Alabama company 42 Railroad Ave buys shuttered biomass plant
A US, Alabama-based, company has agreed to buy a shuttered biomass plant fuelled by wood chips, from Niagara Worldwide in Maine.
42 Railroad Ave plans to reopen the plant by late June and plans to bring around 300 jobs the area.
In a statement, company CEO Steven Johnson, said he plans to rebuild the turbine, activate new transmission lines and build a rotary kiln to produce more than 100 tonnes per day of activated carbon, which has applications including water and air purification, oil spill cleanup, medical treatments and trapping mercury emissions from coal-fired power stations and natural gas wellheads.
“Sherman Power Station was constructed to be the diamond jewel of the industry, with an automated feed system and other state-of-the-art technologies, which have been maintained very well by (Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based) Wheelabrator (Technologies) and (Canada-based) Boralex, and when the plant was shuttered a few years ago, it was shut down properly, with all the infrastructure left in place to make the restart very economical,” Johnson said.
‘Welcoming factor’
He added: “The positive economic impact to the communities of Stacyville, Sherman, Patten, and Northern Maine will be a welcoming factor, along with the clean air and positive environmental impact of a renewable energy plant.” According to Johnson, the reopening of the Sherman Plant is projected to create an offshoot of up to 300 jobs in Northern Maine, and the plant has the ability to take in more than 700 tons per day of wood fiber for fuel.
Johnson describes the Sherman Plant as a solid return on investment, with projected revenues of $34 million per year, adding that he’s “already begun the re-permitting process with the State of Maine, and with the new Executive Order recently signed by President Trump, we should be able to fast-track the re-permitting process, plus with the support of Viking Green Energy Exploration, along with forestry expert and industrial developer Gary R. Lynn of Jamestown, New York, this project may move forward even faster than originally planned”.
42 Railroad Ave is a company that develops heavy industrial and small town revitalisation projects.
