FL - Green Circle Bio Energy Reflects On One Year In Business

It has been a little more than a year since Green Circle Bio Energy opened its 225-acre wood pellet plant, touted as the worlds largest, in Jackson County

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Green Circle Bio Energy Reflects On One Year In Business

By DANIEL CARSON / News Herald Writer
July 19, 2009

Caption: Green Circle's giant cylindrical dryer, bottom, which has paddles inside to lift the wood chips and expose them to air much like a clothes dryer lifts clothes, puts out 125 million British thermal units. TERRY BARNER / The News Herald

STEELE CITY Greg Martin has worked in the pulp and paper industry for almost 30 years, and he said that any new plant goes through tweaks and refininements of its production processes as it gets up to speed.

It has been a little more than a year since Green Circle Bio Energy opened its 225-acre wood pellet plant, touted as the worlds largest, in Jackson County.

After working through some early kinks, the plant is steadily moving toward full capacity, said Martin, who has worked as the plant manager at Green Circles Steele City facility since January.

"Were kind of settling in for the long haul," he added.

Reaching full capacity

Olaf Roed, Green Circle President and CEO, said the plant currently produces pellets at a rate of 400,000 metric tons per year.

"We are on track to reach full capacity by the end of the year." Roed said.

Full capacity for the plant is 500,000 metric wood pellet tons.

A view from the plants peak, at 200 feet one of the highest points in Jackson County, reveals row after row of harvested trees, towering piles of bark and wood chips, and room for possible expansion inside Green Circles expansive site.

As the worlds largest wood pellet production plant, the Green Circle plant takes in 150 truck loads of wood a day to keep the pellets flowing to Port Panama City and, ultimately, to Europe.

Martin said the Green Circle plant has a core group of 8 to 10 wood suppliers, with the majority of its wood coming from a 50-mile radius.

He said that a tall stick of wood enters the Steele City facility on the back of a truck and it takes about 10 days to debark, chip, dry and pulverize a single tree into wood pellets.

The company, a subsidiary of Swedish corporation JCE Group AB, chose Jackson County as the site for its production plant in February 2007.

After preliminary testing, the plant started production in April 2008, with the 225-acre facility being touted as a new green industry for the region and an economic development boost for Jackson County.

Jackson County Administrator Ted Lakey said that, overall, the plant had exceeded the countys expectations.

Lakey said he was sure the plant had also helped local logging and timber companies.

"Its created a market for their trees," Lakey said.

Jackson County Development Council executive director Bill Stanton estimated that the plants opening had created about 150-to-200 new jobs in the region, with support industries like timber and trucking gaining the most from Green Circles operation.

A nice percentage

Stanton noted that Jackson County is not the only Northwest Florida county reaping the benefits from Green Circles plant.

"Panama City and Bay County are getting a nice percentage of it," Stanton said.

Green Circle and Port Panama City officials reached an agreement in 2006 where the port agreed to build a multi-million dollar, 80,000-square-foot storage warehouse for the pellets.

The company initially guaranteed it would ship at least 350,000 pellet tons annually, although Green Circle and the port amended their contract in October 2008 and agreed to calculate their wood pellet volumes on a May 1 to April 30 annual timetable.

Port executive director Wayne Stubbs estimated that the wood pellet trade had generated $1.75 million in revenues for the port during the first contract year.

The pellet-related revenue has come in handy, Stubbs said, as the port faces a general cargo slowdown created by the recessionary global economy.

Stubbs said that the ports general cargo numbers, which included copper, paper, containers and steel, were down 20 percent from the same time period in 2008.

Money generated from the wood pellet traffic produced about 15 percent of the ports revenues from May 2008 to May 2009, Stubbs said.

"I think its worked out. Its had some challenges," Stubbs said, adding, "Were really happy to be where we are in this new trade."

Since the port opened its pellet warehouse, its main challenge has involved controlling dust created by the wood, Stubbs said.

Inquiries about the warehouse have come from businesses interested in exporting wood and peanut shell pellets to Europe, Stubbs said, as well as from other ports and terminal operators exploring the feasibility of building their own storage warehouses.

"It seems our facility is considered a state-of-the-art facility for wood pellets at this point," Stubbs said.

Martin said the Steele City plant has generated its fair share of international media interest, with visits to the facility ranging from a Korean television documentary crew to the Wall Street Journal.

Stanton said the plants arrival in Jackson County had also raised the countys profile with various business interests.

"I cant begin to tell you how much activity weve developed as a direct result of that project," Stanton said.

Additional Information

Web Site: http://www.newsherald.com/news/green-75902-bio-one.html

Category: Forestry>Wood Pellets

Region: Florida

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