Testing to begin on a 20MW UK wood waste biomass plant

Testing will begin at a 20.2MW Northwest England biomass power plant, which is expected to start commercial operation in April 2017, developers say.

The 147,000 tonnes-per-year capacity waste wood biomass facility is being developed within the 180-acre Mersey Multimodal Gateway project – a logistics hub to the west of Liverpool – by Danish firm Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) and logistics company Stobart Group.

The combined heat and power (CHP) facility will burn low-grade recovered wood, 500 tonnes of which will be supplied for the initial testing period scheduled to begin in October.

Commissioning is scheduled for December, and commercial operations should begin in early 2017.

The latest construction development at the plants includes the installation of a biomass belt dryer, and Stobart has also begun building a wood processing facility at a nearby site.

The processing facility, which will be the main site for sorting and chipping waste wood, is being built on the former site of a warehouse operated by plastics manufacturer Rehau.