As part of its commitment to building an integrated Biomass supply chain, Aeternum, in collaboration with proven industry leaders,  plans to build a 500,000 tonne per year biomass pellet plant, which will begin shipping wood pellets to Co-firing power stations and local CHP plants throughout the UK.  

The facility will be located in Castleford, Yorkshire England and will enable Aeternum's customers to cut over 1.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, helping the UK to meet strict European emission reduction goals. The main port for import of raw materials will be Hull. The sites multimodal location (River, Rail, Canal & Road) make it a unique site for distributing Pellets to the surrounding Co-firing power plants.

The raw material for pellets consists of Aeternum's Primary and Secondary Biomass. 

Aeternum's Primary Biomass will be derived from both locally sourced and imported Biomass, typically from our own plantations. 

Aeternum's Secondary Biomass will be derived from the clean, sterile, Biomass extracted from the on-site Autoclave waste processing technology. 

Recyclates are treated and further processed on site to ensure maximum economic value is added. The resultant pure organic by-products are then filtered, steam treated and compressed to form a Biomass Pellet that is combusted to produce process heat and electricity. 

Aeternum believe the macroeconomic fundamentals for a plant of this size are compelling. The location of the proposed plant is geographically within short distances to all key Coal Fired Power Stations in the UK - many of which are turning increasingly to the co-firing of Biomass with Coal. 

Currently co-firing is typically between 3% - 5% with a number of the larger Coal fired stations looking to increase this co-firing amount upto 12.5%. However, in Europe, where different Carbon Subsidies exist for Biomass, co-firing exceeding 50% is increasingly common. 

While Europe is still the main producer and consumer of pellets,  imports from North America will become more important in the future. The following graph shows the actual and expected development of the pellet production and consumption form 2000 till 2010 (Source: ISO/TC 238 Business Plan, second draft 2009) 

In terms of demand for Biomass in the UK it is clear that there is a long way to go: