Drax hires Alstom to build biomass plant

North Yorkshire, England's Drax Group (LON: DRX) is making a move to cut down on emissions from the U.K.'s biggest coal fired power station, hiring France's Alstom to build a biomass fuel processing plant at the site.

Drax said Alstom would build the main processing works associated with the 1.5 million tonnes per year biomass co-firing facility.

The biomass plant will go up at 4,000 megawatt Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, processing various biomass materials for direct injection into the power station's boilers.

"Delivering significant fuel diversification and carbon abatement is central to our business strategy," said Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of Drax.

"Meeting our 10 percent co-firing target is key to achieving our goal of 15 percent carbon abatement and this contract represents a major milestone in the execution of our co-firing project."

Drax supplies seven percent of the U.K.'s electricity, mostly from coal, and is one of Europe's top five sources of carbon dioxide, responsible for four percent of the country's total emissions.

The new biomass project, designed to generate 400 megawatts, would be the largest biomass co-firing project in the world, according to Drax.

The company said work would begin immediately to prepare the site for construction, which is scheduled to start in the second half of this year.

Drax said commissioning of phase one of the project is expected to be completed toward the end of 2009.