NY - Curran Ships It's First Pellets

After months of waiting, wood pellets slowly are beginning to come out of the Curran Renewable Energy plant

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Curran Ships It's First Pellets

FUEL FROM WOOD: Massena plant, working out kinks, seeks production boost

By LORI SHULL
TIMES STAFF WRITER
SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2009

Caption: Curran Renewable Energy Plant Manager Brian J. Terry displays a handful of fuel pellets Friday at the plant in Massena. JASON HUNTER / WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

MASSENA After months of waiting, wood pellets slowly are beginning to come out of the Curran Renewable Energy plant.

Production was scheduled to begin in January, but it took longer to get the facilities up and running than expected, according to Patrick J. Curran, owner of Curran Renewable and Seaway Timber Harvesting.

The company's first pellets came off the line last week and were shipped to Quebec to be sold. The next day, the plant had to be shut down to work out some kinks, Mr. Curran said.

"We are producing pellets," he said. "I'm actually hoping at the end of this month we'll be running. Chances are we can get this thing running pretty good."

At full capacity, the plant will be able to produce as many as 14 tons of pellets an hour. Most of the time, it will be producing well over 8 tons an hour, according to Mr. Curran.

While 500,000-ton-a-year wood pellet plants are springing up in the South to meet the demand of European utility companies, Mr. Curran said he plans to sell his pellets in North America.

"I looked into exporting to Europe before we ever began building the plant," he said. "It just doesn't make sense. We are a nation that wants to go green and it doesn't make sense to export green energy."

His pellets will be sold in the region, and local people are being put to work making them.

Curran Renewable has 10 employees. Mr. Curran said that once things are running seamlessly, there are likely to be more, although he could not estimate how many more.

Originally, Mr. Curran was supposed to receive Empire Zone benefits from the state if he created enough jobs. However, after guidelines for inclusion in the program changed last year, Curran Renewable failed to qualify in March. Mr. Curran's business would not provide enough revenue for every dollar of tax benefits from the state, nor would it create enough jobs.

The St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency has agreed to give the fledgling company tax benefits.

Under the agreement, the company will not pay property taxes for the first five years, then will pay only half of the taxes normally due for the next five years.

Despite losing state benefits, Mr. Curran said, he hopes to expand the business enough to be able to hire enough people to have the plant running three shifts a day.

"I'm going to hire as many people as I need," he said. "Providing the market is there, and I think it is, it'll be a pretty good opportunity for hours."

In addition to generating revenue, Mr. Curran said, the main purpose in opening the wood pellet business is to ensure that his workers at Seaway Timber Harvesting stay employed. Several, though he would not say how many, of his workers are laid off, and he wants to bring them back on the job. Seaway's staff will chop down trees to bring to the pellet-processing plant to keep that portion of the business running, he said.

As much as possible, Seaway Timber will be cutting down trees from forests that are certified by the Rainforest Alliance Program to be responsibly managed, meaning the forestry operations are in keeping with environmental and international regulations.

"We can't take every single bit of wood we harvest as (certified)," Mr. Curran said. "I'm going to purposely try to go after that fiber so our products can be sold as certified."

Additional Information

Web Site: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090712/NEWS05/307129961

Category: Forestry>Wood Pellets

Region: New York

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