News

A multi-million investment is to be ploughed into the Port of Tyne, UK to upgrade its wood pellet handling facilities. The Port is already the largest handler of wood pellet in Europe and the plans are to enhance and expand its existing wood pellet storage facilities and associated quay and rail infrastructure to the tune of £180 million (€209.2 million). Discussions are ongoing with…
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement for Clean Air Act violations by the Thermal Energy Development Partnership (TEDP). The settlement totalled $145,000 (€106,500) as TEDP’s biomass power plant in California “failed to properly operate and maintain emission monitoring equipment”. TEDP’s monitoring equipment reportedly failed to track…
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New levels of support for renewable energy have been announced by the Northern Ireland government. From 1 April, under a revised Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation, new large-scale biomass CHP plants are eligible for an additional six months support from the government. ‘The additional six month eligibility period for eligible biomass stations, which retains support at the current…
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A new £8 million (€9.3 million) anaerobic digestion (AD) facility is well under development in County Durham, UK. Emerald Biogas claim the commercial food waste facility, to be based at Newton Aycliffe industrial estate, will be the first in the north east of England. It will process 50,000 tonnes of food waste a year sourced across the north east and generate renewable energy for the…
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US-based New Biomass Energy is expanding as it sees its third bulk shipment of torrefied wood pellets depart for Europe recently. The delivery of 4,000 tonnes was produced at NBE’s plant in Mississippi and will end up at various coal-fired plants throughout Europe. The plant is currently increasing its production capacity, dependent on the energy density of the pellet produced, up to…
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A report by the North American Wood Fibre Review claims wood pellet exports over to Europe were up over 70% in the third quarter of 2012 year-on-year. The total amount delivered was reported to be 860,000 tonnes and the increase has been put down to expansion of production in both the US South and British Columbia. ‘The three major European pellet import countries remain the UK, the…
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Energy crop company SG Biofuels (SGB) is to work with two Brazilian companies to advance the development of jatropha as a next generation crop. Agreements have been signed by SGB with agricultural research institution Embrapa and biodiesel refiner Fiagril. ‘These agreements validate the two years of progress we’ve made advancing our genetics in Brazil and provide a platform from which…
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UK-based food waste recycler PDM has started the construction of its second industrial scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant under its ReFood brand. The plant is being built on PDM’s existing rendering and renewable energy generation site in Widnes and, once completed, will have the capacity to handle 90,000 tonnes of commercial and domestic food waste. The new facility will cost £20…
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The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is considering investing around £400 million (€467.8 million) into biomass projects throughout 2013. It is believed the bank is working on five deals which would support facilities which use feedstock like wood chips to generate heat and power. Each plant would be built from scratch and have a capacity of between 50MW and 150MW. This move towards…
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UK-based waste management company Shanks has signed new contracts as it moves its plans forward for a residual waste treatment and recycling facility. A consortium of Dutch engineering company Imtech and Spanish environmental technology business Ros Roca have signed a £10 million (€11.7 million) in order to provide an anaerobic digestor (AD) plant, due to be based in Wakefield. It is…
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The Philippines bioenergy industry is set to be boosted by support coming from eight companies based in Germany. Representatives from the companies, including Envitec Biogas, Pregobello and GTP Solutions, are in Asia looking for projects and partnerships in which they can provide technology and share knowledge. As the Philippines starts to look beyond fossil fuels, bioenergy is seen as a viable…
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Power producers in Nova Scotia, Canada will have to start using biomass if proposed electricity regulations come into effect.The regulations aim to establish more flexibility for Nova Scotia Power to plan for various renewable targets if the project is approved by the Utility and Review Board.It also states that power accessed through the Maritime Link must also be used, which is a new 500MW…
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Finland-based technology supplier Metso is to fulfil a biomass-fired heating plant order from energy company Savon Voima Oyj in Leppävirta. The new plant will help the municipality of Leppävirta reduce its consumption of oil by increasing its district heat generation by 8MW via renewable sources, such as forest residue and peat. The order value for this project was put at…
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US environmental service provider EQM Technologies has completed the sale of a Texas-based biorefinery. The purchaser was Delek Renewables and the price was $5.5 million (€4.1 million), of which EQM has used around $2 million to pay off unpaid principal and accrued interest on subordinated notes secured by the assets and sold in the transaction. ‘We are pleased to have closed this…
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