Proposed Energy Plant in Gulf County Brings Scrutiny

Barely a month after it announced intentions on building a biomass energy facility in Gulf County, a Georgia company faces several obstacles before it breaks ground at the former Material Transfer Industries (MTI) parcel on the Intracoastal Canal.

There is permitting, financing for starters, not unsubstantial hurdles to build a $200 million plant.

And there has also been since the announcement of its move to Gulf County, a strong push back from skeptics opposed to the plant’s construction, be it in Tallahassee, Gainesville, Liberty County or Gulf County.

The plant – it is not classed, as critics assert, as an incinerator by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency based on its operational profile and emission levels – would burn wood chips, fast-growing grasses and forest residue and convert them into gas which would produce electricity.

The plant is, at least in part, a product of an edict from former Gov. Jeb Bush, who pushed for the state to explore ways to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Current Gov. Charlie Crist has called for 20 percent of Florida’s future energy needs to come from renewable sources.

Florida’s Great Northwest, an economic development group, has stated the region should focus on building three or four green energy parks, identifying Gulf County as one of the pilot sites for such a “green energy” park.

The plant, the Northwest Florida Renewable Energy Center (NWFREC), would employ as many as 200 people during construction, according to S. Glenn Farris, president and CEO of BG&E.

Construction should take about 18 months and the plant would employ roughly 25 people once operational – the plant should come on line in mid-2011, Farris added – with a ripple effect that could create another 50-80 jobs in the area.

Progress Energy is on board, having entered into an agreement with BG&E to purchase power from the NWFREC, according to spokeswoman Suzanne Grant.

At full capacity, Farris said the 45-megawatt plant would produce sufficient electricity to power 30,000 homes per year.

Grant said the plant, with its advanced gasification process, fits into the company’s mission of increased energy-efficiency programs, investments in renewable energy technologies and creating a state-of-the-art electricity system.

Local officials are also on board.

Port St. Joe Mayor Mel Magidson has been talking with Farris and BG&E officials for more than two years about locating the plant in Gulf County.

“He has been very persistent,” Farris said.

Farris said that county commissioner Warren Yeager and Preble Rish co-founder Greg Preble have also been involved in opening county arms to the facility.

Tallahassee a Bust

An attempt to locate the plant in an industrial park owned by Florida State University and in the midst of a residential neighborhood was met with considerable controversy in Tallahassee.

A grand jury convened to consider potential conflicts of interest involving FSU president T.K. Wetherell, his wife, a former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and other city officials but absolved Farris or BG&E of any wrongdoing.

While the city council approved the plant and its site, a grassroots effort took shape against placing the plant in a residential neighborhood, citing noise and, in particular, air pollution.

Farris said that several of the community meetings about the plant “were pretty rough.”

While allegations of Farris’ financial history, political maneuvering by Leon County officials and the odyssey of the gasification process from Vermont to Florida were points for opponents, the main thrust of the opposition to the plant in Leon County was where it was to be built and the potential for air pollution.

A letter from the Capital Medical Society expressed opposition to the proposed site of the plant.

The local chapter of the American Lung Association weighed in with concerns about particle pollution, considered among the most dangerous forms of air pollution and the local chapter of the NAACP took a stand against where the plant would be built, in a primarily minority neighborhood.

“We are concerned that pollutants from the plant will adversely affect our patients with respiratory and cardiac conditions and will increase the incidence of respiratory conditions in children,” wrote Dr. Andres Rodriguez, president of the Capital Medical Society, in a letter to the DEP.

The letter raised concerns about particle pollution and dioxins coming from the plant, though the DEP has indicated that the potential for dioxins – toxic chemical compounds resulting from manufacturing – is “extremely low,” according to a spokesperson.

The Tallahassee opponents also cited previous issues in Vermont with the gasification process BG&E proposes.

Further, opponents noted a rejection of BG&E in Liberty County to a second biomass plant in that county, with residents citing truck traffic and air pollution as concerns.

Ed Nelson, executive director of the Gulf County Economic Development Council, said a push back against any new product or process is part of the equation.

“In this business, no matter the product, somebody is going to come out against it,” Nelson said. “We have the feedstock, the port, the rail; this is something we need to focus on.

“From my research, biomass is the way to go.”

Peter Chanin, head of business development at BG&E, said Telogia in Liberty County was one of four sites the company was exploring.

He added that the NWFREC could serve as a lure for other “green” companies as part of the creation of the sort of green energy park that has been a focus of Florida’s Great Northwest.

“Starting off with a green power plant will be a great magnet for other green industries,” Chanin said.

Nelson added, “I think it will create other opportunities for us, definitely.”

None of that is sure to assuage BG&E’s critics: a sampling of their feelings can be found expressed on Page A5.

Vermont as Test Run

Labeling the Vermont experiment a failure represents a misrepresentation of what occurred. Farris said.

The gasification project at the McNeil Generating Station in Burlington, Vermont, came more than a decade after the plant had been built and was a test project.

As a report of the project states, there were problems that were addressed and after working through those issues, the “plant now runs more economically and flexibly,” according to a “Lessons Learned” section of a report written by John M. Irving, superintendent of the McNeil Generating Station.

Irving also suggested a more urban setting might be better suited for the plant for access to the product to power the plant coming by way of rail or road, but he added that need for careful siting of the plant, especially away from residential neighborhoods, due to noise, traffic and smell, was the most important lesson learned.

The MTI site, in an area zoned industrial, is well away from any residential neighborhood.

Farris noted that the McNeil station was “not stuck in the middle of nowhere” but within 1,500 feet of a residential neighborhood and one mile from the University of Vermont.

