Plans are moving ahead to build a $250 million biorefinery that would make diesel and wax out of waste wood and other forms of biomass next to the Flambeau River Papers pulp and paper mill in Park Falls.
The paper-maker said Tuesday it has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract to the British firm AMEC plc as well as Neenah-based Miron Construction Co.
The project will proceed if test results from a pilot plant in Durham, N.C., come in as expected and if the U.S. Department of Energy approves loan guarantees that would help finance the project, said Bob Byrne, president of Flambeau River Biofuels.
The Flambeau River biorefinery will create permanent, high-skilled operating jobs in the region, long-term logging jobs, and short-term engineering and construction jobs, contributing to the economic stimulus of Park Falls, Wisconsin, said Butch Johnson, majority owner of Flambeau River Papers and Flambeau River Biofuels.
The project is expected to create 160 construction jobs, 40 permanent jobs running and supporting the biorefinery, as well as jobs for 125 loggers and truckers who will be supplying the mill with 1,000 tons of dry wood a day, Byrne said.
The biorefinery is among the largest next-generation biofuels facilities planned in the country, Byrne said.
First-generation biofuels refer to ethanol derived from corn and diesel derived from soybeans and animal fat. In a shift toward next-generation fuels, the effort to develop renewable transportation fuels is centering on renewable non-food crops.
In the case of Flambeau River project, the biorefinery would burn a blend of sawdust, bark and wood that isn't needed for the pulp and paper mill. The wood would be sourced from a 75-mile radius around Park Falls, Byrne said.
"If wood can be used to make lumber, it ought to be used to make lumber. If it can be used to make pulp or paper, it ought to be used to make pulp or paper," said Byrne. "If it's not good for those things, then we ought to use it to make transportation fuels."
Current plans call for making 50% wax and 50% diesel fuel, but the process is designed to be flexible so that the biorefinery could make more diesel fuel or wax depending on the demand and price of those products in the marketplace, he said.
If the project stays on track, the paper mill biorefinery is expected to be operational by 2013.
"When completed, Flambeau will have the first integrated pulp and paper mill in North America to run on fossil-free energy," Johnson said.
The project received a $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the biorefinery. To date, less than $1 million of that grant has been spent. The grant is helping to finance the demonstration pilot project now under way in North Carolina, Byrne said.
Initial taxpayer support for the project came during the Bush administration, but the project has also won support from Wisconsin Democrats, including Gov. Jim Doyle and U.S. Rep. David Obey, Byrne said.
"Butch Johnson is a true blue Republican, but the folks from both sides of the aisle have been very supportive of this project," Byrne said. "Our politics don't match, but the outcomes we all want - more domestic fuel and more jobs - is where we agree completely."
Byrne said he's optimistic the project will win the loan guarantees it needs from the Department of Energy.
"This matches the country's desire and need for alternative fuels that are available domestically. This is not the answer, but this might be one of the answers that bend the transportation fuel cost curve a little bit."
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