What the heck is it?



The Paper Mill in East Millinocket Maine

  The mill up there at the top of the page is planning to have an additional product sometime soon.  The new owners have decided to make Torrefied wood pellets.  That caused me to wonder what the former New York Yankees and Dodgers manager Joe Torre had to do with wood products. (There's an insight into my thinking, right there).  As it turns out, Mr. Torre has nothing to do with the process of torrefication.
  Torrefication is a process similar to making charcoal.  Wood pellets, made on site, are heated to maybe 300 degrees in an oxygen free environment during which the pellets water content is reduced to near zero percent, the volatiles are removed.  Volatiles are made by the bipolymers like cellulose and lignins in the wood.  The result is a product that can be used instead of coal, to produce steam which in turn produces electricity.
  This would be a first for Maine.  With an abundant supply of wood Maine is already home to three plants that make wood pellets, with a fourth in the process of being built, pulp is made at one or two plants and shipped, by water, to China, and of course various kinds of paper.  The East Millinocket mill produces newsprint, a sister mill in Millinocket could also be used to produce the new product.
  So there you have it, torrefication of wood; if it works Maine will have one more product to place on the world market.

An example of Torrefied Wood Pellets (not from Maine).