MILLINOCKET, Maine — A New Hampshire-based developer of New England’s first torrefied wood facility will meet with the planning board on Wednesday to discuss its proposal, officials said Tuesday.
The planning board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the town office to hear from officials from Thermogen Industries LLC, who plan to build their plant in the wood yard of the Katahdin Avenue paper mill, officials said.
The application appears to be on schedule with the board and with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Town Manager Eugene Conlogue said.
“If they get their permit by the end of August, they could break ground in September,” Conlogue said.
According to the application filed with the state, the torrefied wood chips will be transformed from wood waste into “stable and water-resistant” pellets containing 30 percent more energy than standard wood pellets. DEP officials began their review on June 4.
The facility will be a major source of volatile organic compounds, producing an estimated 50 tons annually of VOCs, which according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency can cause a host of health problems.
Though the facility would be the first of its kind in New England and its process the first in the world to use microwaves to produce torrefied wood, state officials have said they don’t expect any particular problems with the review or the presence of VOCs.
Facilities on a list of similar major-source pollutants include the East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills, Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC and the Indeck biomass boiler in Enfield. All of them have scrubbers or other devices that contain or eliminate pollutant emissions or keep them within acceptable standards, state officials have said.
Cate Street Capital officials have said that the $35 million facility will use a Targeted Intelligent Energy System built by Scotland-based Rotawave Biocoal to manufacture biocoal, or torrefied wood. Located in New Hampshire, Cate Street is a parent company of Thermogen.
The machine would be at least as quiet and odor-free as the paper mill it would go next to. The plant would hire 25 full-time workers and begin producing, from about 240,000 to 250,000 tons of wood wastes, about 110,000 tons of torrefied wood pellets annually for sale to British and European coal-fired electricity plants. Cate Street expects the facility to start in summer 2013.
A call to Cate Street’s spokesman was not immediately returned on Tuesday.
The facility would be part of an industrial park Cate Street hopes to build on the mill premises.
Heh, I see what they did there. The paper mill which the plant would go next to is very quiet and almost completely odor-free right now, which is the association they want to make in people’s minds – but that’s only because the mill is effectively abandoned, its pulping plant and grinding facilities were carted off for scrap years ago, and no industrial activity has taken place on the site in years. When GNP was actually making paper there, it was in no way quiet or odor-free.
Not that this should stop anyone from building a biocoal plant there – what the heck, even at its worst the Millinocket mill smelled a lot better than Lincoln’s – but still, it’s a nice little piece of spin they’ve done there.
(Also: twenty-five full-time workers? Break out the party hats, Ethel, Millinocket is saved.)
Ben, why would you say something like that? You know thats not true, no spin here! Gee Ben perhaps there could have been a job for you…
25 jobs is better then no Jobs
25 jobs at the plant and countless others beyond that. Someone has to truck resources to the mill and move the finished product to customers. Someone has to cut the trees and run the mom and pop stores.
25 jobs doesn’t seem like much given the tax breaks and resulting town layoffs that had to happen in Millinocket. Not to mention the millions in liability we’ve assumed for the landfill. I realize this may just be the start, but those numbers don’t give me a lot confidence that the town or state is going to get much for it’s investment.
I’d like to see the BDN do a story about the tax and job implications of this project. How much did the towns sacrifice and how long will it take to pay those tax incentives off? How many town employees were laid off as a result of the tax loss and how do the wages and benefits compare? Just looking for someone to dig a little below the surface on this so that we can determine if the investment was worth it.
You do realize that this company will still be paying taxes. It’s not like the town is losing money. They will actually be gaining tax dollars from the plant. No one was laid off because of this company coming to town. And the break is only for 6 years.
But hey, we don’t need the jobs, let’s just keep people on welfare. I wonder what the return is on that investment?
it never fails that there is always someone on the negative looking to throw darts. you know half of something is better than half of nothing. think of how many more people would have been layed off by the town and how much more the taxes would have to go up if they didn’t come to town???! geez, get a life would ya.
Provided they can keep the VOC’s under control, and work on a steady curve toward eliminating them, this plant seems well on it’s way toward entering production. What is more immediate is the means by which Thremogen is gonna ship the bio-coal to whatever port is selected for it’s eventual shipping to Europe. This a BIG question that Cate St needs to be asked, and show some work on toward the solution on, before the plant goes on line. Product sitting in the yard does no one any good if it can’t be transported. And the same question needs to be asked as far as the specific port goes as well. Bulk shipping needs to be scheduled and routed. No sense doing it at the last minute.
Mike I am sure the company is grateful for your comment, they never ever would have thought of that????????
Large Company’s regretably, have a lot in common with the Government, namely they don’t plan out very well, i.e., they tend to see the forest instead of the tree’s, and forget how they got there. I would hope that, missing here, they show their shipping plan to the Millinocket Town Council so they can get ALL of the information out there and get everyone ‘on board’. The more information on the plant’s impact on the town that Cate St. puts out, the better everyone is gonna feel about this and can plan accordingly. And not to bring up something nasty but that lack of transparency is what has Cianbro & Vigue in so much trouble. Cate St. and Millinocket have apparently seen where that is headed and made the smart move by being responsible and getting the information out there so everyone knows what’s going on. Transparency and responsibility at it’s best.
