Cogent Provides Plant-wide System Integration to 750,000 T/Yr Pellet Plant in Georgia

RWE Innogy, a German-based utilities company, and BMC of Sweden have completed the construction of a $150 million pellet plant in Ware County, Georgia. The plant is built on a 300-acre site with abundant forest resources and access to Georgia’s deepwater ports. Originally built with a capacity of 750,000 metric tons per year, the Georgia Biomass pellet plant now operates at nearly 850,000 T/year, making it one of the largest pellet plants in the world.

In constructing this biomass plant, BMC was committed to building and operating a modern and agile facility that is fully optimized and able to successfully compete in the 21st century. In addition to working closely with BMC and Georgia Biomass to define and design process control, IT and automation systems, Cogent has also deployed a complete real-time Operational Performance Management (OPM) system in the new plant. This OPM system has provided expanded visibility into the operational performance of this world-class facility. With this tool, Georgia Biomass was able to decrease ramp up time of the plant, better collaborate across workgroups, make informed decisions in real-time and drive continuous improvement.

“Our totally integrated operations, information and asset management solution has equipped Georgia Biomass with the capability for operational agility. Additionally, our rigorous simulation testing and tailored operator training program has contributed to the fast start-up and ramp-up to full production capacity,” says Bijan Shams, President of Cogent Industrial Technologies.

“Our totally integrated Operational Performance Management Solution has delivered the operational agility we have been looking for,” said Michael Adkins, Production Services Manager for BMC. “Cogent was selected not only for their systems integration and process controls expertise, but also because of their deep understanding of wood drying technologies and their willingness to work closely with BMC to bring our operations to the next level of performance.”

About Georgia Biomass

Georgia Biomass, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RWE Innogy of Germany. RWE ranks among Europe’s five leading electricity and gas companies. Georgia Biomass’s Pellet Plant in Waycross, Ga., with the capacity to produce 750,000 tons of wood pellets per year, is one of the largest pellet plants in the world.