10 May 2011

Biomass boost for waste wood in Hampshire
A biomass plant that can treat up to 25,000 tonnes of waste wood a year will be built in Hampshire following planning approval.

Hampshire County Council gave L&S Waste Management the green light for the £4 million facility to be built at the company's headquarters in Fareham.

Waste wood will be thermally treated producing up to 2MW of electricity per hour, which will be fed back into the national grid.

The plant will be compliant with the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) and any ash generated will be transferred into aggregate for a 100% recovery rate.

L&S Waste Management's managing director, Mick Balch, said he hopes construction will commence within the year, with expectations the plant will be operational nine months later.

"It's very encouraging that Hampshire County Council are looking to the future and seeing the benefit to the community of sustainable, renewable energy plants."

He added that the company is in negotiations to appoint a contractor for construction of the plant.

In the UK, it is estimated that 420,000 tonnes of biomass and waste wood is produced by households each year and that a further 670,000 tonnes is produced from packaging, including pallets and crates.

Additionally, construction and demolition produce a further 750,000 tonnes of waste wood. This equates to the UK producing 3% of the world's wood consumption, a figure which is expected to increase over the next decade.

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