The Tallahassee plant was to provide power for FSU and Tallahassee and Chanin said the University of South Carolina has a smaller, similar facility to provide additional power to its campus.

Duke University has also looked at the concept to provide additional power on its campus, Chanin said.

Additionally, R&D Magazine selected the gasifier process used at Burlington as one of the 100 most technologically significant new products of 1998.

Finally, Ferris noted, Burlington was judged two years ago by the Centers for Disease Control to be the healthiest city in the United States, which hardly describes a city or county with poor air quality, he said.

Particle Pollution

The issue of particle pollution, Farris said, is addressed in the advancements BG&E has made in the gasifier process since Burlington.

In a comparison of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, the emissions from the NWFREC would be significantly – dramatically – less than from a coal-burning plant, Burlington or early models of the BG&E gasifier process.

According to information provided by the EPA, the amount of particle Farris cites as accurate emissions for the plant would be less that what the county emits now, which places it in the lower third of counties in the state.

Adding in the emissions from the plant, based on numbers provided by Farris, would still keep Gulf County in the lower third of counties in the state for air emissions.

“We have come up with our numbers from modeling and testing chemical reactions,” Farris said. “They are very accurate. The standards we are testing against are well-known engineering standards. We voluntarily accepted lower levels of (particle) pollution (from the FDEP).”

Farris said a fire burning in a fire place would emit more particle pollution than the NWFREC, adding that the woody biomass and grasses burned at the plant are re-grown and the carbon dioxide re-captured during the gasification process.

“You are looking at a cycle that will take 30 years (to run its course),” said Doug Kent, executive director of the Gulf County Health Department. “With fossil fuels you have a cycle that takes hundreds or thousands of years.”

The comparison with fossil fuels, such as coal, resonates with local officials, who note that NWFREC would be transforming a coal distribution point – MTI – into a so-called “green” energy plant.

The primary source of air pollution at the plant, which will take up eight acres of the 45 acre MTI tract with room for expansion, will come from the trucks and trains bringing in fresh fuel for the plant, Farris said.

“From my research it (the BG&E biomass process) is carbon dioxide neutral,” Kent said of the NWFREC. “It produces a safe amount of particulates.”

A paper written by two engineers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, which examined gasification processes with woody products, such as what BG&E proposes, found the process was more energy efficient, had less of a net life cycle for greenhouse gas emissions and produced significantly fewer toxic air emissions compared to plants using coal, coal/biomass combined or other biomass residues.

What will Feed the Plant?

Farris noted that the old paper mill used four times the wood needed by the NWFREC.

“Forestry is sustainable,” he added. “One of the good things about us is we don’t only take the wood, we’ll take what’s left behind.”

Kent added, “It has showed a proven history for 60 years” alluding to the mill.

BG&E will use a 50-50 mix of wood and fast-growing grasses, Farris said, and a crop model similar to that used by the sugar cane industry.

“We would supply plants, pay for labor, pay for harvesting, pay partially for the land (up to two acres of non-edible crops),” Farris said. “Or take the case of corn after harvest. Now you would have a place for the corn (stalks) to come to and another source of income for the farmer.

“The farmer or property owner with timber on it would have a predictable source of income.”

Farris emphasized the plant will use no household garbage, remnants from the landfill or any other source of fuel for the plant.

The plant will also need some 250 tons of sand – wood is heated in an oxygen-starved environment and then pushed against the sand as part of the gasification process – at start-up and another 12-20 tons a day.

That, according to local officials, provides the county another income opportunity as the county has long been contracted to remove the spoil sand resulting from dredging of the Apalachicola River over the decades.

Farris also noted that the NWFREC would operate at twice the efficiency of an incinerator and that biomass represents 50-60 percent of the country’s current renewable non-fossil fuel energy load.

The Next Steps

At this juncture, the largest steps to construction are permitting and financing.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has in general approved biomass as a renewable energy source and the FDEP will undertake the permitting of the project, which was ongoing before BG&E left Leon County.

“Financing will be difficult in the current environment, but not insurmountable,” Farris said. “This (industry) is gaining traction. The federal government is all over this as far tax incentives and bonds that are available.”

Yeager noted that there is money the county could bring to the table, through loans, grants, federal stimulus dollars, to assist with required infrastructure such as road or sewers.

“I have no doubt in my mind if we get everything in place, there is money available for infrastructure,” Yeager said.

The permitting process, Farris believes, will allay some concerns of skeptics concerning particle pollution, though many of those same skeptics, in e-mails, phone calls and letters to this newspaper, are also skeptical about the FDEP and EPA.

“The way permits are written, if we exceed those limits (on particle pollution) we get a chance to correct it,” Farris said. “If we don’t, we get shut down.”

Farris said preliminary site planning is underway which initiates the permitting, which will include studies of air quality in the area and potential for impacts from the NWFREC.

Permitting is expected to take six to nine months – the city has final call on site permits – which would put construction beginning sometime in the first quarter of next year. Construction will take roughly 18 months, putting plant opening sometime mid-2011.

“We want you to be glad we are here,” Farris said. “We want to do it right.”

The city has scheduled two public information meetings concerning the NWFREC.

The first meeting is at 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 12 at the Board of County Commissioners meeting room.

The second is scheduled for Aug. 26 at a time and place to be announced.

There will be panel of experts from the DEP, the U.S. Department of Education and USDA as well as medical experts.

The economic and environmental impacts will be discussed and there will be a video from city officials from Burlington, VT.

Information on the meeting will be sent out in city water bills this month. Information is also available on the city’s website.