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One of Lewis County’s most important industries — timber — has faced wave after wave of challenges.
Among the most recent is what to do with wood scraps and waste as pulp and paper mills that once used the materials decline.
The Economic Alliance of Lewis County held the third annual Woody Biomass Conference this week on the Centralia College campus. The event kicked off at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the TransAlta Commons.
Local leaders showed up in force, including Centralia and Chehalis city council members, Lewis County commissioners, a Port of Centralia commissioner-elect, a member of U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s district staff and others.
State Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and local conservation enthusiast and landowner Bob Russell took the stage to start welcoming the audience and to warn of a crisis, and simultaneous opportunity, for the Lewis County timber industry.
The two speakers, who have been involved with the renewable and biological industry in the area for roughly three years, summed up their hopes in one message: Innovation and new industries can help the timber industry find a new home for residuals from the timber industry and provide new useful products.
“So at a time when we need innovation, innovation is there to help us,” Orcutt said. “Some of this innovation and these uses are actually going to help solve some of our societal problems.
Timber residuals is a simple way to refer to the many parts of a tree that go unused in the timber industry, ranging from the tops of trees that are sent to mills, the bark and round ends of those same trees or even entire trees that are irregular or do not meet milling standards.
In the interest of showing off the innovation that some hope will give the timber industry a boost, the conference also welcomed two businesses — Ways2H and Regenerative Industrial — that hope to solve that problem. The two companies hope to kickstart the renewable industry in Lewis County and across the West Coast.
Ways2H, which is short for “ways to hydrogen,” is based in Long Beach, California, and builds production facilities that can turn biomass like woodscraps into hydrogen fuel and other useful products.
Lewis County Transit has recently broken ground on a facility that will produce hydrogen fuel for a fleet of buses. The regional transit authority also hopes to sell the excess to neighboring transit systems making the switch to hydrogen.
Regenerative Industrial is already operating in Lewis County out of a plot of land in Onalaska neighboring the active Krume Lumber Mill. The company is using wood scraps from the mill to create three main products: high grade carbon, wood vinegar and wood tar. The three products have a range of industrial and agricultural uses.
For previous reporting by The Chronicle from two visits to the Regenerative Industrial facility in Onalaska, visit https://tinyurl.com/ypy83hwx or https://tinyurl.com/5n8xkev8.
The local Woody Biomass Conference in Lewis County started three years ago shortly after the creation of a Bioeconomy Development Opportunity (BDO) zone in the area. The event was held largely to inform the community of the new development zone and tell people what it could mean for the community.
The BDO zone initiative is an independent and international project that grades regions on the availability of biomass materials, the willingness to sell that supply and finally the infrastructure needed to transport it.
The rating is intended to help rural areas with biomass fit for industry get the word out and attract new businesses.
During the second conference, Lewis County announced that it had received an “AA” rating for woody biomass, the second highest ranking possible in the system. The ranking denotes the region's proximity to industry, transportation infrastructure including airports, railroads, major highways and, finally, the sheer amount of biomass available.
According to Russell, there are 600,000 dry tonnes of residuals including tree tops, wood scrap and wood that would usually be sold to a pulp mill.
“So 120 chip trucks a day lays out in the woods or is not being sold to the sawmills,” Russell said. “Our people have verified it. We have a lot here, and that's why these people are here talking to you today.”
