BUCKSPORT, Maine — Contractors are working diligently to get an upgraded biomass system finished by the end of the month at Verso Paper’s mill in Bucksport.
The $42 million project includes refitting the No. 8 boiler to burn only natural wood products and the installation of a new 25-megawatt turbine. It’s part of Verso’s 2009 diversification strategy to establish energy production as a crucial part of the company’s portfolio.
When the upgraded biomass system is commercialized, the Bucksport mill could feed as much as 165 megawatts to the regional power grid, creating a new revenue stream for Verso, which reported a loss in adjusted net income of $39 million in the first quarter of 2012.
Verso spokesman Bill Cohen said the system could be complete by Nov. 1. The company used to feed the boiler natural gas, oil, coal and tire-derived fuel. Now, the boiler will run on biomass only, save for a small amount of natural gas used to ignite the boiler’s startup.
That means a reduction of 90 percent of fossil fuel use at the boiler, according to Verso, and the reduction of about 270 tons of carbon dioxide production every day. Another boiler at Verso will continue to burn natural gas, but the upgrade means the elimination of coal, oil and tire-derived fuel burning in Bucksport.
“It’s local, Maine, green, renewable power,” he said during a tour of the facility Thursday.
Work on the project began in November 2010, with the construction of a second woodlot, where biomass — sawdust, wood chips, tree bark and other wood-based harvesting and papermaking byproducts — is unloaded into piles before being fed into a hopper with a bulldozer.
Cohen said the upgraded boiler will consume triple the biomass it burned before, an increase the company claims will create more than 50 new jobs in the harvesting sector.
From the woodlot, the biomass is fed into the eight-story No. 8 boiler, where it is incinerated. Here, a crucial upgrade to inject fine-grain biomass high up in the boiler means more biomass consumed and more heat generated.
That heat hits a new 25-megawatt steam turbine. Some of the steam is diverted to the mill for the papermaking process. The rest hits a generator to create electricity for the regional power grid.
Verso is promoting the upgraded system as a victory for renewable, green energy. But there’s one claim that’s up for debate.
Cohen claims the biomass endeavor is “carbon-neutral,” meaning it doesn’t contribute the greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.
The argument for biomass’ carbon neutrality goes like this: Burning biomass releases only the carbon that was extracted from the atmosphere while the plants were alive. New growth (the pulp and paper industry claims every tree harvested is replaced naturally or by humans) consumes that emitted carbon, leaving the net pollution at zero.
But environmental groups claim that argument is bunk. They say that releasing the entire carbon load of biomass all at once through burning is drastically different than that carbon being released slowly as a plant naturally decays. Plus, it takes decades for a tree to grow enough to replace the carbon-sinking effect of a mature, harvested tree.
In 2009, the state of Massachusetts commissioned a study that found biomass releases more carbon into the air than either oil or coal, and may contribute to the overall level of greenhouse gas emissions.
Cohen said Verso is aware of the Massachusetts study, but that the company’s environmental consultants disagree with its findings.
“Or consultants disagree with that study. There is not general agreement among all the environmental groups, but so far the advantages outweigh the disadvantages,” he said. “It’s something we’ll continue to look at.”
Either way, work on the system continues. The boiler is up and running, but the steam there is not yet diverted to the turbine. Cohen said that now, nearly two years since construction began, the end is in sight.
“We hope within the next few weeks to get the bugs worked out, and by the end of the month to be commercialized,” he said.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
Good job, Verso!
If your company was actually losing $39 million in the first quarter of the year wouldn’t your investors be screaming to close it so they wouldn’t lose any more money?
You dont know a lot about the papermaking business,do you? Or, any business at all.
Good news for a change. It’s hard to find something that people in Bucksport can be proud of.
You just can’t win with the carbon commandos.
I scratch my head, they makin’ paper or power? I see no long term run for this bio mass (wood), takes a lot of diesel to haul this, like going back to locomotives to haul their trains, generating power with wood, somehow I regretably see a downward spiral for Verso, I hope I am wrong.
Apparently BDN has a problem so here we go again. I hope that this Verso plant works. But I also hope they learned from Lincoln Paper about getting cute with rate’s and timing. The Fed’s FERC gave everybody a VERY big warning shot when they slammed Lincoln earlier this year. Verso should be looking at that as big warning to not even think about going there. They concentrate on power, for the long term, and they are gonna be making money for a very long time. They do the ‘quick buck’ thing, like Romney’s buddy’s do, and they are gonna be putting the CLOSED sign up in less than a year, with the Fed’s right behind them asking a lot of very unpleasent question’s.
Very exciting & very promising step towards energy diversity and to strengthening our mills and developing wood product in synch with demand.
Here is a bit of very readable background on bio mass fuels which are already a top global supplier of energy and could potentially provide 20% of the worlds’ sustainable energy output by 2050. Seems logical that in Maine that share could be significantly more than 20% since we have all these trees and still, thankfully, have a network of mills.
http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/analysis/measuring_the_carbon_footprint_of_biomass_fuel/.
The jury is out on whether bio mass is carbon neutral but I suspect in a situation like this where:
(a) two uses are generated from one trip of raw product
(b) the raw product is local, plentiful and a short distance away
It has to add up to great news on reduced carbon emissions for Maine’s energy future.
Makes a lot more sense to me than heavy subsidies to strip huge swaths of wood product from our mountain tops and hauling in units that come all the way from europe to capture wind.
Per mega watt I’ll wager there was far less public subsidy and far more public benefit from this bio mass project than ther is from any wind mill in Maine.
And all of that is hopefully good news for long term job security
What is lacking from this story is the fact that the Bucksport Town Council gave Verso a property tax exemption for this facility which is shifted onto every other property owner in Bucksport, As the BDN reported on October 2, 2010: “Based on Verso’s estimates, that would return about $275,926 in TIF funds to Verso annually and more than $8 million over the 30-year life of the TIF. About $2 million of that total would be allocated for research and development.” BOHICA, Bucksport!
” and may contribute to the overall level of greenhouse gas emissions” So what. The great man made global scam was exposed years ago for the fraud that it is.
http://www.climategate.com/
So why is that nonsense even mention in print anymore. But environmentalist scam artist aside, anything that actually put reliable energy the gird is a good thing(sorry wind).
“270 tons of carbon dioxide production every day”?
A year perhaps?