Drax inks deal to install biomass burner

Drax coal-fired power station announced this week that it has signed a £10m contract with Doosan Babcock to provide a facility that will burn biomass alongside coal, reducing its carbon emissions by more than 2.5m tonnes a year.

The mix of biomass and coal will produce the same amount of energy as burning pure coal, but with fewer emissions because biomass is carbon neutral.

The company said that on completion, the biomass co-firing facility will be the largest of its type in the world.

Dorothy Thompson, chief executive at Drax, said: "We are only too well aware of the need to tackle climate change and the competence we have developed in biomass procurement and project execution means that we are able to play our part in the move towards a low-carbon economy, while at the same time delivering reliable and secure supplies of electricity."

The direct-injection biomass co-firing systems will be installed on all six of the coal-fired units at the 4,000MW plant in North Yorkshire, the largest coal-fired station in the UK.

Drax said it is also making good progress with its turbine upgrade project which it expects to deliver a further saving of one million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The company said that when combined with the biomass burners, the upgrades will help the station reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 15 per cent by 2011.

Iain Miller, chief executive at Doosan Babcock, said: "This is an important project that delivers a cost-effective low-carbon technology solution in support of Drax’s commitment to tackle climate change by reducing CO2 emissions."

Doosan Babcock is the only company in the UK actively testing oxyfuel combustion – potentially the most effective form of carbon capture for coal-fired power stations.

The deal follows the announcement earlier this summer that Drax had seen its profits fall 28 per cent in the past year, partly as a result of the rising price of the carbon credits it has to buy under the EU's emissions trading scheme. The company said at the time that it would seek to reduce its carbon emissions as a means of minimising costs.