Interviews Today For Top Post In Bioenergy Partnership

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 07:47 AM

Prince George, B.C. - Much work has been done to establish Prince George as the transportation hub for northern BC. Today, efforts to establish the city as a forest-based bioenergy centre take another step forward...

Earlier this month, the Northern Bioenergy Partnership announced it had received the financial boost it needed to get the partnership up-and-running. Formed in 2009, the NBP is an industry-led coalition of businesses, academic institutions, government and First Nation organizations involved in the bioenergy industry in Northern BC. The agency will move to become its own society thanks to $100-thousand dollars in funding spread over the next three years from the BC Bioenergy Network, $60-thousand over three years from the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition, and a $50-thousand dollar installment from industry. (click here, for previous story)

And steering Committee member, IPG President Tim McEwan, says interviews begin today for the position of NPB Executive Director.

McEwan says, "We have an exciting opportunity here."

"If you go back 50-years, the forest industry was largely dimension lumber and, then, the next value-stream was pulp and paper, the opportunity we have in contemporary times is to build a bioenergy sector here using additonal residues on the forest floor and from industry."

He says, "The notion is to build Prince George as the centre of a forest-based bioenergy cluster."

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Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 07:47 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: He spoke on December 21 2010 8:05 AM

Center for bioenergy?

Posted by: gus on December 21 2010 10:11 AM

Here is a one year old article from the USA state of Georgia (as opposed to the one in Russia)

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-01-21/story/massive_wood_fuel_plant_to_be_built_in_waycross

Two European companies have chosen Waycross as the spot to build the largest wood pellet plant in the world.

RWE Innogy of Germany and BMC of Sweden will invest $150 million to build a "green energy" wood pellet plant on 300 acres in Waycross' Industrial Park. Wood pellets are used in European power plants as a low-pollution substitute for coal.

When completed, the plant will produce 750,000 tons of wood pellets annually. That much product will do more than create 75 jobs, said Herrin. Timber owners will have a new market for their products, timber crews and haulers will gain jobs and semi-truck companies will earn money providing and maintaining vehicles.

"Southeastern Georgia is the wood basket of the world. We have a bountiful supply of pine here," Morgan said. Waycross also provides railway access to Georgia's deep water ports, she said.

Of course, this plant in Russia will actually be larger. 900,000 tons annually.

http://www.internationalforestindustries.com/2010/12/03/worlds-largest-wood-pellet-plant-planned/

I think Canada is actually late out of the starting blocks when it comes to European clients. Russia's forests are much closer and much larger in area.

Here is Green Circle's plant in Florida, of all places, with a capcity of 550,000 tons annually. Puts our plants to shame.
http://www.greencirclebio.com

Posted by: gus on December 21 2010 10:16 AM

Oh, and the Chinese are planting nut producing trees to extract oil
http://news.mongabay.com/bioenergy/2008/01/china-boosts-forest-based-bioenergy.html

"Persistent high oil prices and rapidly growing dependence on imported oil prompt China to further invest in biofuels that yield environmental benefits besides fuel. Forestry administrators told state media they will be planting nearly 7,000 hectares of oilseed bearing trees in the northern province of Hebei this year, part of a much larger national campaign to fuel the fast growing economy in a greener way. The 7000ha demonstration project will grow Chinese pistachio trees. They kickstart Hebei's program aimed at planting a total of 870,000ha of multi-purpose bioenergy trees in uninhabited mountainous areas over the coming decades."

A wood/forest based carbon sequestering project at the same time as extracting oil. Interesting, eh what? :-)

Bioenergy cluster ... in other words, most of the world ... polycentric.

Posted by: He spoke on December 21 2010 11:08 AM

Gus, Georgia sure is a long way from Prince George. We just want to be the center of the Northern BC Bioenergy Partnership. We are not looking at changing the world dynamics of the wood pellet industry.

We just want to get ourselves organized so that the world can look at other places other than Georgia for wood pellets. I think, properly organized it will be a good partnership, to bring this area into the forefront of bioenergy potential.

