DPI hopes conversion will make it ‘green’
Sean HarkinsDecorative Panels International is hoping to go green and save green by building a biorefinery at the company's plant in Alpena.
The refinery would convert waste sugars generated during fiberboard manufacturing into cellulosic ethanol, which could then be sold.
DPI uses a "wet" process to create fiberboard. After wood chips are purchased, cooked and refined into fibers, the fibers are suspended in water before being formed into a fiberboard mat.
The water used in the process then has to be treated and discharged into the facility's lagoon system.
According to DPI, the process is more energy intensive than a "dry" process, but the fiberboards are superior.
Dennis Werblow, DPI director of corporate environmental affairs, said the cost to treat water, about $3 million annually, would decrease with a biorefinery.
"It would drastically reduce the amount of water that would need to be treated," Werblow said.
The biorefinery project is being worked on by both DPI and American Process, Inc., an Atlanta-based engineering and consulting company specializing in biorefinery integration.
API Project Manager Kim Nelson said her company developed a proprietary prototype for the Alpena plant.
"We are an energy integration expert," Nelson said. "We have significant engineering experience in the industry," including eight patents related to forest-based biorefineries.
Right now, the actual construction of the biorefinery is contingent upon a U.S. Department of Energy grant. The grant would be for $7 million and require an equal match from DPI, which already has been secured.
A grant request has been submitted and Werblow expects to hear back in August or September whether the project was approved. Even if the grant is received, there are other factors to be dealt with before the biorefinery would be built.
"It's far from a sure thing," Werblow said. "Getting the grant is the first hurdle."
He also said if the grant application is denied, there may be other avenues of funding to be explored.
The biorefinery would be implemented in two phases. The first phase would separate the facility's effluent into streams of acetic acid, organic solids, and clean water. The clean water will be reused in the mill.
In the second phase, the concentrated sugars in the organics stream will be turned into ethanol and sold. It is estimated the biorefinery would produce 930,000 gallons of cellulosic ethanol, which is ethanol produced from wood, grass or non-edible parts of plants.
"It's a neat opportunity to think we can take something we've pouring down the drain to make something green," Werblow said.
Nelson said if something was to go wrong with the biorefinery, production wouldn't be impacted because the lagoons could be used as a backup plan.
While the refinery would be one of a kind, the technology used in it already exists. Nelson said that makes implementation faster.
"We anticipate phase one being implemented within 12 months of grant," with phase two being complete six months after that, she said.
Werblow said other plants have used the sugars from their effluent to make molasses, which was later used in animal feed, so DPI knew there were opportunities out there.
He said its hard to say if the biorefinery would create jobs, and there are no job-creation requirements tied to the grant, but it would help keep the plant competitive with dry board makers.
Sean Harkins can be reached via e-mail at sharkins@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.
