Pyrolysis scheme: Mr Steven Whitehouse explaining ambitious plans to council members

MEMBERS of Milford Haven Town Council were joined by members of the public for a presentation by Egnedol on Monday night (Jan 25).

Mr Steven Whitehouse, a chartered engineer and director of Cypriot-owned Egnedol Bio-Energy Limited, spent an hour explaining his company’s plans for the development of the brown field site. The land the company has purchased formerly housed RNAD Blackbridge, and parts of the former Gulf refinery in Waterston.

At the meeting Mr Whitehouse explained to councillors that, subject to a planning application to be submitted next month, some of the existing buildings would be retained, and that new buildings would be also erected.

Plans included poly-tunnels with brick bases, heated by hot air discarded from the new pyrolysis power plant. This, he said, will be used to heat algae, fish and prawn tanks. Prawns and fish harvested from the tanks will be processed at the new fish processing facilities at Milford Docks.

The company also plans to produce Halloumi cheese, which is a semi-hard brined cheese made from a mixture of goat’s and sheep’s milk. It is eaten primarily in Greece and Turkey. The company said they would source milk from local sources.

It was also established that the daffodil fields in Waterston would not be developed on as a means of ‘ecological mitigation’.

The power station, initially billed to generate up to 49.9MWe of electricity, will use a combination of waste wood and sustainable wood chip supplies – the latter to be imported from Morocco and Cyprus.

Waste gasses will be emitted from a 60m high stack near to the existing Wards Pier. The company has promised that there will be no noise audible from the boundary of the facility, and that emissions will be minimal, with nitrogen oxide fumes being 99% below the government-accepted safe level.

Councillors were also shown slides detailing the number of jobs that were expected to be created in each division of the new Eco Park – Mr Whitehouse said: “These will be well paid jobs, and we have already started working with the local job centre in Milford Haven to recruit suitable candidates. We have already recruited three security guards locally. West Wales has a large pool of people with the right skills.”

He added: “We are also working with Swansea University who lead the way in research in algae. We have made contact with Pembrokeshire College and we hope to be working with them on this project also.”

After the presentation councillors were able to ask questions about the proposed development.

Cllr John Cole asked: “How do you intend to control pollution from this proposed development?”

Mr Whitehouse replied: “We use ADMS4 modelling, a computer model which looks at meteorological data and the background air quality to model levels of NO2. We understand that Milford Haven is a sensitive area for N02, but we will use urea injectors in this process to minimise emissions.”

He added: “We will also have automatic shutdown if set levels of emissions are breached.”

Cllr Tony Miles did not seem encouraged by the scheme. He said: “We know that N02 is a known killer – and the top of the 60m stack will below the level of my house and other houses in Waterston. Also the jobs you are proposing are artificial – you cannot support all of these jobs.”

Cllr Miles also asked if developers had met with the local authority to discuss the additional traffic load on Waterson and the impact on a nearby playground. Mr Whitehouse confirmed that they had not.

Faced with Cllr Miles’ pessimistic tenor, Mr Whitehouse explained that the Eco Park development was a positive thing for Milford Haven, and that it was manufacturing food in an environmentally friendly way, from the waste heat from a pyrolysis plant which was supplying much needed electricity and gas. The prawns produced without the need for antibiotics would mean that a quality premium product would be created. Water for the plant would be collected from rainwater, he said, to conserve mains water supplies.

Cllr Eric Harries said: “We are waiting with baited breath for the response of the Environment Agency on this.”

Cllr Guy Woodham asked questions about the safety of the plant, and was told that the wood fuel for the plant would be sucked from ships in enclosed tubes ‘like a big Hoover’ and therefore there would be little or no fire risk.

Members of the public were not permitted to submit questions but the company promised that there would be a public meeting at the Pill Social Centre in the very near future where further details would be revealed. Those details are awaiting consultation with the other industry partners on the Milford Haven waterway.