Cate Street subsidiary Thermogen Industries applies for US$30M bond to build first of five planned torrefied wood machines in Millinocket, Maine, at Katahdin Avenue paper mill site; application review should take two-three months, say state officials

Allison Oesterle

MILLINOCKET, Maine , June 12, 2013 (Bangor Daily News) – The Finance Authority of Maine has begun reviewing Thermogen Industries One LLC's application for a $30 million bond to build New England's first torrefied wood machine at the Katahdin Avenue paper mill site, officials said Wednesday.

The application came in on Tuesday afternoon. The review should take two or three months, said Beth Bordowitz, CEO of FAME, the state's business finance agency.

"There are a lot of pieces to this application," Bordowitz said Wednesday. "I am sure we will have some back-and-forth negotiations with the [bonding agency]."

"The parent company, Cate Street, is a highly professional organization, and very responsive to work with," she added.

Company spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne and Peggy Daigle, Millinocket's town manager, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Cate Street, a New Hampshire investment company, owns paper mills in East Millinocket and Millinocket through the new Great Northern Paper Co. LLC. Another company subsidiary, Thermogen was established to manufacture torrefied wood, a type of wood pellet, in Millinocket and Eastport for sale to British and European coal-fired electrical plants.

The loan application concerns only the Millinocket effort, Bordowitz said.

Tranchemontagne has said the first torrefied wood machine is one of five slated for Millinocket. Two or three more will be built in Eastport over the next several years, with the first Eastport machine coming online sometime in 2015.

The first machine in Millinocket will directly employ 30 to 35 workers and create or sustain 80 to 100 jobs indirectly, he said. Each machine after will employ 20 to 25 directly with 80 to 100 jobs indirectly benefiting.

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