Sustainable fuel depot under way at Liverpool

Construction work has started on a large wood pellet storage facility at the Port of Liverpool, which will supply fuel to the Drax biomass power station in Selby.

Being built by Graham Construction, the new biomass terminal, which includes a new rail loading facility and storage capacity for 100,000t of pellets, is being built at Alexandra Dock 3 at the site of an old grain terminal.

The wood pellets – to be shipped to Liverpool from North America – are a by-product of the commercial forestry and saw-milling industry and will provide Drax with a sustainable low carbon fuel source for electricity generation now that it has been converted from a coal burning facility.

It has been estimated that in transitioning from coal to sustainable biomass Drax will reduce its CO2 footprint by some 12m tonnes per annum, the equivalent to removing 10% of the cars on the UK roads.

According to Graham Construction steel will play a major role in the project as the transfer house (part of the storage facility) has been designed has a large steel-framed structure.

The terminal is being built as part of Peel Ports’ ambitious growth plans for the Port of Liverpool, with the company already investing £300M to create the UK’s most centrally located deep water container terminal, known as Liverpool2.

The new terminal is set to open October 2015 and will become fully operational in July 2016.