RAY BROOK — The Adirondack Park Agency unanimously approved a new wood-pellet manufacturing plant to be built in Keeseville.

The Essex Box & Pallet Co., owned by Michael Lemza, gained a permit Thursday to expand operations, recycling its scrap wood and sawdust to make compacted wooden fuel.

The one-quarter-inch fuel pellets look a little like rabbit food and are designed as fuel for ultra-efficient heating systems.

It will be the first wood-pellet plant built in the Adirondack region.

And it’s the second APA permit Lemza has received for his business, located in the Keeseville Industrial Park.

FITS APA GOALS

Staff planners told commissioners the project fit the APA goals for sustainability, efficiency and manufacturing.

APA Chairman Curt Stiles asked Lemza what were likely the top business challenges ahead.

“Raw materials,” Lemza answered, because sawmill industries are down to minimum production levels right now.

A second risk is the home-heating cycle, which Lemza said he plans to counteract by providing wood pellets to larger business users, such as colleges.

The company will not sell the furnaces, just the fuel, which Lemza said is in high demand with little regional supply.

Only a few companies in Vermont have also begun to make the compressed wooden fuel, he said.

NOISE LEVELS