SOUTH PARIS – “Replacing Oil With Maine’s Trees” is the topic of the 7 p.m. Thursday meeting of the western Maine chapter of the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine.

Scott Christiansen of the Fractionation Development Center in Rumford and Eric Kingsley of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions of Portland are the featured speakers.

The meeting will be held in Room 118 at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

The Rumford center is dedicated to finding, bringing to Maine and commercializing biomass conversion technologies. Christiansen has an 18-month grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a feasibility study to produce heating oil, diesel and biochemicals from wood. The program calls for an eventual 60 biorefineries, each using more than 700 tons of biomass per day. When done, the goal is that Maine will be more than 50 percent energy independent.

Kingsley, vice president of SWOAM, works on biomass conversion of wood to electric energy and was lead researcher on a recent report on the production of liquid fuels from wood. His clients include a biomass facility in Maine and several in other New England states and New York.

SWOAM meetings are free and open to all. Direct questions to chapter President Bill Haynes at 583-2963 or forest@maine.com.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.