I believe the reasons they pick this location was its connection to the rail system and it being located in the middle of the needed resources for its operation.
toooo funnny! i am sure freight was the last thing on their mind!
They’ll probably ship it the same way they shipped paper. MMA lines to Searsport seems the most practical.
There is allot of unused capacity at the Searsport and East port terminals. It will likely come down to which port has the best connections with Lepage and his cronies.
This is one of those rare times that the business community is absolutely right and should be left alone to make the decision. Shipping the bio-coal is a straight business-cost issue and needs to be made by a ‘bottom line’ process. That’s what is going to be one of the big factors in making this plant work and be profitable for everyone. Provide point of view, alternate solution’s and test them all but let the most efficient and cost effective means prevail. And if LePage gets in the way, if he’s that blind to the cost’s, then fine, let him. The cost of political interference in a business decision is NOT in Maine’s, or this new business’s, best interest. Does anyone really think that Lepage’s adviser’s are that blind or stupid ? Time, and voter reaction, will tell………
Lepage could get caught with his hand stuck in the cookie jar and still claim it’s all the medias fault.
of course, that is what a good politician does best! bill clinton” I DID NOT HAVE SEXUAL REATIONS WITH THAT WOMEN THERE MONICA LEWINSKY”
hahaha
Humans are imperfect. Bill Clinton balanced the budget, unemployment was below 5% and the US economy was growing at 4-5 % per year.
Lepage is a traitor and a sadistic liar who treated children and elderly people.
I say tear down the whole mill make a water park and put in bunch of rides hahahah
A water park for who?
Well,if anyone does not like the idea of the Thermogen company setting up shop in Millinocket,we will welcome this company to come to Presque-Isle,Caribou,Houlton,or most anywhere in Aroostook county and set up shop.
Congratlations to the people of Millinocket for being offered this opportunity.Hope it works out well for you.
Headline: “Fat Cats and Robber Barons throw the dog a bone”
European wood supplies have been exhausted and now they’re willing to help us by mowing
our forest flat and shipping it overseas to be burned? Photos and cake at the ribbon cutting to follow…
hey you know we have been doing just that with lobsters for a long time and i don’t here anyone down east complaining about it.
25 low paying jobs that cost us all $17 million plus the $500,000 per year maintenance fees the people of Maine will have to pay each and every years for the next million years.
Yup, screw the jobs, let’s just keep everyone on welfare. And how much is that costing the few of us who are working?
Can you prove that these will be “low paying jobs “? And please explain what the $17 million and the $500k is for.
Let me guess, you believe a National Park would have more, better paying jobs and cost the taxpayers less than the forest products industry in that area.
The low pay comment is from when the unions had to agree to take $10 per hour or Cate st wouldn’t invest.
The 17 million is the cost to Maine tax payers to fix the Dolby landfill that this project will use as a toxic waste dump. Lepage has us on the hook for that cost even though it violates the 14th amendment of the Maine constitution. The $500,000 per year is the cost to Maine tax payers to operate and maintain the dump since Lepage forgot to get contracts from the towns and they have basically walked away from their verbal agreements . ( At least that’s what Lepage claims.)
Wrong again Lord. Cate street is NOT paying $10 an hour. This is from a BDN story
“Cate Street Capital will pay returning workers the same wages — $14.98 to $21.63 per hour — Brookfield subsidiary Katahdin Paper Co. LLC paid when when it shuttered the East Millinocket mill in April, idling 450 workers.
However, new workers will get $11 per hour until they complete an 8,000-hour probation period,”
You are way off. They may have taken a cut but they’re making more than $10. And they have benefits. A lot better than the tourist trap jobs in Acadia or any other park.
30% of all income earned in that region is from government checks. Tourist trap jobs are still better then a fire works store and Lepage thinks that was a huge boon.
The park will create many more jobs than the mills. The small amount of forest involved will in no way effect industry as their is a glut of pulp and wood.
If you want to see what a national park can do for a region just take a drive down rt16 from Gotham to N. Conway in New Hampshire and count up all the hotels, restaurants, retail stores. gas stations etc.
Lord, you can in no way compare the area that the proposed park will be to that of the North Conway/White mountain area. This proposed area has very little to offer compared to the White Mountain area. There is no mountain (Katahdin is in Baxter State Park), there are no ski areas ( the nearest is in Mars Hill). The only thing this area has is a river and a lot of trees and mosquitos. So what your saying is that a government funded entitity (a burden on tax payers) is better than a private enterprise? If you lived in the Boston area, would you travel 6 hours to Millinocket or 1.5 hours to North Conway? If I were going to travel the 6 hours I would go to Arcadia, at least I would have something to do.
You lack vision. All it takes is the courage and the political will to over come the nay Sayers who are doing well living off the grinding poverty and government checks that sustain the northern and western parts of Maine..
No Park Lord, get over it..
You think so?
talk about low paying jobs
well if you don’t like it call the burts bees lady and have her build you a park.
working on it. Hope you will help when the heavy lifting starts.
As the deep water ports along the east coast are becoming congested and expensive, alot of eyes are looking at Searsport. E/W highway, pipe line, etc…
Will this mill hire the American Vet or will Cate do like East Millinocket and work off the the “good old boy system”. When a Vet is not recalled, with seniority and able to do highest paid job in mill, it makes you wonder about Cate and USW