Eco Park perpetuates ‘green’ trend with pellets
By: Matt Suoja
Lake County (MN) News Chronicle
Last week the Silver Bay City Council approved ballot questions for a May 10 special election that could bring some jobs to the area.
The city will be asking for voter permission to run a municipal utility in connection with a proposed eco park along the waterfront.
About 40 construction jobs are expected and 15 pellet plant employees and six logging jobs could be created. There also would be about five employees for a greenhouse at the park used for producing biodiesel, which could eventually lead to another 300 to 500 employees with a full-on operation.
The city is focusing on cluster-based economic development, which means having similar manufacturing pro-cesses that could lead to reduced waste and pollution, reduced transportation costs, and better efficiency.
It could also be a model for providing energy to homes in the future. “If you were to advance the concept, yes,” said Bruce Carman, project coordinator.
One of the cornerstones for the park will be a combined heat and power plant that will use biomass. There would need to be two or three additional plants to power the city and they wouldn’t all be located in the same place.
A pellet facility would be a large user of the energy. Wood pellets could be used in boilers for the various businesses at the park. A wood pellet facility for the retail market is also an option.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “pellet fuel appliances, which burn small pellets that look like rabbit feed and measure 3/8 to 1-inch in length. Pellets are made from compacted sawdust, wood chips, bark, agricultural crop waste, waste paper, and other organic materials.”
The department says the wood pellet systems are much cleaner burning and more efficient and can heat an entire home. They include a catalytic combustor that allows combustion gases to burn at lower temperatures, thereby cleaning the exhaust gas while generating more heat.
