Mesquite as an export fuel

Fuel Fix:
A Czech Republic company says it has found an abundant, long-term source of energy in South Texas to help European utilities produce electricity.

The energy source has nothing to do with the Eagle Ford Shale.

The source is the hated mesquite wood.

“We looked all over the world for a stable and big source of biomass. We found the source in Texas,” Zdenek Mayer said. He’s business director and CEO for GreenHeart Energy LLC, the Texas division of GreenHeart Energy, based in Duchcov, Czech Republic.

GreenHeart Energy LLC has selected San Antonio for its Texas company’s headquarters — for legal, banking and accounting purposes — but most of its activities will occur near and in Corpus Christi.

GreenHeart Energy, founded in 2008, plans to harvest mesquite in South Texas, chip the wood, and ship it from Corpus Christi in bulk to a German port. Once the chips are in Europe, electricity utilities will burn them to create turbine-turning steam.

Because burning mesquite chips produces less pollution than the coal the utilities have been burning, the utilities can sell some of their pollution permits back to their governments.

Mayer listed Poland as the country with the biggest potential for mesquite chips. Utilities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Denmark also are likely customers, Mayer said.

Mesquite wood has a low moisture content and an energy level, when burned, of somewhere between that of brown and black coal, Mayer said.

GreenHeart Energy estimates more than 500,000 acres of mesquite exists within 100 miles of Corpus Christi, with a yearly availability of 19 million tons. The company wants to harvest mesquite within only 100 miles of Corpus Christi to control transportation costs.

Every 35 metric tons of mesquite chips will cost the company about $2 million in payments to landowners, the ports and logistics, Mayer said.
... 
This could be bad news for the bar-b-que business that likes the flavor the wood smoke provides.  When the mesquite trees mature they make a beautiful wood for furniture although you do have to deal with some defects.  This is probably a good deal for the ranchers to have someone pay them for clearing what is seen as a nuisance.

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