Biomass News

A New Zealand dairy plant has announced it is moving away from coal in favour of a wood biomass boiler. Fonterra, the owner of the Studholme milk processing plant in Canterbury on New Zealand’s South Island, had received permission from Environment Canterbury and the Waimate District Council to build a 30-tonne-per-hour coal-fired boiler at the plant. However, it has since committed to a…
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Danone has announced a NZ$40 million (€23.7 million) investment in a new biomass project at its New Zealand spray drying plant. The company has a target of reaching net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2021 and hopes that the installation of a new biomass boiler will help to reduce the plant’s emissions by 20,000 tonnes per year. Danone’s Nutricia plant is located in the Otago region…
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Environmental regulators in Mississippi have controversially approved an air pollution permit for what could be the largest wood pellet plant in the world. The state’s Environmental Quality Permit Board voted unanimously to issue a permit for Enviva’s $140 million (€125.8 million) plant in Lucedale, Mississippi. However, those who oppose the plans claim that emissions produced by the…
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Global energy company Engie has been awarded a government contract to build and operate a biomass heating plant in Spain. The new plant will be built in Pamplona in Spain’s Navarre region with a capacity of 29 MW. The plant will have permission to operate for 25 years and will supply heat to 4,500 households, as well as several public buildings in Pamplona. It is set to cost more than…
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An application to convert an Irish peat plant to co-fire with biomass has been rejected, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. The local planning authority An Bord Pleanála refused permission for the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) plant in Shannonbridge, County Offaly due to climate concerns. The future of at least 300 jobs at the plant, run by Bord na Móna, is now uncertain. The ESB had planned…
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A former biomass plant in Lyonsdale, New York State will be dismantled by the end of 2019. The plant previously burned wood waste to power more than 20,000 homes in the area. Lyonsdale Biomass plant has been dormant for almost two years while the county’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has been searching for a new tenant. The facility used biomass material from logging operations and…
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British power stations are producing 100 million tonnes less carbon dioxide (CO2) per year than they were 10 years ago, renewable energy company Drax has reported. The amount of carbon being saved is equivalent to flying the entire population of the UK to Beijing and back. On 30 June, carbon emissions from electricity fell to 97g per kW, meeting the Committee on Climate Change’s 2030 target…
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The biomass conversion of a previously coal-fired power station in South Wales is on track to begin operations by 2021. According to global sustainable energy company SIMEC Atlantic Energy, the Uskmouth plant in Newport will be fuelled with pellets derived from waste. The pellets will contain high levels of plastic waste, which cannot be recycled and may otherwise be sent to landfill. The…
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UK energy major BP has agreed to form a 50/50 joint venture (JV) with US agricultural trader Bunge, creating a bioenergy company in Brazil. The JV, which will be known as BP Bunge Bioenergia, will operate 11 mills across the southeast, north and Midwest regions of Brazil, one of the largest fast-growing markets for biofuels in the world. The new company will have an annual combined crushing…
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Anellotech’s MinFree™ technology, an innovative, patent pending biomass pretreatment process has been demonstrated to significantly reduce the mineral (ash) content of loblolly pine at a 20 metric tonnes/day scale. Month-long trials converting this MinFree™-treated, low-mineral pine into aromatics (BTX) at Anellotech’s Bio-TCat™ process TCat-8® pilot plant…
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The £160 million (€180 million) renewable electricity Margam Green Energy Plant, located three miles south-east of Port Talbot in south Wales, has entered commercial operation. The plant is owned by Glennmont Partners, one of Europe’s largest and best-known renewable energy fund managers. The main contractor for the Margam power project, the consortium of Babcock & Wilcox…
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A new research project led by the European Union (EU) has been launched to design a new small-scale cogeneration engine powered by biomass, which will produce heat and electricity. Known as SmartCHP, the project is a collaboration between ten partners, including European industrial companies, universities and innovation experts. It will be coordinated by BTG Biomass Technology…
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Drax Group has announced plans to explore the feasibility of using molten carbonate fuel cells to capture carbon dioxide (CO2), having secured £500,000 in funding from the UK Government. The project will explore using FuelCell Energy’s molten carbon fuel cell to generate electricity while capturing CO2 from flue gases produced during biomass combustion at Drax’s renewable power…
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Bruks Siwertell has completed the on-time installation and successful performance tests of a new 600t/h Siwertell ship unloader at Yara International’s Norwegian fertilizer terminal in Glomfjord; 5km into the Arctic Circle and home to some of the most tightly-controlled environs in the world.  “Yara International is very satisfied and impressed that, just 18 months from the order…
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