Chilton wood pellet plant shut on allegations of dust emissions

LONDON (Scrap Monster) : The leading Energy and Utilities Management Services provider in the UK, Dalkia has stalled its operations at its Chilton wood-pellet production facility on charges of dust emissions.

Dalkia is a subsidiary of the French waste management firm Veolia Environment and the energy major EDF. The facility in County Durham is under the investigation of the Environment Agency. It is not known when the investigation will be completed.

The EA investigation follows the complaints by local residents regarding dust emissions and excessive sound coming out of the Dalkia facility. Meanwhile company officials state that they are working with the EA authorities to locate whether the dust is being emitted from their facility or elsewhere outside of the facility. The company has expressed willingness to rectify any issue if associated with the plant at the earliest. It further announced that the plant will remain until then.

The wood pellet produced at the facility is made from grade A wood waste and used as fuel offsite at both Dalkia and local authority boiler houses in the UK.

Dalkia also has a separate biomass energy facility at the Chilton site which burns wood chip from grade B, C and D waste wood to produce heat and energy for the national grid. The company announced that  the biomass unit of the site  is not being investigated and is still functioning  as normal.

The Environment Agency is currently working with the company to help them find solutions to the problem. According to EA spokesperson, “the company has responded positively to the issue and has temporarily ceased operations at the site to reduce the impact on the local environment. The company is also working on an action plan to find longer-term solutions."

The Dalkia Chilton biomass plant which started functioning in late 2011, has an estimated capacity to burn 120,000 tonnes of wood waste per year.