HD23 - An Examination of Policies to Promote Greater Use of Wood Processing Industry Wastes for Fuel in State Facilities

  • Published: 1993
  • Author: Virginia Coal and Energy Commission
  • Enabling Authority: House Joint Resolution 69 (Regular Session, 1992)

Executive Summary:
The 1992 House Joint Resolution 69 directed the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission, with the assistance of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research (VCCER) and the Brooks Forest Products Center (BFPC), to "examine policies necessary to promote greater use of wood wastes for fuels by state facilities." This report contains the results of investigations conducted by VCCER and BFPC at the request of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission to achieve the objectives of House Joint Resolution 69.

For the purposes of this study, "wood wastes" are defined as raw wood byproducts from wood processing and wood product manufacturing industries, including sawdust, chips, bark, and planer shavings. In conducting the study, VCCER and BFPC gathered background information from a number of sources, including state facilities currently using wood-waste fuels and other state agencies; interviewed persons involved with state agency boiler purchase decisions; and examined Virginia's capital project funding policies.

In situations favorable to use of wood-waste fuels, the benefits of such use can include reduced heat energy costs to the state and an economic stimulus to local wood products industries. There is a lack of quantitative information on the nature and costs of wood-waste fuels that might be available to the state at specific locations at present and over the long term. Virginia's wood processing industries may face impediments to increased production because of limited byproduct markets, but the nature and extent of those impediments (and, hence, on the degree of economic stimulus that would be provided by increased state wood-waste fuel purchases) are not well documented.

Currently, wood waste fuels can be purchased at less cost per energy unit than conventional fossil fuels where they are available, but the capital, labor, and management inputs required to utilize wood-waste fuels are generally greater than the corresponding requirements of fuel oil and natural gas. Wood-waste fuels are bulkier, on an energy-content basis, than fossil fuels, and they must be stored away from the weather. Many of the factors that are important to successful wood-waste fuel utilization must be evaluated locally, including the existence of accessible and reliable wood-waste fuel supplies; labor and management resources that can be allocated to wood-waste fuel utilization without affecting performance of other essential functions; and a physical facility that allows for sufficient on-site storage and fuel deliveries.

State policies require that boiler-choice decisions include comparison of life-cycle costs associated with various fuels. No overt policy or procedural barriers to use of wood wastes, or other non-conventional fuels, were found to exist. Nonetheless, barriers to increased wood-waste fuel utilization by state facilities were identified. These include:

• lack of quantitative information on potential availability of wood-waste fuels;

• difficulties faced by persons making boiler-choice decisions in obtaining information on wood-waste fuel burning and handling equipment, and on costs required to operate and maintain that equipment;

• lack of incentive for state agencies making boiler choice decisions to specify non-standard equipment; and

• lack of mechanism for incorporating the positive economic impacts of purchasing fuels originating form in-state sources into the boiler-choice decision.]

If the state chooses to take action to promote increased utilization of wood wastes for fuels in state facilities, actions available include the following:

• Direct an appropriate agency to conduct a study which will identify availability and prices of wood wastes capable of being used or fuel in the state.

• Direct the Department of General Services to assemble information on wood-waste burning and handling equipment, and the requirements of operating and maintaining that equipment, for use by state agencies making fuel-choice decisions.

• Direct the Department of Planning and Budget to require that wood wastes and other non-traditional fuels available for purchase from in-state suppliers be included in fuel-comparison analyses conducted to evaluate boiler purchases, if there is evidence that such fuels could be available for a reasonable price, over the long term.

• Direct the Department of General Services to alter its boiler-fuel comparison analysis guidelines, so as to enable consideration of the positive economic impacts of boilers likely to utilize fuels purchased from in-state sources.