Binnington

I have a short story for you and hope you can take a minute to read it. It may lend some insight into your operations it may not. To start, what is the history of your steam plant? For example, in an older pulp mill it may have been built because they needed a little […]

Over the past 10 years the Biomass Power industry has been overlooked, ridiculed and lumped in with gas and oil as a source of green house gases.  Incentives went to the wind and solar producers and biomass was left as the orphan stuck somewhere between the Green Energy market and the petrochemical industry.  With the […]

I don’t believe I have ever spoken to a Biomass Plant manager or Operations manager that is 100% satisfied with the overall operation of their plant. Some are on a path of continuous improvement while others are more complacent and believe their current level is the best that can be achieved. The range and levels […]

The misconception of taking the “If its not broke don’t fix it.” approach to any process is that you are doing OK and that is good enough.  Good enough seldom is.  If you are not improving chances are you are degrading. Nothing remains static. No matter how consistent you would like to think your operation […]

Robert McClure has just published an article entitled ” The Forever Debate: Is Burning Wood for Electricity a Good Idea?” https://undark.org/article/woody–biomass–electricity–powerclimate/ May 3 2017.  In it he discusses the historical cycle of the debate around woody biomass as a source of power. In the end it is a very mixed article that leaves us wondering […]

For the Steam Chief or Operations Manager that is responsible for a biomass fired furnace winter can be a time of dread. Every day there seems to be different reasons, excuse, incident or issue that has caused the facility not to make budget. It seems like there is no end and no way around it. […]

Summer has passed. Fall in upon us. Winter is coming. Are you ready? For most in the Biomass Industry, and particularly the Northern areas, the dry season of good fuel and decent production values have put us into a little bit of a relaxed frame of mind. We still have a few months of good […]

EVERYONE!… that may be the optimal model…BUT is Highly Suspect! If that is your plan, chances are no one is truly taking on that responsibility. The time and resources they have are being applied to their daily tasks. If there aren’t goals and planned improvement process, then atrophy is the inevitable outcome. That slow and […]