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Straw power 'fuel of the future'
A RECRUITMENT drive is continuing to find suppliers to feed the UK's biggest coal-fired electricity generator with a new source of energy – straw.
The developers of a new straw-pelleting plant at Goole are looking to process 100,000 tonnes from next year's harvest to burn at Drax, near Selby.
It is estimated that within a 50 to 70 mile radius of Drax about two million tonnes of straw is produced as a result of cereal farming – around half of which is ploughed back in as fertiliser.
The straw will be processed into pellets to make it easier to transport the six miles to Drax.
In a new 60m co-firing facility being built on site they will
again be broken up and injected into the furnaces along with the coal.
The plant, currently under construction at Capitol Park, close to the M62, will produce enough energy to meet five per cent of Drax's biomass requirements of two million tonnes per year by 2010.
A spokesman for the project said the development should be advantageous for cereal farmers: "Futures prices for cereals like wheat are quoted on the exchanges but it is difficult to find a price for straw because it's a bulky material and expensive to move around.
"People are paying for it on a day-to-day basis. Within the next two to three years we are expecting to see a market develop for straw within the local area; it will become a tradable commodity and a valuable part of the harvest, not simply a by-product."
Drax, which can supply up to seven per cent of the UK's electricity needs and is its biggest single source of carbon dioxide, aims to cut carbon emissions by 15 per cent by 2011. The lorries which will transport the fuel will create pollution, but on site the manufacturing process itself produces no emissions.
The spokesman added: "The majority of coal that is being burned in UK power station is imported. Similarly a significant element of biomass required in the quantities for co-firing will also be imported. It makes sense to utilise as much local material as possible to reduce the carbon footprint.
"Technically the most efficient way of firing straw is co-firing, because you are directly replacing coal."
Goole farmer Ian Backhouse, chairman of the National Farmers Union's combinable crops board, said in the long term farmers were supportive of biomass schemes, as a way of creating alternative markets. But they would have to compete against livestock farmers and those using it as fertiliser.
The wet weather throughout this harvest had led to serious problems for livestock farmers because they could not get straw.
"If it was firing this year they would have to shut down or find an alternative fuel stock," he added.
The project has been designed as a trial plant and developers say should it live up to expectations they would like to see it replicated, with more processing units feeding Drax, ideally within a 30-mile radius.
The plant is due to be commissioned next April, in readiness for next year's harvest.
Drax currently burns biomass, including wood-based products, willow, elephant grass, forestry residue and agricultural by-products such as sunflower seed husks and peanut husks.
In 2007, Drax burned almost 200,000 tonnes of biomass.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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