The “traditional” pellet market panel session with Jason Woods (left), Head of Biomass, Vattenfall Trading; Martin de Wolff, Head of Biofuel Trading, RWE Supply & Trading; Peter Thomsen, VP DONG Energy Thermal Power; moderator Thomas Meth, Co-Founder & Executive VP Sales & Marketing, Enviva Biomass; Fabien Mehu, Head of Biomass Trading, Engie and Deborah Keedy, Head of Biomass Procurement, Drax Power. Lignetics acquire Geneva Wood Bioenergy International No 82, 6-2015 27 » Europe, the supply-chains and other infrastructures already exist, also of course for pellets. A parallel can be drawn to liquid biofuels and refining majors like Neste. First SBP certified producer Nonetheless a key and popular feature of the conference are the producer and utility market panels whereby moderated panellists share views on the current (and conventional) markets for pellets, supply and demand forecasts all within the bounds of competition and anti-trust limitations. Sustainability was discussed. Deborah Keedy, arguably the world’s single largest pellet buyer in her role as Head of Biomass Procurement at Drax Power, remarked that ”we want all of our producers to be SBP Sustainable Biomass Partnership certified by 2016.” A tough call given that news only emerged during the event that The Westervelt Company had become the first SBP certified producer. What’s happening in the UK? As at previous editions John Bingham, Director, Hawkins Wright, provided the backdrop for market panel discussions with an outlook on industrial wood pellet markets in Europe and Asia. Being policy driven markets, political risk and policy uncertainty remain an almost constant macro-challenge but so too did “plummeting” energy and weak carbon prices compounded by a strong US$ translating to a 15 percent increase in the cost of pellets for those buying with EUR. On the upside side Bingham noted that the market as a whole has continued to grow, progress can be reported on some large power projects, there have been some positive policy developments such as in the Netherlands and perhaps more importantly as a result there is an improvement in long-term visibility. The big question on many minds: what more (or less) can be expected from the new Conservative regime in the UK now that it has full control over energy policy for the first time in almost a decade? –The immediate priorities have been to control overspending in the Levy Control Framework (LCF), the budget that caps spending on support for renewable electricity. But note that as a whole these cost cutting measures are not aimed at biomass specifically, he explained. Other forms of support that affect pellets have been reduced or removed including grandfathering of renewable obligation certificates PELLETS Biocoal plant planned for Kaliningrad Finnish torrefaction technology developer Torrec Oy has revealed it has signed a contract with Kaliningrad-based wood processing company OOO Baltic Forest Company (BFC) to build a biocoal production plant in the Kaliningrad region. Kaliningrad is a Russian territorial enclosure on the Baltic Sea coastline bordering Poland and Lithuania. According to Heikki Sonninen, Director of Marketing and Sales for Torrec Oy, the design production capacity of the plant will be 30 000 tonnes-per-annum of torrefied wood (TW) pellets using mixed hardwood species as feedstock. Torrec is the main designer of the plant with some of the equipment to be procured locally by the client. The total investment value is around EUR 4 million and plant is estimated to begin production early summer of 2016. The company has been developing its own torrefaction technology in Mikkeli, Central Fin- One of the largest residential wood pellet manufacturing companies in the US, Idaho based Lignetics, Inc., has announced the acquisition of Geneva Wood Fuels (Geneva) pellet production facility in Strong, Maine from GF Funding LLC. The facility produces hardwood pellet fuel for residential and commercial use. The deal enables Lignetics to expand its overall production capacity to over 500 000 tonnes per annum and makes it the only pellet producer that has manufacturing plants on both the East Coast and the West Coast with a spread of six plant locations in the states of Maine, Oregon, Idaho, West Virginia and Virginia. Founded in 1983, Lignetics is one of the pioneers of wood pellets and compressed wood fire logs manufacturing that also includes flavoured BBQ pellets and animal bedding. BI82/5039/AS land, in co-operation with the local development company Miktech Oy, Etelä-Savon Energia Oy and the Finnish development fund Tekes. – For Torrec this contract with BFC means a remarkable opening to the Russian market, where the advantageous raw material availability provides excellent opportunities for profitable production, said Heikki Sonninen. The plan is to supply TW pellets for co-firing at coal-fired power plants around the Baltic Sea enabling an increase of renewable power output at minimum capital investment. – Torrefied wood pellets can be mixed with fossil coal up to 50 percent without new investments at the power station, said Sonninen adding that the consumer market is of interest though market entrance is more complicated. BI82/5037/AS (ROC) for conversion and co-firing, removing renewable electricity’s exemption from the climate change levy (CCL), and postponing the autumn contract for difference (CfD) auction. With the 2015/2016 capacity margin down to around 1.5 percent, there will be plenty to report on from next year’s USIPA, 6-8 November 2016. Text & photos: Alan Sherrard BI82/5053/AS Dynamic duo who spoke on other pellet markets, Wilco van der Lans, from Port of Rotterdam (left) and Dr Federico Berruti, McKinsey & Company. John Keppler, Chairman & CEO, Enviva, currently the world’s largest producer and first to “go public” in the US, spoke pellets in non-policy driven markets.
Bioenergy no 6 October 2015
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