AN ENVIRONMENTAL campaigning organisation has this week published a report on the biomass gasification power plant proposed by Egnedol in Milford Haven, claiming that it is a “highrisk, unproven technology,” and casting serious doubt on the company’s ability to successfully operate such a plant.

Biofuelwatch’s report highlights how similar attempts to build gasifiers in the UK have failed, and outlines the health and safety risks associated with the technology. It also points to the fact that Egnedol has no track record with any power station scheme, anywhere, ever, and has provided no evidence of having any expertise in operating such an unproven and highly challenging technology.

Egnedol, a Cypriotic-Welsh company, has announced that they will submit a planning application to Pembrokeshire County Council for a 49.9 MW power station which would gasify around 400,000 tonnes of wood a year. This application forms part of a much larger project, which Egnedol estimate would increase the power station capacity to 350 MW and include a wide range of business activities, such as fish and prawn farms, using the waste heat from the plant. No gasification plant of this type and scale exists anywhere in the world, according to the campaign group. As Biofuelwatch’s report shows, another UK company’s attempt to use gasification technology, albeit on a smaller scale, resulted in hundreds of breaches of their air emissions permit, dozens of noise complaints, an explosion and a fire.

Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch Co-Director and author of the report told The Herald: “Our briefing exposes Egnedol as a company with no proven track record of delivering any projects at all, let alone ones involving unproven and challenging new technologies. It is important that local residents, the planning department and Councillors fully understand the public health risks involved in trying to operate such a plant.”

Egnedol state that half of the power station’s energy will be generated from waste wood, which is usually chemically treated and emits dangerous pollutants into the air when gasified. They say the remainder will be imported “super trees,” grown in plantations in Morocco and Greece. However, the website of the company that Egnedol claims it will source these trees from, shows that they are still waiting for permission to plant such trees in Greece and have no current plans to plant any in Morocco.

Campaigners are calling for the proposal to be rejected. Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, Gareth Chubb said: “The people of Pembrokeshire won’t like being guinea pigs for an unproven technology with uncertain risks to human health using wood from nonexistent forests. Companies like Egnedol have talked up this type of proposal for a long time but we’ve never seen a successful venture of this nature in the UK. This proposal should be rejected.”

Biofuelwatch’s report which highlights Egnedol’s claims that hundreds of jobs will be created; may well come to nothing. The vast majority of the 560 jobs which Egnedol claim they will create would come from the additional business activities, are unviable without an uninterrupted supply of waste heat. Prawns and warm-water fish, for example, would instantly die if the gasifier had to be shut down for unplanned repairs – yet, as the report shows, frequent shut downs and repairs are the norm, not the exception, for gasification power plants.

Our questions to Egnedol still remain unanswered

THE QUESTIONS posed below were sent to Egnedol, the company claiming to be ready to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in Milford Haven, by The Herald.

At the presentation given at Milford Haven Town Hall on the evening of January 25, your spokesperson referred to feedstock for the plant coming from Morocco and Greece. I am informed that some two weeks after that meeting you still have not answered an enquiry as to how many hectares of land are under cultivation in those countries, nor identified the species of plant being grown there.

I noted that you also told the Town Council you will produce 2 million kilos of prawns a year at the site. Please advise what plans for transporting such a significant cargo to and from Blackbridge you intend to put in place.

In relation to the cheese plant, which also formed part of your presentation, bearing in mind the global fall in milk prices and the downward pressure on farmgate prices, what arrangements have you made to acquire contracts for the cheese wholesale and the arrangements you propose to make to transport milk and cheese to and from the site.

I note an article in the Cyprus Mail referring to Egnedol Ltd Mr Antoniades is reported to have said: “… garbage – plastic, organic materials, metals, and so on – is not garbage,” Antoniades explained. “To us, that’s energy. That’s profit.”

Please confirm whether the plant proposed at Blackbridge would be able to burn ‘garbage – plastic, organic materials, metals, and so on’. If it would, please confirm what mitigation arrangements Egnedol proposes to put in place for dioxin and heavy metals pollution from burning such waste.

Please identify the location in Wales of the 450m Euro contract Mr Antoniades told the Cyprus Mail Egnedol had obtained by October 2014.

Mr Antoniades is reported to have told The Cyprus Mail: “.. we asked for a confidentiality agreement before showing them around our UK facility,” Antoniades said. “We never heard back from them after that.”

To which UK facility did Mr Antoniades refer?

For the avoidance of any doubt on your part, please identify the location of the plant in the UK that Egnedol told the Cypriot Government it operated in Spring 2014.

As it is proposed to ship in plant material from the Mediterranean to Blackbridge to be burned as fuel, please confirm the carbon cost of shipping compared the carbon saving from consumption of the plant material.

We propose to provide ample space for your answers to all of the above.

I look forward to your full and prompt reply. As most of these questions refer to claims already made in public by your company, its directors and/or representatives, I do not anticipate that the answers will take long.

Please note: the questions will be published with answers if they are provided and without answers if they are not forthcoming.

If you are unable or unwilling to respond, please provide a statement to that effect

Without answering the questions asked, Steve Whitehouse, Director of Egnedol Ltd told The Herald: “Our proposed sustainable energy facility has been designed to comply fully with European and UK guidelines with respect to sustainable energy production.

“Both the UK and European Government agree that using short rotation biomass crops to create energy via advanced conversion systems, offers an excellent opportunity to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to ensure energy security.

“We are looking forward to working with the community to bring this showcase development to fruition.

“A copy of the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project will be posted on the company website at www.egnedol.co.uk when the planning application is submitted. Feedback forms will be provided on the website to enable members of the public to comment on the application.”