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Bioenergy nr 1 - 2015

BZFBSPGDPOTPMJEBUJPO FYQBOTJPOBOEEJWFSTJGJDBUJPO IN THE U.S. FRAM RENEWABLES is fully engaged with construction of its novel Hazlehurst plant. The first of three planned twenty-tonne-per- hour lines is up and running. In Canada, at least three new plants are in the final stages of commissioning and all are in the province of Ontario; Resolute Forest Products’ plant in Thunder Bay and the Rentech plants in Atikokan 10 and Wawa. In Estonia, Graanul Invest is starting up its seventh pellet plant in Vorumaa. With a 250 000 tonne-per-annum capacity it is one of the larger starts ups in Europe and will bring the total combined capacity of the group to over 1 million tonnes. In neighbouring Latvia Latgran are also commissioning a 160 000 tonne-per-annum facility in Gulbene. The fourth plant for the company, it brings total capacity to over 400 000 tonnes. In Romania, Schweighofer has increased annual pellet production capacity in Radauti to 165 000 tonnes and in Sebes to 124 000 tonnes. It also announced construction of a new wood processing plant with 130 000 tonnes pellet production in Reci with a start-up this year. Retail expansion In January one of the world’s largest pellet producers German Pellets acquired Heizwert, the largest pellet retailer in Austria. In November, German Pellets and ZG Raiffeisen Energie GmbH, a Baden-based trading and service company organised as a cooperative, announced the formation of a joint venture company for pellets retail. The aim is to group together operations in the south-west German pellet market to a greater extent in the future and to further expand the sale of wood pellets to end-customers. Expansion by acquistions In February two Swedish producers, Agroenergi, the solid biomass fuel division of farmer cooperative-owned company Lantmännen Energi and Neova, the Swedish subsidiary of Finnish peat and forest industry major Vapo, announced setting up a jointly-owned pellet production and retail business Agroenergi Neova Pellets. The new company has eight production plants including one in Latvia and a combined total annual production capacity of 655 000 tonnes, about the size of a Green Circle Bio Energy plant. In May the energy division of the US company Rentech, acquired New England Wood Pellets (NEWP), one of the largest producers of pellets for the US domestic market. NEWP operates two plants in NY and one in NH and, according to Rentech, has an estimated 15 percent market share of the 1.5 million tonne regional market in the US Northwest. In June it was circulated that Georgia Biomass in Georgia was for sale as biomass was no longer a core business for the owners German utility majors RWE. However in July plant officials assured local media that the company was not for sale nor was it to be shuttered. Undoubtedly the biggest deal came in October when the Swedish owners of Green Circle Bio Energy, JCE Group announced that Enviva was to acquire the 650 000 tonne-per-annum Florida plant. In January this year the deal was PELLETS Looking back at some of the happenings in pellet production during 2014 it certainly seems to have been a year of “consolidation and expansion” as Harold Arnold, President of Fram Renewables and President of USIPA, aptly remarked during USIPA. Below follows some of what has happened. Full steam ahead for Resolute Forest Products sawmill in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Here it has commissioned a 45 000 tonne-per-annum wood pellet plant.


Bioenergy nr 1 - 2015
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