Gilbert Waldman, vice president and general manager of Sterling Energy Assets, wants the community to understand that a proposed biomass plant scheduled for construction next year will be good for Valdosta and good for Georgia.

On Tuesday, Waldman, an environmental consultant, members of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority board, and Brad Lofton, executive director of the authority, sat down to discuss the plant, how it works and how clean it will be.

Sterling Energy Assets, a company based in Norcross, Ga. is building the Wiregrass Power, LLC biomass plant.

Waldman said the plant will not be an incinerator, as the company will not burn waste or garbage. Instead, the biomass plant will use approved wood waste to convert into energy for sale to either Georgia Power or EMC cooperatives.

By Air

The bubbling fluidized bed boiler that will be used to burn the wood waste is a very clean combustion process, Waldman said. The temperature in the bubbling fluidized bed boiler is lower than in a conventional boiler, which cuts down on emissions.

This is a more expensive technology but it results in less soot and keeps the emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide to a minimum, Waldman said.

The steam turbine generator that will be used at the biomass plant is utilized by 70 percent of all power plants in the world, according to the authority.

To ensure that emissions will be kept to a minimum, Sterling Energy brought in Robert McCann, Jr. from Golder Associates Inc. to study the possible emissions and devise the best ways to keep them at a minimum.

Waldman said the biomass plant is well below state and federal emission guidelines and the plant will emit no visible emissions from its smoke stack.

“There will be nothing to impact the local area,” he said.

McCann said his job is to identify different types of controls that will limit the amount of pollutants put into the air.

These controls will include a dry scrubber and baghouse among others.

The baghouse, which is attached to the biomass wood-fired boiler, will control the amount of particulate matter emitted from the biomass plant, McCann said. The scrubber will take out the mercury and all pollutants will be continuously monitored by EPD standards.

“The impacts will be very minor in all areas around the facility,” McCann said. “We all want to protect the health and air quality of the area.”

Wiregrass Power, LLC and Golder Associates presented a breakdown between permitted emissions and actual plant emission levels for CO2, mercury, dioxins and particulate matter.

According to the documents provided to the Times, the CO2 emissions are not controlled by the air permit and therefore not calculated. There is also no limit on the amount of dioxins released but it is calculated  that the Wiregrass Power, LLC biomass plant will release four pounds of dioxins each year.

The plant is allowed to release eight tons of mercury each year per air permit requirements and it is estimated the plant will release .136 pounds per year.

As for particulate matter, the permit requires that it not exceed .03 pounds per million BTU (British thermal unit) heat input and opacity shall not exceed 20 percent.

The calculations for particulate matter are based on fuel supply and are projected to be well below the air permit limit, according to the document.

Waldman said it is in the company’s best interest to closely monitor emissions. Violating the EPD’s minor source air permit results in a fine for the first offense and a plant is shut down following a second offense, he said.

“I’m not interested in being environmentally altruistic; it is purely financial to stay within air permit requirements,” Waldman said.

The technology Sterling Energy plans to install at the biomass plant here is currently in use at Snowflake White Mountain Biomass Plant in Snowflake, Ariz. and at Gallop Power Greenville, LLC in Greenville Junction, Maine.

By water

When searching for a place to construct a biomass plant, water supply is critical, Waldman said. Most have to be built near a river, ocean or aquifer where water is collected for the cooling process and eventually discharged.

The concern with using natural water sources is the impact that returning warm water will have on aquatic life, Waldman said. Using wastewater from the Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant eliminates that concern.

The wastewater will be used in the cooling tower and while 90 percent of the water used will evaporate, 10 percent will be returned to the treatment plant.

“Instead of taking new water we will use what they have, which is perfectly good water for cooling,” Waldman said. “Unfortunately we don’t find these opportunities that often.”

This will reduce the amount of water going into Mud Creek, he said.

The wastewater will be treated before it goes to the biomass plant and the small percentage of water that is returned to the treatment plant will be treated again before being released.