Sell the pellets, not the fibre source!

Posted by: gus on December 21 2010 12:30 PM

Yes he spoke .... it is a long way away.

I was just trying to remind people that when it comes to bioenergy we are not quite the centre of the universe at the moment. We have a long haul. Plus, I think we may need to create a broader perspective than just pellets. That is why I posted the link to the Chinese site.

I look at pellets in a similar fashion to 2x4 lumber - a singular product and thus a vulnerable market. I feel bioenergy needs to be diversified just as any other industrial sector that is looking towards some sustainability.

I do not know what the pay down of a plant is. I suspect it is fairly short. Likely no longer than 5 to 10 years. Jobs on the manufacturing side are also fairly low. That means putting a plant like that in serves more to keep primary manufacture of lumber competitive which in turn keeps the harvesting, hauling, silviculture, quality control and planning jobs.

Whenever I see this kind of initiative, I wonder whatever happend to the ethanol plant Kinsley had in the bag 6 or so years ago. Seems that technology is not yet ready.

Posted by: He spoke on December 21 2010 1:13 PM

Yes we have a long ways to get there, in the meantime, we have this organization sucking out money from the public coffers. The good thing is that it will be paying someone who lives in Prince George, and will be spending money here.

Bio energy, wood pellets and a carbonizing plant. Would we get to the point of making ethenol, maybe, but I think this will need to come out of the barks from the debarker. Thus it might become viable, once we get rid off all the beetle kill pine trees. Thus we can get back into live trees with a lot more sugar in them.

So, this will not solve all our ills, but diversification is a key to our success. The forestry is starting on the upswing, thus it is good for everyone.

I think the future is bright for Prince George.

Posted by: northman on December 21 2010 1:56 PM

One of the problems here which is preventing the bio energy industry from jumping head first into the water is...

Long term fibre suply.

At the moment pellets are the only viable solution because of cheap sawmill waste..It is far too expenive to log and haul bush run logs and grind them at a pellet plant.(although it has been done however The cut off point to make this feasable is a

Posted by: northman on December 21 2010 1:57 PM

it chopped half my post off..sorry i dont have time to re post.

Posted by: seamutt on December 21 2010 3:11 PM

Shale gas, available world wide so I suggest any one with lots of bucks in so called heavily subsidized green energy, that includes taxpayer money should get out.

Posted by: He spoke on December 21 2010 4:03 PM

Shale gas, is already being exploited. The methane gas from the coal beds is our next extraction that we should be concentrating on. Converting methane gas into electricity.

Posted by: Palopu on December 21 2010 8:07 PM

Quote from Jacqueline Palladina, an economist with the Conference Board of Canada.

**A decrease in the supply of lumber due to the mountain pine beetle infestation and reductions in allowable cuts will also weigh on the lumber industry in the coming years**

The International Wood Markets Group estimates the infestation will lead to the closure of an additional 16 B.C. mills by 2018.

**Vancouver Sun article December 15/10**

Posted by: gus on December 21 2010 8:59 PM

That has been known for more than 5 years Palopu. Nobody is addressing it ... yet. The predictions have been out there ..... 40% falldown in wood fibre in the boreal forest. The period over which this will have the biggest impact is roughly 50 years. So far, not a single peep on how the government is intending to mitigate the result of this.

New fibre sources will be found and this part of the world will then have a hard time to regain its old market share.

Of course, a lot can happen in 50 years from the point of view of world population, world economic leader shifts, world raw material use, etc.

I wish my great grandchildren the best of luck.

Posted by: Palopu on December 21 2010 10:00 PM

At the end of the day, when we run into a shortage of fibre because of mill closures, etc., the available fibre will go to the Pulp Mills, mainly because they have the TFL's.

I dont see a long term shelf life for the Bio-Energy Industry, unless of course the Bio Industry is owned by the same people who own the Sawmills and Pulp Mills.