American Biorefining and Green Energy Resources are aiming to collect millions of tons of shattered trees and other forest debris in southern US states, before converting the wood into biomass for use in energy generation.
American Biorefining already ships waste wood to Europe from north-eastern forests but the company opened a Texas office last summer because of the potential of hurricanes to create wood fuel.
The Texas Forest Service says hurricane Rita damaged nearly 6% of East Texas’ 16 billion ft3 of timber.
The US Forest Service estimates that about 2.8 million tons of forest waste, suitable for biomass, is generated annually by normal logging operations in east Texas.
