Planned UK gasification plant draws objections from environmental group

Environmental group Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign against a planned experimental biomass and waste gasification plant in the UK.

Energy company Egnedol has submitted a planning application for a renewable energy plant to be located in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire.

The application also includes plans to use its waste CO₂ within other industries, such as fish and prawn farming, algal farming, biofuels production, and a cheese production facility.

Friend of the Earth has several concerns about the plant, ranging from the technology and sustainability of its feedstock to explosion risk.

The group claimed in a statement that the plant would be using technology “no company has ever made to work in the UK” and which has proven difficult in many parts of the world.

There are no guarantees that the biomass to be used at the facility is produced sustainably, and the application shows “no need” to burn the waste instead of recycling it.

The environmental watchdog also lists explosion risk and toxic emissions as a cause for concern, as the area where the plant is planned to be situated already has a “number of polluting industries and industries with similar risks of explosion”.

“The planning application documentation makes exaggerated claims regarding the re-use of the CO­₂ released by the process, and many of its figures are contradictory within different parts of the application,” Friends of the Earth said.

“It is hard to have confidence in a company that cannot get the maths right in a planning application, let alone in the complex calculations that will be required in running this technology.”

The consultation period of the planning application is currently running and will come to a close on 2 February.