market.
There’s no denying the biomass market is growing worldwide.
As environmental agencies encourage countries to decrease their environmental footprint, more have been considering alternative energy sources. In some European countries, for example, a primary alternative energy source is wood pellets made from either compacted sawdust or microchips.
Michael Stanton, Morbark Inc.’s regional sales manager, says the European Union aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent, increase the share of renewable energy to at least 20 percent of consumption and achieve energy savings of 20 percent by 2020.
He adds that all European Union countries must achieve a 10 percent share of renewable energy in their transport sector within that time frame. If these targets are met, the European Union says it can help combat climate change and air pollution, decrease dependence on foreign fossil fuels and keep energy affordable.
Environmental Equipment as a Terex acquisition, manufactured
microchippers like this, as well as the one below.
Because of the expense, Stanton says many European countries choose wood pellets as an alternative energy source. He says it’s difficult for European countries to keep up with their own demand, leading them to import pellets from elsewhere.
Europe turns to the United States for its inputs in many instances because the U.S. has a large “wood basket” region and existing logging practices. Stanton says the European Union is one of the leading importers of pellets worldwide.
In addition, Stanton says wood pellets and microchips are being considered and used as a viable fuel source in the Northeast U.S. Overall, he estimates global demand for microchips has doubled over the past three years. Indications are that demand will continue to grow, most notably with U.S. pellet manufacturers.
“New [pellet] plants continue to be built, so the capacity the U.S. can provide keeps increasing and the markets keep opening doors,” he says. “It’s growing every year.”
Accordingly, the growth of the market presents unique opportunities for the use of portable processing equipment – particularly portable microchippers.
Specific chip
Historically, pellet mills have used sawdust to create pellets in smaller annual volumes. According to Aaron Benway, Terex Environmental Equipment’s (TEE) New England territory sales manager, available feedstock volumes have become tough to source in recent years due to the high annual tonnage output of the major pellet producers.
“In order to supply enough inbound material and be as cost efficient as possible, we determined that manufacturing a short fiber length microchip as the feedstock for pellet mills was the best option,” Benway says. “The microchip can be sent directly to the dryer, which bypasses the common hammer mill step that is found in front of the dryer at most pellet manufacturing facilities. The elimination of the grinding step reduces the manufacturing costs.”
Additionally, Benway says short fiber length improves the efficiency of the dryer and reduces the power consumption of the post-dryer hammer mill electric motors that grind the fiber to its final size. He says Continental Biomass Industries (CBI), which TEE acquired in April 2015, designed and manufactured four pocket chipper rotors that yield microchips in one pass and at rates of about 100 tph.
A few other manufacturers also make microchippers to meet these various needs. Over the past few years, Bandit Industries, Morbark and Peterson Pacific Corp. have developed microchippers for the logging industry.
Morbark’s Stanton says the majority of the microchippers in use are portable models because they suit the application better. But some stationary models are also available, he says.
According to Bandit, some microchippers have the ability to produce “standard” chips and microchips. Bandit says it has five microchipper models that offer that capability.
Demand for such equipment wasn’t high until recent years, though. Stanton says Morbark developed its first microchipper in 2011. He says Morbark has multiple models of whole tree microchippers that can consistently make chips that measure 1/4 in. or smaller in applications that were previously limited to the fuel chip market.
Southeastern wood boom
Such equipment has seen good action in the Southeast, where a majority of loggers and pellet manufacturers operate. Stanton says the climate and forestry management there is conducive for wood to grow back quickly.
“It’s known as the wood basket,” he says. “There are a lot of loggers and forestry people there. They have seen the most growth in this market.”
boom.
North Carolina-based Tidewater Land & Timber is one timber company that produces microchips. Stephen Tucker, cofounder of Tidewater Land & Timber along with Carlton “Joedy” Cahoon, says the area is optimal for producing microchips, as well as just about any kind of logging product.
“There’s an abundance of timber,” he says. “The wood grows back here at a rate that’s higher than the usage. The wood tends to be cheaper because it’s abundant. Then there’s also the close proximity to ports almost anywhere in the Southeast, such as Norfolk, Va., Morehead City and Wilmington, N.C., so exporting the end products overseas is also more affordable.”
It’s an altogether good market for loggers and pellet manufacturers, according to both Stanton and Tucker.
Tidewater Land & Timber owns and operates a TEE TBG660 (CBI Magnum Force 6400T) and a Bandit 3590 to produce microchips for Enviva, which is one of the largest pellet manufacturers along the East Coast. Tucker says his company began producing microchips for Enviva about three years ago. He adds he worked with an Enviva manager before Enviva moved closer to Tidewater Land & Timber.
“That relationship had a lot to do with how we got to work with them,” he says.
Business has grown since becoming a partner with Enviva, Tucker says. Today, Tidewater Land & Timber produces about 300 tons of microchips per day. The company also produces more than 100,000 tons of microchips per year for Enviva’s facilities.
“It’s a good relationship for us,” he says. “We’ve been able to grow quite a bit since they came to town.”
From chips to pellets
While wood pellet manufacturers historically sought sawdust to produce biomass power, they turned to microchips in recent years due to a scarcity of sawdust.
Here’s the process of taking wood, turning it into a microchip and, finally, converting it into a wood pellet:
- Loggers harvest whole trees and the low-grade logs are set aside.
- Loggers feed unsalable stems of wood into a microchipper, which typically produces chips as small as 1/4 in. fiber length.
- Chip producers deliver raw microchips to pellet manufacturers.
- Pellet manufacturers send microchips through a dryer to reduce moisture content.
- Microchips are ground in a hammermill to the final individual wood fibers, where they are pressed through dies at high pressure. This process causes the chips to heat up and release natural linings in the wood to bind them together to form a pellet.
- Newly produced pellets are cooled and transported via truck or railcar to large ports, where they are put on barges to ship to export markets.