German biomass plant to take Dorset’s waste wood

Bournemouth-based Eco Composting, which runs a 13-acres site at Parley, has began shifting 2,000 tonnes of wood chippings to a biomass plant in the north of the country this week.

SITA has worked closely with sub-contractor Eco and Gloucestershire based firm Boomeco to find a market for the material – which has traditionally been sent to landfill.

Eco estimate that the wood chippings being shipped to Germany would provide enough power for about 5,000 homes for six weeks.

Andy Hill, sales and marketing director at Eco, said: “SITA UK, Eco and Boomeco have worked hard on finding a safe and environmentally friendly solution to the disposal of this wood. It is good news that it will be used to provide clean and green energy to homes and businesses.”

Neutral

Biomass plants were highlighted in last year's Stern Report on Global Warming as a way of tackling climate change. They burn wood products but are believed to be carbon neutral because the carbon dioxide the tree absorp during their life time are believed to cancel out the carbon they emit when they are burnt.

In its English Waste Strategy 2007, the government also expressed increasing interest in wood-burning biomass, and is currently in talks with the WRA to removing barriers to the process (see letsrecycle.com story) .

However, while there are around fifty biomass plants in Germany, most of those planned for the UK are still in the pipeline and only one is believed to currently be operational.

Among those awaiting planning permission is Eco Composting's own £7 million plant which will burn 25,000 tonnes of wood a year to produce 2.7MW of electricity for the National Grid (see letsrecycle.com story) .

This plant is expected to take Dorset's CA site wood when it is due to be up and  running in 2009.

Mr Hill explained: “Of course, it would be even better news if the wood chippings were to remain on our site and used to provide power for Dorset homes. To date, our plans have met with great support and we are hopeful planning permission will be granted.”