It is reported that the largest wood pellet and chip manufacturing plant in Japan is expected to be operational by around July in the town of Oyama. The plant will be developed and operated by Forest Cycle (FC), a subsidiary of Fuji Sogyo (Oyama Town). The plant will promote the effective use of low-quality timber and other woody debris and accelerate the development of local forests.

The project will be developed on land adjacent to the Shizuto Forest Management Cooperative (Ueno, the town), which handles logs. The land area is approximately 12,600 square metres. It will include a 3,600 sq m plant building and a 340 sq m power receiving and substation building for the installation of three small power generators (165 kW output) that will use pellets. The investment is approximately 2.4 billion yen. The project will receive subsidies from the Forestry Agency and the prefecture, as well as investment from the Green Finance Promotion Organisation.　

The plant can produce up to 15,000 tonnes of wood pellets per year. Low-quality wood, which is not suitable for construction and civil engineering, will be converted into pellets and sold mainly to local factories and horticultural enterprises to promote local production for local consumption. The heat generated by the town's biomass power plant, which uses the pellets as fuel, will be reused in the production process to promote environmentally friendly energy circulation. The plan is to process 25,000 tonnes of wood per year, with the aim of accepting 40,000 tonnes in the future. Wood species and other materials unsuitable for pellet production will be converted into wood chips and sold to nearby EN Board, which manufactures building materials using the chips.

Wood pellets are a naturally occurring fuel made from crushed, dried and compressed wood. Fuji Sogyo has operated the only pellet plant in the prefecture in Tanagashira, the town since 2011, and currently produces approximately 1,800 tonnes annually.

While the town is rich in forest resources, there are also many rough mountain forests, which have been regarded as a problem in terms of disaster prevention. FC president Shoichiro Komiyama (43) says he hopes the company can play a role in creating an appropriate wood cycle to promote the forestry industry.

Source: news.at-s.com