UK wood products manufacturer set up biomass plant

UK-based wood products manufacturer Norbord will use electricity produced from wood waste to support its day-to-day operations in Stirling, Scotland.  The company recently set up a biomass plant that supply electricity to its Cowie factory using recycled bark and wood residue from the manufacturing process. The new plant brings the total amount of biomass used in green power plants at Nordborg's factories to 1 million tonnes (1.1 million tons), equivalent to 2 million barrels of oil a year.

The biomass plant is part of a GBP2.5 million (US$4.9 million) package of new environmental protection measures undertaken by the UK company.  The wood products manufacturer claimed to have almost halved its carbon emissions to 261,000 tonnes (287,000 tons) in 2006 using power produced from biomass.  Biomass makes up 67 per cent of Norbord's energy sources for its mills and factories, while fossil fuel consumption was cut by 40 per cent to only a fifth of the company's energy consumption over the last five years.