https://bangordailynews.com/2017/03...heart-of-240m-biomass-venture/?ref=relatedBox
For those not familiar with the area, the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket were towns built expressly to support two local papermills that for period of time were the largest in the world. They made newsprint and lots of it but given the decline in demand for newsprint the mills finally closed several years ago after the "bones' were picked at by various scavengers and con men. There really is no reason for the towns to exist other than the mills and in general both are depressed. The mill in Millinocket is mostly torn down, but the facility in East Millinocket was in relatively untouched shape until the final indignity of ripping down the buildings and equipment for scrap recently started. Many out of state folks are buying houses for dirt cheap in these towns for vacation homes as right down the road is more backwoods and lakes then most folks could imagine for recreation.
The concept of turning scrap wood into liquid fuel has been around since before WW2 its always been the case where the cost was much higher then drilling for oil. With government incentives come the con men and the US has already been bilked a couple of times on these ventures, the highest profile having been CBS Sixty Minutes darling Vinod Khosla extracting a lot of money to build a plant http://www.ajc.com/business/warnings-ignored-range-fuels-debacle/OGq6tJq3lEFyuXnZtFHZaO/. For some reason they don't talk about that project in interviews. Nevertheless behind the financial chicanery there is real product and maybe these new folks will hit on it. There is similar less refined product already being made in Canada that is shipped to the northeast for heating a hospital and colleges so there is market its just scaling it up big enough to cut down the unit costs.
Hopefully the Millinocket venture is going to be based on making a profit by actually making a product instead of financial manipulations as the region could sure use jobs. About a 1/4 of the state of Maine is accessed by private logging road network that ends up in either Quebec or right down the main street of these two towns.
For those not familiar with the area, the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket were towns built expressly to support two local papermills that for period of time were the largest in the world. They made newsprint and lots of it but given the decline in demand for newsprint the mills finally closed several years ago after the "bones' were picked at by various scavengers and con men. There really is no reason for the towns to exist other than the mills and in general both are depressed. The mill in Millinocket is mostly torn down, but the facility in East Millinocket was in relatively untouched shape until the final indignity of ripping down the buildings and equipment for scrap recently started. Many out of state folks are buying houses for dirt cheap in these towns for vacation homes as right down the road is more backwoods and lakes then most folks could imagine for recreation.
The concept of turning scrap wood into liquid fuel has been around since before WW2 its always been the case where the cost was much higher then drilling for oil. With government incentives come the con men and the US has already been bilked a couple of times on these ventures, the highest profile having been CBS Sixty Minutes darling Vinod Khosla extracting a lot of money to build a plant http://www.ajc.com/business/warnings-ignored-range-fuels-debacle/OGq6tJq3lEFyuXnZtFHZaO/. For some reason they don't talk about that project in interviews. Nevertheless behind the financial chicanery there is real product and maybe these new folks will hit on it. There is similar less refined product already being made in Canada that is shipped to the northeast for heating a hospital and colleges so there is market its just scaling it up big enough to cut down the unit costs.
Hopefully the Millinocket venture is going to be based on making a profit by actually making a product instead of financial manipulations as the region could sure use jobs. About a 1/4 of the state of Maine is accessed by private logging road network that ends up in either Quebec or right down the main street of these two towns.
