Drax Biomass Begins Limited Production at Amite Pellet Mill in Mississippi

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Drax Biomass International Incorporated (Burlington, Massachusetts) has begun limited wood pellet fuel production at a new mill in Gloster, Mississippi. Drax Biomass is a subsidiary of Drax Group plc (Drax, England).

Equipment testing and a small amount of production are under way at the Amite BioEnergy facility, which is still hiring employees. The mill is expected to be running at full capacity this spring.

The estimated $120 million plant was designed by Gray Construction (Lexington, Kentucky), which also served as construction manager. The project features 120-foot-tall storage domes that will convey pellets to ship loaders, which will move the product down the Mississippi River and ultimately to European markets, where demand for fuel pellets is on the rise.

The plant will have the capacity to produce 450,000 tons per year of fuel pellets from wood chip feedstocks.

Drax has an identical fuel pellet mill that is under construction in Bastrop, Louisiana. The Morehouse BioEnergy project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

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