Other News

After the official opening ceremony took place in Lappeenranta, southern Finland on 7 May, the country’s largest wood-burning biomass power plant has begun production. The plant, owned by energy companies Pohjolan Voima and Lappeenrannan Energia cost €240 million to construct and has the capacity to generate 385MW of thermal power and 125MW of electricity. Around half of the 80% biomass…
Read More »

In February 2009 Minnesota-based energy company Xcel Energy filed an application with the Wisconsin Public Service Comission that would see the installation of its biomass gasification technology at its Bay Front power plant in Ashland. The project was estimated to cost in the region of $58 million (€44.5 million) and $70 million. The project was approved in December last year, after which…
Read More »

In Kenya a five-year pilot project is being developed as a way of improving the nation’s biogas industry and turning it into a viable market through financial and technical advancements. The farmers of small-scale dairy farms are set to gain from the project as it looks to develop 8,000 biogas plants in rural parts of the country. The pilot programme is targeting these farmers to develop…
Read More »

Carbon dioxide refineries could soon be as common as oil refineries with the possibility of converting air into fuel drawing increasingly nearer. In March this year a team of 14 scientists from the universities of Bath, Bristol and the West of England were awarded a £1.4 million (€1.6 million) grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of Research Councils UK, to…
Read More »

The price of biomass across the US has been affected by the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) set up by the US federal government in 2009 to lower the prices of biomass and bring more raw materials to the market, says the North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR). Northern California and Northern New England are two of the major biomass markets in the US, both housing a significant number of…
Read More »

UK firm Chesterfield BioGas, a division of Chesterfield Special Cylinders dedicated to the development of equipment for fuelling vehicles as well as the supply of systems for converting raw biogas to biomethane, will provide the city of Sheffield with a temporary biomethane gas filling station. After signing an agreement on 22 April this year the Sheffield-based company will now supply…
Read More »

In 2009 the owner and operator of the R.E Burger power plant FirstEnergy was to replace coal with woody biomass at the facility based in Shadyside, Ohio, US. However a year later environmental and consumer-advocacy groups are demanding to know where the company will source its wood, as a vast amount will be required for burning. This figure is estimated to be around 3 million tonnes a year,…
Read More »

In a 2009 Directive put in place by the European Commission, the criteria requiring greenhouse gas reductions applied only to biomass sources for transport fuel. Now European energy firm Vattenfall Europe has taken it upon itself to identify measures that guarantee the sustainability of its solid biomass sources. By doing so the company has taken a leading role in the defining and sourcing of…
Read More »

Energy intelligence company EPS Corp has been selected to develop a $3 million (€2.4 million) biogas generation and wastewater treatment facility at the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas, US. The facility, which is being designed specifically to help the brewery cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) output by over 500 tonnes each year and remove 85% of the treatable waste components in the brewery’s…
Read More »

The city of Naperville, located in Illinois, US, is to create energy from landscaping debris in its newly launched project. The Packer Engineering’s Green Depot Project, a system turning biomass into vehicle fuel, will utilise tree branches and other waste biomass found on the pavements. The gasifier will generate electricity that will be injected into the grid and used to power electric…
Read More »

The partnership between New Page and Nova Scotia Power, coated papers producer New Page Port Hawkesbury, has proposed a biorefinery that will be constructed on the Canadian island of Cape Breton. The facility would convert waste biomass from forests into 60MW of electricity, benefitting 30,000 homes. However the proposal is not being well received by local residents due to the belief that…
Read More »

The controversial Traverse City Light and Power (TCLP) biomass plant has been given the go ahead, despite fears of deforestation and pollution it would bring to the area in Michigan, US. After a meeting on Tuesday 20 April the board voted to approve the facility, which will burn approximately 100,000 tonnes of wood chips annually once constructed, and supply sustainable energy to the area. Two…
Read More »

British-owned energy supplier British Gas is to form a venture with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks that will see the construction of a new biomass pilot plant in Didcot, UK. The plant will clean biomethane gas collected from human waste before injecting it into the grid to be used in kitchens and as heating. The facility will be built at Didcot sewage works as this is where Thames Water…
Read More »

Worldwide the pulp and paper sector has dramatically boosted its consumption of woody biomass, with the industry using an estimated 75 million tonnes of biomass in 2009. The figures come from Wood Resource Quarterly, which reported that biomass-to-energy use has increased by 51% since 2006, accounting for 18% of the total energy consumption by the pulp and paper industry. A number of pulp…
Read More »