New biomass facility will boost handling

The wood pellets, which will be shipped to Liverpool from North America, are a by-product of the commercial forestry and saw-milling industry and will provide the power station with a new, sustainable low carbon fuel source.

Mark Whitworth, CEO of Peel Ports, said: “Creating a deep-water container terminal in the north of England is a vitally important component of the Northern Powerhouse and will help to re-balance the economy.”

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.

All of the wood pellets will be sent to Drax by rail from Liverpool to Selby ensuring there is no impact on the local road network.

The new biomass terminal, which includes a new rail loading facility and storage capacity for 100,000 tonnes, will be built by GRAHAM.

It’s all 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.

Liverpool2 will enable the port to handle the largest container ships in the global fleet while at the same time doubling the port’s container capacity by 1m teu.

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