Spencer wins major contract to design and build wood pellet facilities at Port of Tyne

UK engineering company Spencer Group has won a significant contract for the design and construction of a facility for the handling, storage, and rail-loading of wood pellets in the UK.

The facilities being designed and built by Spencer are at Tyne Dock, South Shields, where the Port of Tyne recently invested £25 million (€29.5m) in extending Riverside Quay to support the project.

The new facilities will handle up to an annual 1.8 million tonnes of wood pellets, meeting the full requirements of Lynemouth Power Station, the commissioner of the expansion project.

Charlie Spencer, the company’s founder and chairman, says the Port of Tyne is the largest single contract Spencer has secured and is “great new for everyone within the business”.

The fully integrated and automated Spencer system will enable wood pellets to be conveyed mechanically to one of three newly-built silos, each capable of storing 25,000 tonnes of material.

The pellets will then be discharged from the silos via two conveying streams to a rail-loading facility to take the material to Lynemouth.

Industry-leading particle controls will be in place throughout the system, as well as sophisticated measures to monitor and manage the condition of the wood pellets.

The Spencer project also includes construction of a control room, workshops, stores, and welfare facilities, creating a standalone facility at the port.

In addition, the company will carry out modifications to the existing rail infrastructure to provide dedicated rail lines to serve Lynemouth Power Station and connect the new facilities to the 11,000V mains supply.

Energetický, a Central European energy group, acquired Lynemouth Power Station from German energy giant RWE in January, and in May EPH confirmed that plans to convert the power station to biomass were proceeding according to schedule.