First industrial-scale torrefied pellet plant

June 29,
2010, Duiven, The Netherlands – An official groundbreaking has taken place at
Duiven in the Dutch province of Gelderland for the first commercial-scale plant
to produce torrefied wood pellets. The approximately €15 million plant is a
project of Topell Nederland, a joint venture between Netherlands company Topell
Energy and German company RWE Innogy. The plant is expected to begin producing
torrefied biomass in early 2011, with a production capacity of 60,000
tons/year.

The process developed by Topell enables the
continuous production of torrefied pellets on an industrial scale. The
manufacturing process is highly flexible in terms of raw material feedstock.
Torrefied pellets have a high energy density and when co-fired with
conventional coal, no additional infrastructure such as separate storage or
pulverization equipment is required.

RWE Innogy's Dutch subsidiary Essent will be
the first company to use the torrefied pellets over a period of five years for
combustion in the Amer coal-fired power plants in Geertruidenberg.