Biomass Magazine (Wood pellets a hot commodity across U.S.)

[DZL_Damon]

Most ridiculous thing I've heard too. Production is always higher in the summer but the mill is still running as much as possible. Drying frozen wood takes more energy and equipment seems to break down more during the winter. September and October averaged 302.4 tons per day. January and February averaged 271.6 tons per day. This is 24 hours per day, 7 days a week with a 1/2 day shutdown every 10 to 14 days for maintenance. Maine Woods Pellet has been at 100% capacity for over 4 years. Production was actually over 100% capacity in 2013. Pellet mills that are running at full capacity right now, in the northeast anyway, aren't doing it because they are making a lot of money. With the price of power as incredibly high as it is right now, and the energy required to dry pellets increased, there's not much money in making pellets right now. But, people need heat. And right now, demand exceeds capacity. The only decrease in production is due to cold weather making it more difficult and the fact that the 15,000 ton stockpile was gone by mid November so pellets can only be shipped as they are made.

Another thing about running at full capacity: I've seen a lot of stories recently about mills that weren't running at full capacity. I can tell you from experience that it's much more difficult to operate at 100% than at 80% capacity. I'm not saying the quality necessarily suffers, but it takes a lot more work and effort to reach and stay at 100% production. Not just 100% of what you can make but 100% of nameplate capacity, which sometimes seems to be a different value. It's one thing to peak out at 16 tons per hour for example, but another thing entirely to average 13.5 tons per hour for an entire year. Every one of the plants that are at full capacity are working very hard.

It sounds like there's some miscommunication between shipping and the end retailer. Unfortunately, in a situation like this, someone is going to get upset. It is much better for the mill to make sure that someone isn't its largest customers.

Thank you for speaking up Scot, and clarifying for the folks sitting at home that this is not some planned fuel shortage for higher prices. These producers are not some thrown together backyard operations. There is a massive amount of investment and professionalism in them that the average person does not get to see.

From what I have seen of the pellet producers in my area, they are working as hard as possible to make as much pellets as possible. Most are 24/7 shifts right now during the peak demad months and I know at least MWP is working 24/7 ALL YEAR to make the MASSIVE stockpile this summer (15,000 tons!). This all while dealing with constant issues with equipment, supply chain issues, unforeseen problems in extreme operating conditions, and trying to meet all orders at the same time.

As another professional in the biomass industry; I fully understand with your sentiment about capacity and uptime. I don't know of many facilities that can maintain a 100% capacity ,100% uptime operation when utilizing biomass for feed or production. Its a fantastic process but it involves a lot of consumable parts, a lot of investment (capital), and even a greater amount of skill to operate. Biomass becomes less of a job... and more of a way of life.

I hope more of your residential customers will realize the amount of extreme effort most the pellet producers are going through to try to meet demand with parts wearing out, equipment shut downs, extreme electrical prices... and heaven, forbid personnel issues!

Buy your pellets in summer folks! Help yourself, the industry, and the folks that have no other choice than to buy a little at a time due to space constraints.