Case Study Slides

1. 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.

3. 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

5. 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

7. 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

8. Wood storage Bagasse storage

9. The Okeelanta facility uses three water-cooled vibrating grate stoker boilers.

11. 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

12. 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

14. 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).

15. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

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

21. Telogia Power, LLC • Liberty County, Florida • 14 Megawatts gross electricity production • 12.5 Megawatts net electricity production • Fuel—190,000 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

23. Powering the Grid with Waste • Ridge Generating Station in Auburndale, Florida • Operating since 1994 • Approx. 45 Megawatts gross capacity • Part of county’s waste-management system

24. 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

26. 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

27. McNeil Generating Station Wood sources: 70% from low-quality trees 25% sawmill residues 5% urban wood waste

29. 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

30. 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

32. Waste-to-Energy Program

33. 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

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

37. 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

39. 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

41. Wood-powered Whiskey • Jack Daniel’s 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