Tour

Tour: Bioenergy and Wood products of Michigan

Educating Energy Economist on the role of biomass usage and biopower production in Michigan

Tentative Schedule

Time                               Stops
7:00-8:00 am                Breakfast at Graduate Hotel in East Lansing
8:00 am                         Depart from Graduate Hotel (About 2-hour drive time)
10:00-11:00 am              Tour of Arauco Grayling Particleboard plant
                                                   Transfer to Bioenergy facility
11:00-12:00 pm              Tour of Grayling Generating Station 
                                                   Transfer to Weyerhaeuser OSB mill
1:00- 1:30 pm                  Beak and Lunch (Boxed) 
12:00- 1:00 pm               Tour of Weyerhaeuser OSB facility
1:30 pm                           Depart from Grayling (About 2-hour drive time)
3:30-4:30 pm                 Tour of TES Filer City Station in Filer City
4:30 pm                          Depart from Filer City (About 3-hour drive time)
TBD                                 Dinner on the way. (Probably in Grand Rapids)
8:00-9:00 pm                 Arrive at East Lansing

General Instructions for tour participants

  • The tours take place indoors and out, so please dress appropriately for the weather. Wear shoes appropriate for an industrial worksite. Open-toed shoes and heels are not allowed due to open grate decking in the plant. Shirts with sleeves are required.
  • Each facility tour is about 1 hour and would include an overview of plant operations and safety orientation
  • All safety equipment will be provided – eye and hearing protection, and hardhats

General information of the touring facilities. 

  1. Arauco Grayling Particleboard plant

The Arauco Grayling Particleboard plant represents a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility built around the largest single-line continuous press in the world. Our first board rolled of the press in February of 2019 with production steadily increasing since. The main plant covers about 160 acres with approximately 17 acres or 1,000,000 square feet under roof. The raw material furnish for the plant is a blend of sawmill residual chips and sawdust, pulpwood and flail chips. To manufacture very high-quality particleboard, we can only utilize ‘clean’ or bark-free raw material. We currently use a mix of 55% softwood and 45% hardwood. We debark the pulpwood we purchase and burn the residual material to create heat for our two dryers. We have two truck dumps which convey the chips and sawdust into our Raw Material Aging (RMA) buildings; 1 for hardwood, 1 for softwood. This material is screened by particle size to create 4 separate layers for an extremely strong core with thin, smooth surfaces. This process minimizes sand-off waste and uses less resin. After the sanding and sawing process, the board is either warehoused as ‘raw board’ or sent to lamination. We have two lamination lines with a third line nearing completion. Our plant is designed to run about 1,000,000 green tons of raw material generation 620,000 cubic meters of board.

Arauco.png

    •  
  2. Grayling Generating Station

Grayling Generating Station is a 38-megawatt (MW) biomass-fueled power plant located near Grayling, Michigan. The plant has supplied reliable, clean electricity to northern Michigan for more than 25 years.Grayling Generating Station is a renewable energy generating plant that uses biomass waste – primarily bark and sawdust from local lumber mills and nonmarketable biomass from logging operations to create electricity. The plant’s electric output is sold pursuant to a long-term power purchase agreement to Consumers Energy, an electric and natural gas utility.

    •  
  2. Weyerhaeuser OSB facility in Grayling

The Grayling facility opened in 1982 as Weyerhaeuser’s first OSB mill—at that time, one of only a few in North America. The facility works closely with local suppliers and contractors to produce high-quality Weyerhaeuser Edge™ flooring panels and OSB sheathing at low cost. All output from the mill is sustainably produced and SFI®-certified. Forty years later, Grayling is one of six Weyerhaeuser OSB mills, and it remains a consistent top-performer.

    •  
  2. TES Filer City Station in Filer City

TES Filer City Station is a clean burning coal facility that uses a dry scrubber and baghouse to clean flue gas. The facility also burns biomass wood, helping to reduce landfill waste. The facility produces about 60 MW of electricity and 50,000 pounds of steam per hour. The electricity is sold to Consumers Energy, and the steam is sold to the Packaging Corporation of America facility adjacent to the site. This facility is in process of implementing carbon capture technology and moving towards biomass usage for CHP production. 

Please contact the event coordinator and host team if you have any questions. Details are in the Host and Participants page. 

Michigan State University
  • Spartans Will.
  • © Michigan State University

MSU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer, committed to achieving excellence through a diverse workforce and inclusive culture that encourages all people to reach their full potential.

Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status or veteran status. Issued in furtherance of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Quentin Tyler, Director, MSU Extension, East Lansing, MI 48824. This information is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names does not imply endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not mentioned.

The 4-H Name and Emblem have special protections from Congress, protected by code 18 USC 707.

We comply with the Federal Trade Commission 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).