Advanced wood pellets, often called black pellets due to their appearance after thermal treatment, have long been touted as a superior fuel to conventional white wood pellets.
Before being used as fuel at Drax's U.K. power station, wood pellets make a long journey that the company has fine-tuned.
Successfully bypassing numerous potential project development pitfalls requires a deep understanding of the wood fiber supply chain.
On Feb. 27, Drax Group plc released 2017 financial results, reporting improved earnings from biomass generation and Opus Energy. During an investor presentation, the company provided insight into its future bioenergy plans.
On Feb. 27, nearly six months after he was first nominated, the U.S. Senate confirmed Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey to serve as Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Service at USDA.
On Feb. 27, Lignetics Inc. announced it has acquired New England Wood Pellet LLC, which includes manufacturing plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire; Schuyler, New York; Deposit, New York; and Youngsville, Pennsylvania.
Astec Industries recently released fourth quarter 2017 financial results, providing an update of ongoing pellet plant activities in Georgia and Arkansas and discussing the company's future plans as an equipment supplier to the pellet industry.
Enviva Partners LP has released fourth quarter financial results and announced it has entered into a firm 10-year take-or-pay offtake contract with Marubeni Corp. to supply 100,000 metric tons per year of wood pellets to a new power plant in Japan.
The NASF has created an open-access clearinghouse for national and state regulations that affect the management of U.S. forests and help to demonstrate the sustainable and legal nature in which U.S. timber is harvested.
INRS researchers have developed a process that successfully removed more than 90 percent of the contaminants present in treated wood waste. Once decontaminated, the wood could be used to manufacture particleboard or heating pellets.
The U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $11.5 million in new funding to deploy energy infrastructure on tribal lands. Bioenergy projects are among those eligible to apply for the funding.
Enviva announced Feb. 16 that it has completed the acquisition of a wood pellet production plant in Greenwood, South Carolina, and related assets from The Navigator Co. S.A., a Portuguese paper and pulp company.
Prodesa and FutureMetrics are teaming up under a new partnership agreement under which FutureMetrics operations expert, John Swaan, will lead a team that trains the operators of new Prodesa pellet plants.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has provided New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu with a letter announcing EPA's efforts to work towards a carbon-neutral policy for biomass and clarify federal procurement recommendations for responsibly managed forests.
U.K.-based Active Energy Group plc has announced its CoalSwitch plant in Utah officially became operational the week of Feb. 5 and is producing the company's high-calorific, high-bulk-density biomass pellet.
FutureMetrics has published a brief white paper explaining how weather and the price of heating oil influence demand for wood pellets used for heating. The paper, published Jan. 31, was authored by William Strauss, president of FutureMetrics.
U.S. DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office conducts a biennial peer review that enables external stakeholders to provide feedback on its R&D portfolio and develop recommendations. On Feb. 6, BETO published the results of last year's peer review.
The New Hampshire Wood Energy Council reveals modern wood heating with locally sourced wood pellet fuel is delivering significant heat cost advantages over conventional fossil heating fuels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration has released the February edition of its Short-Term Energy Outlook, predicting nonhydropower renewables will provide approximately 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation in 2018 and 2019.
Canadian pellet producer Pinnacle Renewable Holdings Inc. announced the successful closing of its initial public offering (IPO) and secondary offering of its common shares. The common shares began trading Feb. 6 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
By Frank Hedlund and Jeffrey Nichols
February 01, 2018
Smoldering fires in wood pellets storages can occur for a number of reasons. Oftentimes, smoldering fires in bulk storage silos can't be fought with water.
The Vermont State Archives, home to the constitution, is heated with wood. Last fall the Department of Buildings and General Services replaced the aging boilers in the State Archives in Middlesex with two new automatic Froling wood pellet boilers.
After several consecutive soft winters, signs point to a rebound for most U.S. pellet manufacturers.
The EU pellet industry may have more growing to do, but just how much, only time and policy will tell.
The past couple of heating seasons have been a rocky for many U.S. manufacturers because of warmer temperatures and cheap oil and natural gas, but the brutal cold this winter has brought so far has finally turned the tide,
John Keppler, Enviva's chairman and CEO, discusses the European wood pellet market, expansion plans and future opportunities.
Pellet manufacturing plays an important role in the broader forest products supply chain, shoring up value for the residual fiber streams that are generated every day by sawmills, cabinet shops and flooring manufacturers.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently announced U.S. manufacturers of densified biomass fuel reported producing 670,000 tons of product in October, with sales reaching 640,000 tons.
Enviva has released new Track & Trace sourcing data, marking one year of public reporting and two years of tracking the company's sustainable sourcing practices. The data helps measure, maintain and validate Enviva's sustainability practices.
Estonia-based Graanul Invest has announced its subsidiary purchased the company's first bulk carrier on Jan. 12. The vessel is named MB Imavere and has the capacity to transport approximately 30,000 tons of wood pellets.
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