Finished product ready to be shipped at Iron Triangle’s post and pole plant in Seneca.

SENECA — The U.S. Forest Service has awarded Iron Triangle upwards of $500,000 to process non-saw biomass more efficiently at its post and pole facility in Seneca.

King Williams of Kinginc, a subcontractor with Iron Triangle, said the grant would help create a cleaner, more efficient debarking system and help the post and pole facility process its non-saw biomass.

Williams said the two-year grant would also help create a more economically efficient separation of waste products from debarking and pole processing into salable and non-salable products and promote the conversion of non-salable residue to biochar and electrical power.

Williams said Iron Triangle monitors for grant opportunities and stays in contact with the regional U.S. Forest Service personnel who handle grants. He said Iron Triangle came up with a 65% match for the project’s costs.

He said Iron Triangle has hired “numerous” employees and currently offers more than 20 family-wage jobs at the Seneca Post and Pole facility.

There are two goals for this project, Williams said. The first is to use as much of the non-saw biomass removed from the forest as possible for posts, poles, firewood, and wood-generated energy to minimize the need to chip and sell low-value chips to the pulp market. The second is to use a more economically and environmentally friendly process to manufacture the non-saw biomass, producing a cleaner and more segregated product.

He said it would create more marketable material and process and convert residual wood waste into electrical energy and biochar.