Got to tour the Enviva Chesapeake port facility today.  They manufacture and ship wood pellets from this facility to England and other European markets.  

Each of these domes can hold a little over a million pounds of pellets (48,500 metric tons).  They are about 185 feet tall, and maybe 150 feet in diameter.  Each dome holds about one ship-load of pellets.  It takes about 56 hours to load a ship, and 10 days to transit the Atlantic.  All pellets are delivered to the facility by truck from one of three of their pellet mills in the area.  They travel from the off-loading station into the dome for storage (waiting for ships) and then to the ship via about 3,700 feet of conveyor belt.

The purchaser uses the pellets to fire boilers for electricity.  Equivalent to a typical US powerplant.  One shipload of pellets is about 2 days worth of feedstock for the powerplant.

IMG_0398-Enviva Approach by FredMan, on Flickr

IMG_0404-Dome Outside by FredMan, on Flickr

IMG_0429-Dome Conveyor by FredMan, on Flickr

IMG_0418-Dome Entrance by FredMan, on Flickr

IMG_0412-Dome Inside by FredMan, on Flickr