The new biomass facility at Norbord Cowie in Central Scotland represents “a good example of what biomass should look like in the future”, said minister of state for energy Malcolm Wicks at the opening ceremony.
The biomass generates 5MW of heat for thermal oil to save £12,000 per week in gas costs, with a further 5MW available for steam generation for the plant boiler. Net rated thermal input is 14MW to give a 70% efficiency. A 28-month payback has been calculated on the £2.5m investment, which pushes capital outlay at the Cowie chipboard and MDF production facility to more than £31m since the year 2000.
Norbord has achieved a 45% reduction in fossil fuel combustion over the past five years via energy efficiency measures and capital investment in renewables, and the addition of the biomass plant will lead to further improvement in these figures. Fossil gas is now required to meet only around 5% of the Cowie site’s fuel demands – and this represents “the next thing we have got to tackle”, said Norbord’s director of health, safety and environmental affairs Steve Roebuck.
The biomass plant will consume bark and wood residue from the manufacturing process, with none purchased from outside sources. Input is “process residues that have reached the end of their useful lives”, said Mr Roebuck. “No virgin wood is used for energy – that goes into product.”
He added: “There is a huge amount of available biomass currently going to landfill that is being ignored. New modern energy-from-waste plants should be supported to deliver a number of advantages, including the delivery of energy from a continuing waste stream, tackling the issue of fast-filling-up landfill sites, and all without using virgin wood, where demand is already outstripping supply.”
