There was a recent post that commented that VWP could produce more but state regulations prevent them form doing so. I was talking with a general reliable source and he speculated that the state regulations are probably VOC's. The smell of fresh wood contains Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and it is released when wood is dried. If the facility is modeled to produce under a certain VOC output, they don't have to treat it. Once the output exceeds a certain amount they have a choice they can run the plant so they stay under a legal limit or they can spend the money to control it. Controlling VOCs can be quite expensive, generally something called a regenerative thermal oxidizer may be required, it could cost as much as the rest of the factory. It appears as though VWP would rather avoid the cost and limit their production.
This is actually a good idea as there is certain size plant that lines up with the available wood supply in a given area, if the wood has to be hauled any appreciable area, the heating value of the diesel used to truck the wood exceeds the heating value of the wood. The other reason for keeping small is if they just service local customers, they don't have to use as much diesel to haul the pellets all over.
As long as they can make a buck they are better off buying or building a few more regionally distributed plants than one big one.
This is actually a good idea as there is certain size plant that lines up with the available wood supply in a given area, if the wood has to be hauled any appreciable area, the heating value of the diesel used to truck the wood exceeds the heating value of the wood. The other reason for keeping small is if they just service local customers, they don't have to use as much diesel to haul the pellets all over.
As long as they can make a buck they are better off buying or building a few more regionally distributed plants than one big one.
