US pellet company chooses ORC for biomass plant

Maine Woods Pellet Company is building a biomass-fired power plant in Athens, Maine and has chosen Turboden to supply what will be the world's largest biomass-based Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC).

Maine Woods Pellet owns and operates a wood pellet production facility. This plant can produce up to 100,000 tonnes per year of wood pellets for the bulk and bagged fuel markets, making it the largest pellet manufacturer in the state.

The Turboden ORC system will produce 8MW converting the heat of thermal oil generated by wood residues from de-barking and chipping operations.

Maine Woods Pellet secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Central Maine Power (CPM) covering the power to be exported to the grid and will benefit from a tax credit for the project equity investments according to the New Markets Tax Credit Program. Start-up of the biomass power unit is scheduled for March 2016.

This is the second US order for Turboden. The first was a 1MW ORC unit installed at Albany County Sewer District in Menands, New York.