Bedford wood recycler reveals 7m biomass plans

Growing Beds managing director, Mark Evans, said that his company was set to supply all the low grade waste wood needed to power the proposed 30,000 tonne-a-year capacity plant which would provide enough electricity to power 6.500 homes via the National Grid.

And, explaining why the company has decided to work with Yorkshire-based Bioflame on the project, he told letsrecycle.com: “We chose to work with Bioflame because it looked like a simple, compliant and easy to use system.”

The £7 million biomass incinerator has already been awarded planning permission and construction is due to begin in the third quarter of 2009. Mr Evans said he expected the plant to be operational by May 2010.

It will be operated by Twinwoods Heat and Power Ltd – a joint venture between Yorkshire-based Bioflame, Growing Beds and Bedford-based waste management company, B & W Environmental.

Bioflame is set to provide the technology and maintenance for the facility while Growing Beds will be responsible for its day-to-day supervision and B & W Environmental has been hired to run and operate the facility on a daily basis.

Mr Evans said that B & W Environmental already runs a hazardous waste facility at Thurleigh and it “made sense” to work with a company who were already established on the site.

Waste wood

Mr Evans explained that the waste wood that will be used to power the facility is expected to come from Growing Beds' contracts with local authorities in and around the Bedfordshire area and various deals with waste management companies.

Growing Beds processes 30,000 tonnes of waste wood a year, including, MDF, chipboard, plywood, painted wood and laminated wood. Mr Evans said this was due to increase by between 10,000 and 15,000 tonnes over the course of the next year or so due to new contracts. Material that is not used as biomass fuel will be sold on to the panel board sector.

Ravensden

In February 2008, Growing Beds signed a deal with technology provider Purepower to develop a 12,000 tonne-a-year capacity wood-powered gasification facility at its head quarters in Ravensden (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, Mr Evans explained that these plans had not yet come to fruition: “We got planning permission for gasification but struggled to find a technology which works day-in, day-out. Until we find a technology we want, we won't pursue gasification.”

And, incineration was chosen for the new facility because, Mr Evans told letsrecycle.com, it is “proven and simple”.

Bioflame's incineration technology is recognised by the Environment Agency and is compliant with the EU Waste Incineration Directive.

Alongside Bioflame and Growing Beds, the new plant is being funded by private investment group, Climate Change Capital, which manages funds worth $1.6 billion (£1.2 billion) and specialises in the low carbon economy.