Other News

Woodpecker Energy UK, a provider of domestic and commercial biomass boilers, welcomes the announcement of the £860 million (€972 million) Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), saying that businesses, farmers and the public sector could effectively benefit from free installation of biomass heating systems and free fuel for 20 years. The first scheme of its kind, the RHI has been designed to…
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Waste specialist Biffa of the UK has launched its anaerobic digestion (AD) food waste-handling plant near Cannock, Staffordshire. The new facility will process up to 120,000 tonnes of food waste sources from households and businesses every year, making it the largest of its kind in the nation. This leftover food will be converted into enough renewable energy to power 6,000 homes. Speaking at the…
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A new research centre is being developed in Grangetown, Middlesbrough in the UK and orders in excess of £2.5 million (€2.8 million) have been placed for the hi-tech industrial equipment. The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel have begun work to establish the national research facility after signing a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2010. The facility will advance…
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In Lithonia, Georgia, US, a biomass plant proposed for DeKalb County has led to a protest from local residents. A county consisting of homes and businesses, citizens say they do not want the facility to be built close by. According to some residents, the plant was originally planned for north DeKalb County but this proposal was rejected. On 13 June 2011 citizens fighting against the plans…
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Thermya, a French engineering firm dedicated to biomass-to-energy conversion technologies, has begun building three industrial biocoal production units using Torspyd – the company's biomass torrefaction process. The first unit is currently in construction on the site of Urnieta, in the Spanish Basque Country, under the supervision of Grupo Lantec, promoter and developer of the project. 'The…
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Martin Engineering, a US-based company dedicated to conveyor technology and bulk materials handling, has revealed its final plans for a new 10,000m2 facility in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China. Scheduled to open in late 2011, the new Martin Engineering building will house 8,000m2 of manufacturing and warehouse operations and 2,000m2 of office space, making it eight times larger than the…
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Wood pellet and briquette supplier Verdo Renewables is the chosen supplier of wood fuel for the Scotland, UK-based business group Mhor. The business comprises a hotel, restaurants, a fishmongers and fish and chip shop, a tea room, a 2000 acre farm and a bakery with the UK's first installed wood pellet oven. Verdo supplies Mhor with wood pellets, bulk and bagged, and wood briquettes, all…
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In the UK, Real Ventures is looking to invest £260 million (€290 million) in the construction of two biomass-powered plants. In 2010 Real Ventures revealed plans to build a £130 million facility in the Isle of Wight but has since further developed these plans and will erect a second wood-pellet burning plant in the port of Immingham in Lincolnshire. The company is yet to receive…
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Metso, an energy company, says it will build the world’s biggest biomass gasification plant for Vaskiluodon Voima in Finland. The plant will provide 140MW to the grid, replacing some coal use with domestic wood-based renewable fuels and helping to cut down on CO₂ emissions. The plant will be located in Vaasa and will be connected to a 565MW coal-fired power plant which uses mostly forest…
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Four Rivers BioEnergy’s UK subsidiary, Verta Energy Trading, is to purchase all the shares of ML Oils, a UK waste oil procurement and handling business. ML Oils currently buys about 6,000 tonnes of waste liquid biomass each year which will be enough to power 4MW of electricity at Verta’s waste-to-energy plant. Last financial year, ML Oils made $4 million (€2.7 million) of revenue…
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A university has produced jet fuel from a mixture of both coal and biomass feedstocks which will be tailored to be used in US military jet fuel applications. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota says its refining technologies helped to produce the coal-biomass feedstock which will be used as another source of fuel that is an alternative to…
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Sumitomo Metal Industries, a steel works company, is using coffee grounds as a biomass fuel to power its Kashima plant in Japan. Currently the biomass fuel generated from coffee only equates to 1% of the total amount of fuel used within the plant but the company hopes to increase this number over time. For the first year of coffee biomass generation Sumitomo plans to purchase 12,000 coffee…
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Nexterra Systems is to install biomass gasification systems to heat the Missoula University campus in the US. The system will cost a total of $16 million (€10.9 million) and will provide the campus with clean, carbon-neutral heat, converting locally sourced wood residues into 34,000 lbs/hr of clean renewable steam. This steam will be used to displace 70% of the university’s natural gas…
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The global biopower sector is set to double in size over the next decade, a new report says. Governments around the world are heavily investing into the industry for energy security purposes and although biopower only currently accounts for about 10% of all global primary energy, it is expected to increase at a yearly rate of more than 7% within the next decade. The biopower energy generated…
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