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February 18, 2006

Plant claims test burn success, may burn more wood products

Neighbors cited concerns over air quality

By
Record-Eagle business editor

      MANISTEE - A co-generation energy plant may start burning more wood products after what company officials described as a "successful" test burn of construction debris trucked in from Chicago.
      The TES Filer City Station plant burned around 30 tons of construction and demolition wood Thursday amid a search for alternate fuel sources for the 60-megawatt energy plant on Manistee Lake.
      Company officials said the test involved two 15-ton truckloads of wood waste from a Chicago terminal of Primary Power International, an energy recycling company based in Ithaca.
      One load was source-selected wood from demolition projects and wood pallets, TES Filer City plant manager Scott Wing said, while the other was a blend of green wood from tree trimmings and stumps. Both are comprised of more than 99.5 percent clean wood, he said.
      "It's a viable fuel if we can come to commercial terms and the quality is acceptable," Wing said.
      The plant currently burns about 750 tons of coal per day, around 100 tons of wood byproducts from Packaging Corp. of America's nearby paper mill and about 20 tons of tire chips.
      The new wood waste would displace some of the coal burned at the plant, Wing said.
      Some local residents are worried about plans to burn more construction and demolition wood because they're concerned about inert materials entering the waste stream, as well as who monitors what goes in the plant.
      "I don't think there's a good trust factor here between Tondu (Corp.) and the community," Filer Township resident Shirley Skiera said.
      "We need to keep the industry we've got, but they need to be as clean as they can be."
      Wing didn't say how the material would affect the plant's emissions but it would remain within air quality permit parameters.
      Phil Roycraft, of the state Department of Environmental Quality's waste management division, said the companies will be required to submit a management plan for storing wood debris on site.
      Wing said the material would not include construction waste from modular home construction from relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, as DEQ had indicated. Wing was contacted by Indiana officials about burning such material but said it couldn't be used because of the amount of non-wood in the debris.
     

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