Banking on biomass

The Daily Inter Lake

Fuel-reduction firm promotes boilers for energy production

When is a tree more than a tree?

When it's chopped and chipped into fuel, one Whitefish company has discovered.

Since its beginning in 2001, Western Woodfuels has focused solely on fuels reduction. David Russell and a seasonal employee would thin forest stands on private property. Marketable logs were sent to the mill. Slash would be chipped and left on site or hauled off to create compost and topsoil.

Finishing projects this way never sat well with Russell. Surely those limbs and small trees could be used for something other than compost.

"Why not create heat or energy rather than see all this material get taken to the landfill?" he wondered. "Rather than wasting that energy, I began looking into what other people do with it."

He discovered that for the most part in the United States, people operated much like he did and hauled the slash away. In Europe, however, people had been using wood fuel since World War II.

Denmark is just one example. Wood-burning boilers - biomass boilers - are widely used throughout the country. In Copenhagen, home to more than 1.1 million people, a single boiler heats the entire city.

The information excited Russell.

"I started writing to every company I could find," he said.

Through the Internet he discovered KOB, an Austrian company that distributes biomass boilers from a base in Enderby, British Columbia.

"When it comes from the factory, you bolt it together, plug it in and it works," he said.

The boiler is fully automated, explained Burkhard Fink, owner of the Canadian distributor, Fink Machine. It feeds itself fuel, lights the flame itself and removes its own ashes.

In February, Russell finalized a deal with Fink Machine.

"He is quite surely becoming our dealer down there for the U.S. market," Fink said.

Fink has high hopes that the boilers will be popular in the United States.

"I think it might be off to a bit of a slow start," he said, "but once we get a few out there, I'm convinced that it's just going to snowball."

Russell hasn't sold a boiler yet. He eventually will have to sell a certain number of boilers annually to maintain his relationship with Fink Machine. For now, though, he is simply trying to generate interest while still working in fuels reduction.

At the moment, Western Woodfuels is really two separate businesses, something Russell hopes to change.

"The goal here is to meld the two together," he said.

Theoretically, he could chip wood from a fuels reduction project in the morning, then haul those chips to a boiler customer in the afternoon. But it's all about basic economics: balancing the fuel supply with the boilers' demands.

"The balance is going to be the real challenge," he said.

Part of that challenge is finding enough landowners. While Russell maintains that thinning is crucial to forest health and homeowner safety, not every person with forested land agrees to fuels reduction.

And Western Woodfuels prefers to work with private landowners, Russell said. Fuels reduction occurs on public as well as private land, but dealing with the government and various regulations and restrictions can create a less-than-predictable fuel source.

For the initial push, at least, Russell plans to market the boilers to businesses that create their own wood waste and can supply their own fuel.

He isn't giving up on private landowners, though. He hopes to develop long-term contracts with more landowners. Even if they don't purchase a boiler, Russell can chip the wood he removes from their property and sell it as fuel to boiler owners.

He's also convinced boilers will be a boon to small businesses in the valley, especially as fossil fuel prices remain high.

"Here we have a home-grown energy source," he said. "When this system becomes viable, it will help small businesses save money."

Initially, KOB boilers are more expensive than natural gas heat, he admitted. The smallest models, which can heat a house with a large shop, run anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000. At the other end, a large boiler can cost as much as $400,000 to $500,000.

However, the "lifecycle cost" of a boiler is a better bargain in the long run, Russell said.

"This has the potential to pay itself off a quarter of the way through the life of the boiler," he said. "We'll provide the boiler, fuel and maintenance on a long-term contract and bill monthly for BTUs actually consumed at a set rate, or at a percentage less than natural gas."

Even if only a handful of businesses buy a boiler, which can be retrofitted in an existing building already equipped with a boiler system, Russell believes it will be worth it.

"We've got to start someplace," he said. "If we can make our small businesses more viable, why aren't we doing it? If I am able to save our businesses X dollars per year, they're going to be able to invest that money in growing their business.

"I don't think any of us really believe that energy costs are going to come down," he added. "This is one of the areas of alternative energy that really isn't a focus in this country. We're focusing a lot of things that may be successful in the future. This can be successful today."

The boilers have already proven their success in Europe, he said.

"The irony is this is not untried," he said. "It's off the shelf."

Fink agrees.

"This is a product that didn't just pop out of the ground a year or two ago," he said. "This is a product that has been in the market for 30-plus years."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.