Biomass News

Veolia UK, a branch of the French Veolia Group, has secured a contract from Equitix ESI CHP to operate the Sherwood Biomass Plant in Nottingham, UK. The 20-year contract, worth £50 million (€69m), highlights the growing UK commitment to energy production from biomass, and adds to the £500 million of biomass energy managed by Veolia in the UK and Ireland. Located in Widmerpool,…
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The European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), a non-profit bioenergy representative, has selected its new president and vice president. At AEBIOM’s latest general assembly, Gustav Melin (SVEBIO, Sweden) was elected as AEBIOM president for one further term. Following his election, Melin gave statement in which he hoped for positive results from the COP21 climate summit in…
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The South American country of Uruguay is now generating 95% of its power from renewable sources. While Uruguay has no nuclear power plants and has not built new hydropower in 20 years, biomass, wind, and solar power are booming. The massive shift to renewable energy was triggered by the country’s need to break away from its dependence on foreign oil, which in 2000 accounted for 15% of its…
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The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul has granted preliminary licenses to ten biomass projects in order to increase its renewable energy output. The Environmental Institute of Mato Grosso do Sul (Imasul) gave the licenses to a total of 535.75MW worth of eucalyptus-based biomass projects. The 10 schemes, with a combined investement of $734 million (€679m), will be located in the cities of…
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The Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK and the supply chain specialist Terravesta are running new trials to examine how the energy crop miscanthus survives in water-logged land and its effect on the soil after flooding. The trials come some 18 months after the floods which devastated the Somerset Levels and are being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council…
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E.ON UK, a subsidiary of the German power company E.ON has confirmed that Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire will cease commercial generation and will close permanently following. The iconic plant, which has reached its 20,000 hours limit of generation under the Large Combustion Plant Directive, was officially first synchronised to the grid by former E.ON colleague Mike Smith in…
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Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG), a platform established to invest and operate biomass plants in the UK, has reached financial close on its second waste-to-energy project. The new £200 million (€284 million) plant has a 25MW capacity and will be located on 7.5 acres in Hull, East Yorkshire. BIG was established by cornerstone investor Infracapital, alongside shareholders Helios,…
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Aalborg Energie Technik, a Danish biomass engineering company, has received an order for the conversion of Østkraft's 20-year-old boiler plant to combust biomass instead of coal. The conversion and rebuilding with installation and commissioning will take place from July to September 2016. After the conversion the plant will be capable of firing any combination of feedstock between 100%…
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MPC Capital, a German investment company, is set to construct an 18MW biomass power plant in Brazil. The plant, which will be fed by rice husk, will be built in the city of Itaqui, Rio Grande do Sul state. Building is projected to start in 2016 with an investment of BRL208 million (€51.2m). The Itaqui plant, with an annual processing capacity of 140,000 tonnes of rice husk, is MPC’s…
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Babcock & Wilcox Vølund, a Danish thermal energy producer, has ordered a state-of-the-art biomass handling system from Saxlund, part of the Swedish Opcon Group. The system will be delivered to Babcock & Wilcox Vølund’s (BWV) Templeborough Biomass Power Plant in Sheffield, UK. The scope of the order is the design, manufacturing, delivery, and commissioning of a dual…
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Hamrick Engineering, a US-based start-up, has received a broad patent for extracting sugars and nanocellulose from lignocellulosic biomass by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This new technology uses an environmentally benign technique of vacuum infusion of hydrolysis catalysts into biomass. ‘This ground-breaking patent describes how to extract sugars and nanocellulose from…
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Operations have started at Hitachi Zosen Corp.'s 3 billion yen (€22.7 million) Miyanosato biomass-fired power plant in Hitachiota City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Hitachi Zosen has been building the plant, with a power output of 5,750kW, since 2013. The new facility will process waste wood, a material that is abundantly available in Ibaraki due to the large forestry industry. Approximately…
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Veolia, through its subsidiary Veolia Japan, has been awarded two contracts to operate two biomass-fired power plants in northern Japan, in partnership with local environmental services company Takeei. These two contracts, both of which have been signed for 20 years, represent total revenue of €90 million for Veolia. The facilities, which are located in the cities of Hirakawa and Hanamaki in…
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PrecisionHawk, a terrestrial data acquisition and analysis company, and Genera Energy have partnered to develop new analysis algorithms specific to improving the efficiency and quality of sustainable biomass crop production and distribution. The algorithms will convert raw aerial imagery collected by drones and satellites into an actionable report for biomass crop farmers. The tools will be…
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