GRAND RAPIDS, MI – How much wood can a Woodchuck Biomass Processing Facility chuck?

A new startup company is answering that question with a first-of-its-kind processing facility in Grand Rapids that can turn 100 tons of wood into 83 million BTUs of clean energy.

Woodchuck officials unveiled the company’s new flagship biomass processing facility and innovation center at 2151 Butterworth Drive SW on Thursday, May 8.

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Standing alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and city officials, Woodchuck CEO Todd Thomas celebrated the facility as a first-of-its-kind hub for sustainable energy innovation and the only one in the world.

The $2 million facility uses an all-electric industrial wood grinder to turn scrap wood into high-quality biomass, or organic material that can be turned into clean, renewable energy. Discarded wood is collected from construction sites and demolition zones, processed on-site and put to good use.

“Before Woodchuck, this would all go to the landfill,” Thomas said, pointing to a huge mound of scrap wood at the site Thursday. “This is now a pile of future energy.”

Woodchuck’s Grand Rapids facility has the capacity to produce 500 tons of biomass per day, the company said in a news release.

At full capacity, the facility will divert tens of thousands of tons of wood waste from landfills each year, converting it into renewable biomass to power local industries, support utility decarbonization, and reduce methane emissions from decomposing wood, the company said.

The facility uses artificial intelligence (AI) to sort, identify and process usable materials, increasing efficiency.

Thomas said Woodchuck officials considered several sites across Michigan and Indiana but ultimately chose Grand Rapids for the flagship facility because of the amount of wood waste generated in the area through furniture manufacturers and construction companies that use things like pallets and crates for shipping.

The city of Grand Rapids also provided six acres of land near city’s yard waste drop-off site on Butterworth for the facility, which Commissioner Milinda Ysasi said is a win-win for the city.

“Residents in Grand Rapids are overwhelmingly concerned and clear that they want us to work to find solutions for clean energy moving forward,” she said. “Woodchuck is going to help our city to do that with a model for clean energy innovation and also the realities about emergency response preparation.”

Whitmer said Woodchuck’s processing capabilities proved to be critical for emergency response and environmental recovery in the wake of the ice storms that caused catastrophic damage across Northern Michigan this spring.

After the ice storms, Woodchuck partnered with several counties to rapidly process fallen trees and wood debris, turning what would have been landfill waste or burn piles into clean biomass energy and helping communities recover faster.

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“Woodchuck’s new facility in Grand Rapids will create good-paying, high-skill jobs and build on Michigan’s leadership in AI, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy,” Whitmer said.

“By turning waste into a productive resource, Woodchuck is helping us protect our precious natural resources and build a more cutting-edge, sustainable economy. Let’s keep working together to secure more projects just like Woodchuck in Michigan so we can lead the future and grow our economy.”

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