B.C. government preparing for waste wood-to-biofuel bids
The B.C. government says it will be ready by July for bids from bioenergy producers for the mountains of debris in B.C. forests not being used now by sawmillers. The bids will be for a new form of forest tenure aimed at utilizing waste wood and will coincide with a B.C. Hydro call for proposals on large-scale bioenergy plants, Forests Minister Rich Coleman said at a Prince George bioenergy conference this week.
The forests ministry estimates that in the Interior alone, 4.4 million cubic metres of wood a year is being left after loggers leave. A cubic metre of wood is equivalent to a telephone pole.
Most of the waste wood is in the regions hit hardest by the mountain pine beetle - the western Interior from Fort St. James in the north down to Merritt in the south. Those regions are also well away from the existing pulp and paper industry, which is now paying from $25 to $35 a cubic metre in transportation costs for dead pine logs hauled from the bush to mills.
The most economic way to get the waste to power plants would be through overlapping forest tenures, where a bioenergy producer piggy-backs on an existing forest licence, sharing harvesting and transportation costs with the primary licensee, said David Gandossi, chair of the B.C. Pulp and Paper Task Force. The pulp sector had been concerned that the province’s bioenergy plans, if not co-ordinated with existing fibre users, could push up wood chip costs for their plants.
“Our industry believes the government gets it and understands the issues,” Gandossi said Friday of the new tenures. He said Victoria has chosen areas of the province for the new tenures that are not close to existing pulp and paper mills. There is little waste fibre around the mills right now, he said. “But there are areas of the province where there is a lot of wood that needs to be used. What they are going after is the part of the forest that the existing industry doesn’t need. It’s different in every part of the province. The key is: the government has done the inventory studies and the fibre flow studies to show where the opportunities are.”
Gandossi admitted that existing users have been wasting fibre. “The way we have been operating in this province up until now has been somewhat wasteful compared to what’s happening in other parts of the world. There’s value in wood beyond just the sawlog. But British Columbia has had the benefit of so much sawmilling activity relative to the lower-end fibre demands that much woody debris is left behind. It’s incredibly wasteful.
“But as the value of that lower-end fibre creeps up and starts approaching its energy value, the whole forest has a value.” Demand for the new tenures is expected to be high but the key, said Wayne Clogg, vice-president of woodlands at West Fraser Timber, is B.C. Hydro’s concurrent call for bioenergy proposals. Only successful proponents under the Hydro call would be able to get one of the new tenures.
West Fraser, the country’s largest lumber producer, is exploring the feasibility of a 50-70 megawatt power plant in the Houston region along with EPCOR Utilities. EPCOR operates a bioenergy plant at Williams Lake.
The Houston plant, if it goes ahead, would use tree limbs left behind from existing logging operations, low-grade beetle-killed trees, and sawmill residuals.
West Fraser has a mill at nearby Fraser Lake where waste is disposed of in a beehive burner that would be phased out, Clogg said. Clogg said the bioenergy plant would be feasible utilizing only existing waste from the surrounding region. A bioenergy tenure is needed as well, however, to ensure a long-term fibre supply for the proposed plant.
Victoria intends to issue 20-year non-replaceable licences.
By: Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
The forests ministry estimates that in the Interior alone, 4.4 million cubic metres of wood a year is being left after loggers leave. A cubic metre of wood is equivalent to a telephone pole.
Most of the waste wood is in the regions hit hardest by the mountain pine beetle - the western Interior from Fort St. James in the north down to Merritt in the south. Those regions are also well away from the existing pulp and paper industry, which is now paying from $25 to $35 a cubic metre in transportation costs for dead pine logs hauled from the bush to mills.
The most economic way to get the waste to power plants would be through overlapping forest tenures, where a bioenergy producer piggy-backs on an existing forest licence, sharing harvesting and transportation costs with the primary licensee, said David Gandossi, chair of the B.C. Pulp and Paper Task Force. The pulp sector had been concerned that the province’s bioenergy plans, if not co-ordinated with existing fibre users, could push up wood chip costs for their plants.
“Our industry believes the government gets it and understands the issues,” Gandossi said Friday of the new tenures. He said Victoria has chosen areas of the province for the new tenures that are not close to existing pulp and paper mills. There is little waste fibre around the mills right now, he said. “But there are areas of the province where there is a lot of wood that needs to be used. What they are going after is the part of the forest that the existing industry doesn’t need. It’s different in every part of the province. The key is: the government has done the inventory studies and the fibre flow studies to show where the opportunities are.”
Gandossi admitted that existing users have been wasting fibre. “The way we have been operating in this province up until now has been somewhat wasteful compared to what’s happening in other parts of the world. There’s value in wood beyond just the sawlog. But British Columbia has had the benefit of so much sawmilling activity relative to the lower-end fibre demands that much woody debris is left behind. It’s incredibly wasteful.
“But as the value of that lower-end fibre creeps up and starts approaching its energy value, the whole forest has a value.” Demand for the new tenures is expected to be high but the key, said Wayne Clogg, vice-president of woodlands at West Fraser Timber, is B.C. Hydro’s concurrent call for bioenergy proposals. Only successful proponents under the Hydro call would be able to get one of the new tenures.
West Fraser, the country’s largest lumber producer, is exploring the feasibility of a 50-70 megawatt power plant in the Houston region along with EPCOR Utilities. EPCOR operates a bioenergy plant at Williams Lake.
The Houston plant, if it goes ahead, would use tree limbs left behind from existing logging operations, low-grade beetle-killed trees, and sawmill residuals.
West Fraser has a mill at nearby Fraser Lake where waste is disposed of in a beehive burner that would be phased out, Clogg said. Clogg said the bioenergy plant would be feasible utilizing only existing waste from the surrounding region. A bioenergy tenure is needed as well, however, to ensure a long-term fibre supply for the proposed plant.
Victoria intends to issue 20-year non-replaceable licences.
By: Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
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