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Canadian supplier to provide gasification for UK power plant

Vancouver-based Nexterra will provide the gasification technology for the Welland Waste Wood Power Plant. Nexterra also participated in the development and financing of the £51.6-million project located in Northamptonshire, UK. The Welland project is the second biomass gasification power plant developed in co-operation with Balfour Beatty Investments, Cogen, MWH Treatment and Nexterra. The first project, near Birmingham, is under construction and expected to start up in 2016.

MWH Treatment will design, construct, operate and maintain the plant.

Nexterra will design and supply the complete biomass gasification-to-steam generation system from feedstock handling to emission controls, including four gasifiers, a high pressure boiler, and a flue gas treatment system. Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s export credit agency, has provided performance support for Nexterra’s scope on this project.

Once the project has been completed in 2017, it will convert 60,000 tonnes of dry, locally sourced sustainable waste wood which has been diverted from landfill into 9 MW of net electricity. The clean electricity generated will be exported to the national grid and will be enough to power more than 17,000 UK households a year and result in an annual saving of 28,000 tonnes of CO2.

Laurie Tugman, chairman of Nexterra said the Welland project is one of several similar opportunities that the company is developing with BBI. “With this second project, Nexterra and BBI have established themselves as leaders in the UK waste to energy sector. Nexterra also continues to develop projects outside the UK including in North America.”