News

Operations have begun at a new biomass-fired power plant in Belgium. GDF Suez and its subsidiary Electrabel own a majority stake in the Rodenhuize plant and invested €125 million to convert it from a coal-fired facility to one which burns 100% biomass. The power plant now burns wood pellets to generate 180MW of electricity. This is enough to power 320,000 households and will reduce CO2…
Read More »

In the UK, MITIE's asset management business, O-Gen UK and Una Group have formed a joint venture, O-Gen Plymtrek, which is developing a renewable energy centre in Plymouth. The new facility will generate renewable heat and power from 40,000 tonnes of woody biomass a year by converting it into a gas fuel which will be combusted in a boiler and create steam. The centre will be installed with O-Gen…
Read More »

Orchard House Foods, a UK-producer of fresh fruit products, has installed a new build-own-operate power production plant. The plant generates biomethane from waste food products including rejected fruit, peelings and wash water. It is currently handling around 1.5 tonnes of COD/day from the liquid waste stream and a further 4 tonnes of COD from the mashed fruit peelings. The processing of this…
Read More »

The worldwide production of electricity derived from biomass will increase by approximately 8,000MW until 2015. These are the findings of a study by ecoprog and Fraunhofer. The construction of biomass-fired power plants is continuing to grow, mainly due to the increasing number of feed-in tariffs available for biomass-based electricity. The high cost of fossil fuels and the introduction of CO2…
Read More »

In Brazil, Cargill, a global trader of sugar and ethanol, and Grupo USJ, a company dedicated to the sugarcane industry, have formed a 50/50 joint venture, SJC Bioenergia. The new JV brings together two of Grupo USJ's sugarcane mills, both located in the state of Goiás: its Quirinópolis-based São Francisco mill and the Cachoeira Dourada mill, which is currently under…
Read More »

In Europe, a number of North West European organisations are partnering for a €14 million initiative that will address the current lack of information on macro- and microalgal productivity. Energetic Algae (EnAlgae) will establish a series of pilot-scale seaweed farms and microalgae growth facilities in the region to provide information needed for optimised algae production. NNFCC is one…
Read More »

Canadian Biofuel held a grand opening ceremony on 17 September for its new wood pellet and briquette production plant. Located in Springford, Ontario, Canada, the plant has been under development for six years and Canadian Biofuel finally began construction in April. Production is expected to start by the end of the year, when it will manufacture 1,500 tonnes each month of biomass fuel. The…
Read More »

In Anglesey, Wales, UK, a biomass-fired power plant has been given the go ahead. Anglesey Aluminium Metal Renewables proposed the 299MW plant and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) approved it in September. The power station will be built at Penrhos Works in Holyhead. When it is operational it will generate enough renewable electricity for around 30,000 households.
Read More »

In Leamington, Ontario, Canada, New Energy Farms (NEF) has constructed its energy crop bioproducts facility. The 30,000 square foot plant converts locally grown energy crops into low carbon bioproducts. It also generates 265kW of renewable electricity from solar panels fitted in the roof. Pyramid and Prism Farms, partners of NEF, built the site, which currently handles 1,000 hectares of…
Read More »

In the US, River Basin Energy is developing a commercial-scale biocoal production plant, which it expects to break ground on later this year. When the facility comes online in 2012 it will produce more than 100,000 tonnes a year of biocoal. River Basin Energy already owns a demo-scale biocoal plant in Laramie, Wyoming. This partially commercial-scale facility has the capacity to manufacture…
Read More »

Weltec Biopower, a German biogas plant manufacturer, has completed the construction of its fifth plant in the Czech Republic. Located in Příložany, the plant converts pig manure, grass silage, maize silage, crop silage and grain waste into 366kW of renewable energy, which is fed into the grid. Completed by Weltec in four months, the plant comprises a 2,500m3 stainless steel fermenter, a…
Read More »

British Columbia, Canada-based Viridis Energy, an alternative energy company, has started supplying its wood pellets to sustainable energy solutions provider Abellon Clean Energy in Italy. This is Viridis' second European customer, but the company is about to embark on a third agreement and is scheduled to begin shipping wood pellets to Switzerland within the next month. Viridis signed an…
Read More »

On 13 September Hungary celebrated the grand opening of a 4.2MW CHP plant in Szarvas, the largest in the nation. r.e Bioenergie of Germany constructed the plant, while poultry company Gallicoop Pulykafeldolgozó will provide the plant with most of the biomass needed. The facility has been installed with three GE Jenbacher J416 engines which will convert the feedstock into biogas. A portion…
Read More »

In Gradec, Croatia, Agrokor is looking to build a biogas plant after receiving a €5 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The €5 million loan will be used to buy and install the plant and purchase the necessary equipment. Slated for completion by September 2012, the plant will convert organic waste into biogas, which will be used to generate 1MW of…
Read More »