20 percent more saleable biomass material per ton than other solutions, often without the need for any additional screening systems.

11. Rural Energy adds team member
Rural Energy has boosted its in-house design capabilities with the addition of Carlyne Parillon as senior design engineer. In her role, Parillon will interpret client briefs and be responsible for concept and detailed designs of energy centers.  She has more than seven years of experience designing district heating systems.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

Sign up for our e-newsletter!

Advertisement

Advertisement