Growth in grass pellet industry highlighted at heating seminar

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Luke Geiver March 22, 2012

When Enviro Energy LLC’s founder, Bob Miller, first started making pellets in upstate New York, he was just a farmer. The same can be said about Kevin Sumner and John Brown, both with Hudson Valley Grass Energy out of New York. All three individuals presented a history of their paths from farmer to fuel pellet developers during the Northeast Agricultural Biomass Heating Seminar, a one-day event held in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., that preceded the Northeast Biomass Heating Expo.

The presentations by Miller, Sumner, Brown and even Dan Arnett of Ernst Biomass, a pellet manufacturing startup that is tied to a Pennsylvania seed developer, all highlighted the growth of the perennial grass and agricultural-based pellet sector.

Miller explained that when he started making fuel pellets out of everything from reed canary grass to switchgrass and straw, his family team simply wanted to see whether it could make a good pellet. To do that, his team engineered a pellet manufacturing facility capable of switching from one feedstock to another in a matter of two hours. The operation, he said, was built out of waste parts from junk yards. “We didn’t really know what would work, but we were thoroughly convinced of what wouldn’t.”

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