BOISE CASCADE FIRED UP ABOUT ITS NEW HOG-FUELED BOILER

HOT IN THERE: Howard Butts of the Union County Renewable Energy Advisory Committee peers inside the furnace of Boise Cascade's new boiler. The fuel burns at 1,300 degrees. (Observer photos/Bill Rautenstrauch).

- Bill Rautenstrauch

- The Observer

The results are in and there's no doubt about it: Boise Cascade loves its new hog-fueled boiler.

The $5 million steam generating system was installed last year in response to the skyrocketing cost of natural gas, the fossil fuel formerly used to dry lumber at the mill in La Grande.

Savings have been substantial, and will continue to mount, according to Larry Foley, kiln and planer supervisor at the La Grande facility.

"It's a very effective boiler," said Foley. "Depending on the time of year, we save between $100,000 and $250,000 a month."

Last week, Foley took Union County Commissioners Steve McClure, Colleen MacLeod and Nellie Hibbert, plus Brian Kelly of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council and Howard Butts of the Union County Renewable Energy Advisory Committee, on a tour of the boiler system.

Up front, Foley stressed that the boiler is equipped with an emissions control and monitoring system that makes it environmentally friendly.

"You'll see nothing coming out of our stack, except for a steam plume. It's amazing," Foley said. "If every wood stove in the county smoked like that, there wouldn't be a problem."

The boiler, manufactured by Georgia-based Hurst Boiler and Welding Company, has a firebox that burns fuel at 1,300 degrees. The system can generate up to 41,400 pounds of steam per hour.

Most of the steam is used in the lumber kilns, which run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some steam is used to heat the mill.

For fuel, the boiler consumes bark from timber, called hog fuel. Most, but not all, of the bark comes off trees harvested for the La Grande mill.

"In the summer months we generate more fuel than we need, but in the winter months we don't have enough. Then we buy it from other sources," Foley said.

The hog fuel can't be stockpiled, he said, because as it becomes compost its temperature rises.

Foley said that as a tree is stripped and readied for milling, nothing goes to waste.

Bark is used in the boiler, and what can't be used is sold. Wood chips are used to make paper at Boise's Wallula, Wash., plant and wood shavings go to the Island City particleboard plant. Even ash from the boiler is recycled.

"Local greenhouses mix it with potting soil," Foley said.

Boise is Union County's largest private employer, with 700 people working at the La Grande sawmill, the Island City particleboard plant and the Elgin stud plywood mills.

In 2005, the high cost of natural gas was blamed for a shift curtailment at the La Grande mill.

The shift was called back, and the company decided it would find an alternative to natural gas.

Twenty-five percent of the project cost was generated through Oregon's Business Energy Tax Credit program.

Other funding sources for the boiler project included a $250,000 grant from the Governor's Strategic Reserve Fund and a $100,000 grant from the Northeast Oregon Alliance board. Union County contributed $150,000 in economic development funds over two years.

The Hells Canyon Preservation Council concerns itself with local environmental issues. Kelly said his group is keeping a close eye on local biomass projects.

"Biomass is both an energy and land use issue," he said. "We want it to be used at a scale appropriate for our area. It's a clean and renewable energy source, and we like that. But we don't want biomass to drive timber policy."

He said that since the Boise boiler uses material that is already on hand and might otherwise go to waste, he thinks it is a good thing.

"That kind of material being burned for biomass sounds like a great idea to me," he said.

MacLeod said she is impressed with the boiler's efficiency.

"I'm fascinated by how little fuel it takes to generate the kind of heat needed to dry the lumber," she said.

She said she thinks county government was wise to support Boise in its efforts to install the boiler.

"We realized early on that if we lost the mill, then we'd lose the particleboard plant. It's a domino effect," she said. "We're very cognizant our community is one of the few that has not lost its mill."

Butts said he too was impressed with the boiler.

"I think it's positive and admirable for Boise to try it out," he said. "It's going to get even better. They're only part way to peak efficiency. I think it's a showcase for the rest of the nation."

In addition to preserving jobs, the boiler is credited with adding a few.

"It takes four full-time operators and a millwright to run it," Foley said, adding that an electrician splits time between the boiler and other sawmill equipment.