Drax Group has made public its intention to make a final decision regarding investment in new pellet projects. Specifically, the company has announced the possibility of increasing up to one million tons of additional capacity this year.
According to its first-quarter report, Drax Group brought 400,000 metric tons of new biomass pellet production capacity online during the first quarter of 2022.
It added that strong demand for forest products, especially in the construction and manufacturing markets, continues to support good fibre residue availability. However, there has been no material change in fibre costs.
During the first quarter, Drax completed the start-up of its 360,000-ton-per-year pellet plant in Demopolis, Alabama. Its 40,000 ton/year satellite plant in Leola, Arkansas is operational. Drax is also building a second satellite plant in Russellville, Arkansas. The latter will have a production capacity of 40,000 tons per year.
Once all operations are completed, Drax’s total pellet production capacity is expected to increase to 5 million metric tons. With this, the multinational plans to make a final decision to invest in up to 1 million metric tons of additional capacity. Such action would be part of its plan to increase total pellet production capacity to 8 million metric tons by 2030.
Also, regarding the company’s UK operations, Drax announced that it continues to optimize biomass generation at all four biomass units at the Drax power station. As for the latter, two of them underwent shutdowns in March and April for maintenance.
In the same quarterly report, Drax also discussed its Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BEECS) project, in which it noted continues to work on an initial engineering design study at the Drax power plant.
The company is awaiting a final investment decision on the BECCS project in 2024. It also expects the UK government to establish the selection and support process for individual BECCS projects later this year. However, the company continues to explore other development options to realize BECCS projects outside the UK by 2030. It is currently working on models for the North American and European markets.
Source: Biomass Magazine