On-site biomass co-gen case study: Unleashing power to create value for the wood products industry

Over the past several years, the business of manufacturing dimension lumber in the Unites States has become a hill for climbers! This traditionally cyclical business, driven primarily by housing starts, has experienced significant challenges and setbacks in the current economic climate where new construction has been depressed for several years, where environmental pressures have limited availability of wood fiber, and where supply and demand continue to struggle to find a balance: as some sawmills continue to produce in hopes of producing enough product to “save their way to profitability”. This paper is a case study of one sawmill in the Pacific Northwestern US that pursued a bold initiative to expand the scope of produced products, adding generation of electrical energy to their legacy core competency of producing dimension lumber. The paper focuses on the electrical systems added to the site that enabled the mill to leverage existing fiber resources to produce 19.8 mega-watts of electrical energy, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also improving the end-use manufactured product delivered to their customers.