By CHRISTINE S. DIAMOND The Lufkin Daily News
Source: Lufkin Daily News | Sunday, October 30, 2005
If Abitibi Consolidated were to reopen its Lufkin paper mill — its only mill to rely solely on natural gas for fuel — some say it would have to convert to another energy source as many East Texas mills have already begun doing.
The price of natural gas fuel was a driving factor in Abitibi Consolidated Inc.'s decision to close the plant in early 2004 after acquiring the plant in 2000.
"The company had every intention of turning the Lufkin mill into a world class facility, however a decline in world markets for supercalendered paper coupled with unexpected high prices for natural gas led to a decision to indefinitely idle the facility," Debbie Johnston, spokeswoman for Abitibi Consolidated, stated in an e-mail interview. "A number of our mills in Quebec, Ontario, and Newfoundland generate their own electricity through hydro-electric generating stations attached to the mills. This means of power generation is very low cost — providing a significant advantage over natural gas or oil."
Traditionally, electric power in East Texas is produced from oil, natural gas and its native lignite coal — which contains high levels of mercury.
As these forms become increasingly cost prohibitive, East Texans are looking at alternative renewable fuels ranging from biomass/biofuels, solar, wind and hydro-electric. While wind-powered technology has vastly improved and the U.S.'s first offshore site is expected to start catching wind off of Galveston Island in five years, the future for wind energy in East Texas is slim compared to the potential of solar and biomass fuels, according to Travis Brown, energy projects director for Public Citizen.
Even though "technology has improved so much — it takes less and less wind to make electricity — about 15 mph ... (East Texas) just doesn't have the wind velocity that would be efficient to sell to the grid and make a profit," Brown said. "Other renewable energy in East Texas that shows promise are solar and even bigger is biomass to generate electricity."
Biomass has been the largest source of renewable energy in the U.S. for the last five years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
"Biomass is one of our most important energy resources," states the DOE's Web site. "Biomass use strengthens rural economies, decreases America's dependence on imported oil, avoids use of MTBE or other highly toxic fuel additives, reduces air and water pollution, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
"The biggest industrial stakeholder is the forest products industry, which consumes 85 percent of all wood waste used for energy in the U.S. and they are able to generate over half of their own energy from woody waste products and other renewable sources of fuel."
"Over the past 18 months (Abitibi) has continued to support efforts to identify new grades to manufacture, and to develop options for new energy sources that would change the cost structure of the mill and allow it to operate profitably," Johnston said.
Ron Hufford with the Texas Forestry Association in Lufkin said the paper mill will have to reduce its dependency on natural gas.
"Abitibi is going to have to convert to biomass," Hufford said of an alternative fuel process already used by many East Texas wood product mills to supply a large percent of their energy needs.
Outside East Texas the term "biomass" as fuel usually conjures up pictures of cornfields or sugar cane as opposed to the by-products of a timber harvests that are converted to steam energy by a growing number of East Texas facilities.
"Normally when we talk about tree biomass for fuel, we're talking about logging slash/debris — tops and limps left over after a harvest operation, and mill residue — by-products of chips, sawdust, shavings, and bark, that might be used for fuel," said Burl Carraway, with Texas Forest Service, in an e-mail interview.
The use of wood waste for fuel is a favorite topic of Paul Hale, coordinator of the Texas Logging Council, who doesn't endorse using traditional food crops for fuel like soybeans and corn.
"Efficiency has been established in using ground-up and chipped-up wood waste for producing electricity," Hale said in an e-mail interview. "It has not been established yet in producing liquid fuel.
"There is approximately 4 to 5 million tons of limbs, tree tops and wood debris left behind on logging sites in the state of Texas each year," Hale said. "This is not a supply that will go away, this supply is sustainable. Right now it is left to rot each year or to be a fire hazard."
Hurricane Rita exponentially increased the amount of biomass waste available in East Texas. Piles of vegetative and woody debris are being removed from wherever Rita left it and taken by FEMA to empty lots where they are piled up or dropped in pits.
"Obviously, Texas Forest Service would rather see this material being used to make a product or energy, not just wasted," Carraway said. "There is also an air quality issue in that burning this debris produces much more particulate matter than if it were used in an industrial process where 'scrubbing' is required."
Scrubbing is a process industry of any kind uses to reduce the amount of particulates being released into the air.
"Burning the mix of wood waste, tires, and garbage can produce a green product that will prevent landfills full of garbage and tires and leave the forest floor clean," Hale said. "Everything considered, using this resource that is free compared to leaving it behind to rot is not only the answer to efficient electricity, but the prevention of the mammoth sized burial sites for household garbage and tires. This only makes too much sense, we have to find a way to turn that switch on. As a society and responsible citizens, we owe it to ourselves to quit burying this other stuff in the ground and to quit wasting something just because we haven't traditionally used it. Ag refuse including wood waste will be used in the future for this purpose. We should choose the near future.
"This is more than a concept — many companies are already using this stuff to power their mills," Hale said.
According to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman Andrea Morrow, "Vegetative debris and wood waste is currently used as supplementary boiler fuel by several paper mills” including International Paper in Mansfield; Temple-Inland particleboard and paper mill in Orange, and the mill in Diboll; Louisiana Pacific in Carthage; and Mead-Westvaco in Evadale.
On Oct. 19 Norboard Industries, a mill in Jefferson, re-opened its mill after a 21-day shutdown for an conversion that majorly reduced the company's reliance on natural gas, according to Mike Kile.
While biomass has proven to be an efficient fuel source, Hale said the switch will be a costly one for lignite coal plants in the short run.
"Electrical power plants are scared to make the commitment to biomass because there are not enough producers of biomass to supply the plant," Hale said. "Imagine a giant 'on switch.' To turn the switch on overnight to swap resources for power, a power company would have to convert their system spending millions to create several producers that also requires millions invested in each one along with the creation of many jobs, and the coordination of all the contracts and people in the chain of issues connected to it."
However, Hale said, "As pollution laws stiffen in the future, I think the clean burning wood waste will win as being the main resource for electricity.
"Texas is a state that has it's own power grid. It looks very achievable to me if this state wants to make a good change."
At least one company is tentatively looking into opening a biomass energy plant to sell electricity to the grid in Deep East Texas, according to Hufford.
Christine S. Diamond's e-mail address is cdiamond@coxnews.com.