A minute amount of biosolids will be used to fuel the plant, about half of one percent of the total fuel, Waldman said.

This is being done more as a community service, he said, as it cuts down on the amount of biosolids taken to the landfill. The use of the biosolids will have virtually no impact on emissions, he said.

Using the sludge should save the City of Valdosta around $250,000 a year in costs to transport the biosolids and deposit them in the landfill, Lofton said.

The negotiations for how much Wiregrass Power, LLC will pay the city to use the wastewater are still in initial phases, Lofton said.

By land

A study was conducted by Lovell Engineering on the 22 acres where the plant will be built. However, neither the authority nor Sterling were required to do an external study on the impact the biomass plant would have on surrounding environs, Lofton said.

As part of the Lowndes County Commission’s approval of the project, Wiregrass Power, LLC will only clear seven or eight acres of the timber on the property to build the plant. The remaining acres will remain planted to serve as a buffer zone, Ricketts said.

In addition to the biomass plant on the property, there will be egress and ingress routes for trucks and a 10-day storage facility for wood waste.

The entrance and exit to the biomass plant will be located approximately an eighth of a mile from the Highway 94/Perimeter Road intersection.

As far as traffic is concerned, Waldman said, the company would be able to discuss the possibility of not having trucks deliver during school intake and dismissal times.

Delivery will be done during daylight hours but the plant will burn waste wood 24 hours a day, Waldman said.

The waste wood used at the plant will be obtained within a 50 to 60 mile radius of the plant, Waldman said.

To qualify as a renewable energy plant, tight restrictions are placed on what can be used to create energy, Waldman said. The waste wood used can be wood chips and/or construction debris, but the wood cannot be treated wood, and whole trees cannot be used.

“We can’t cut a tree down with the purpose of burning it,” he said.

Lofton said the authority also made sure the biomass plant would only use wood waste, so the plant would not compete with other local industries.

The claims that outside investors and even some local persons are involved in the financing of the plant is untrue, Waldman said.

“Our plans are to be owner and operator of the plant and to become a part of the community,” Waldman said.

Sterling Energy Assets is financing the proposed $110 million biomass plant. In the future, an EPC contractor will be selected to construct the plant, but Sterling Energy Assets hopes to bid out smaller sub         contracts to local businesses, he said.

All the equipment installed at the biomass plant will be new, he said.

There are no plans to begin construction on the plant before the end of the year, Waldman said.  This means the biomass plant will not qualify for a cash grant incentive that required biomass plants to begin construction before the end of 2010.

Instead Sterling Energy Assets will cash in on an investment tax credit that expires at the end of 2013.

The proposed construction timeline for the plant lists 2013 as the year the plant begins operation with a proposed construction start date of June 2011.

Wiregrass Power, LLC will receive a 10 year tax abatement for the first 10 years of operation. During this time the biomass plant will be exempt from paying approximately $5.2 million in taxes over 10 years.

The amount of taxes paid by Wiregrass Power, LLC will increase by 10 percent each year during the 10 year abatement, with the plant paying its full share of taxes in the 11th year.

During the 10 year tax abatement, Wiregrass Power, LLC is projected to pay approximately $4.9 million in taxes.

Sterling Energy Assets has already paid $30,000 for an eight month extension to begin construction along with a lease payment of $130,000 to the authority.

Lowndes County has agreed in writing to allow the City of Valdosta to provide water and sewer services to the plant due to the proximity of Mud Creek WWTP, Lofton said.

When asked if the biomass plant would eventually have to be annexed into the city for its use of city water per City of Valdosta ordinance, Lofton said he was not aware of an ordinance of that nature.

According to Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, when a property owner requests service on property outside the corporate limits of the city, the property owner must annex if contiguous to the city, or agree to annex as soon as legally possible in order to receive city utilities.

This annexation, Hanson said, is initiated by the property owner and goes first to the Planning Commission for a recommendation and then to the Lowndes County Commission before coming before the Valdosta City Council, who has the final approval.