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Drax’s largest biomass shipment arrives at the UK’s biggest biomass handling facility

20 March 2020

Press releases

The Zheng Zhi bulk carrier vessel transported 63,907 tonnes of Drax’s sustainable biomass from the US port of Baton Rouge in Louisiana. The consignment supplies Drax Power Station with enough fuel to generate electricity for 1.3 million homes.

The vessel berthed at Humber International Terminal in the port of Immingham – ABP’s largest terminal, on Friday March 13^th.

Simon Bird, Director of ABP Humber, said:

“Our colleagues here on the Humber are working hard to keep our homes powered, our stores stocked and keeping Britain trading. A huge thank you is deserved for all those working through this time.

“ABP is working around the clock to ensure the wellbeing of employees and customers and the safe continuation of operations.”

Andy Koss Drax CEO Generation said:

“Drax Power Station is critical national infrastructure at the heart of the UK’s energy system and we take this responsibility very seriously, especially now amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. We are doing everything we can to ensure that we maintain a continuous, stable and reliable electricity supply for millions of homes and businesses in the UK.

“This shipment of sustainable biomass from our pellet mills in the US – the largest yet – highlights the critical role played by infrastructure such as the ports and rail in our supply chain.”

The Zheng Zhi bulk carrier arriving at ABP Immingham. Its cargo of sustainable biomass wood pellets is destined for Drax Power Station — the UK’s biggest renewable power station. Credit: ABP [Click to view/download]

Over the last decade Drax has converted four of the power station’s six generating units to use sustainable biomass instead of coal. This has transformed Drax, which supplies 5% of the country’s electricity, into the country’s largest renewable power generator and the biggest decarbonisation project in Europe.

Humber International Terminal employs over 100 people and is the world’s largest biomass handling facility. The terminal is part of the Humber ports that have been working hard, 24 hours a day, in keeping Britain trading.

The Port of Immingham is a vital resource and powers one in ten homes in the U.K.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Selina Williams
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07912230393

Aidan Kerr
Media Manager – Generation
E: [email protected]
T: 07849090368

Annmarie Sartor
Communications Officer – United States
E: [email protected]
T: +1 318-801-0046

Editor’s Notes

The vessel completed loading at the port of Baton Rouge in Louisiana February 23. A cargo typically takes around 17 to 21 days to reach the UK.
This vessel is Drax’s 99^th ship from its facility at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge. Drax has shipped 5.1 million tonnes from the Louisiana port on the Mississippi River since 2015.
Immingham on the UK’s east cost is Drax’s largest import terminal and is part of a supply chain that runs from coast to coast, including capacity at Tyne, Hull and Liverpool.
Having import capacity at both the east and west coast adds extra security and resilience to Drax’s supply chain and operations.
The vessel is carrying sustainable biomass from Drax’s three pellet mills in the US South, which manufacture wood pellets from sustainably managed forests.
Sustainable biomass is an important part of the UK’s long-term energy mix. Using sustainable biomass instead of coal at Drax Power Station has already delivered carbon savings of more than 80% and made Drax Europe’s largest decarbonisation project.
The latest Zheng Zhi biomass cargo breaks the previous record of 63,557 tonnes.
Video B-Roll of ABP’s biomass operations with Drax at Immingham can be downloaded for broadcast use here.
Captions for high resolution photos:
- Sustainable biomass wood pellets destined for Drax Power Station unloaded from the Zheng Zhi bulk carrier at ABP Immingham
- The Zheng Zhi bulk carrier arriving at ABP Immingham. Its cargo of sustainable biomass wood pellets is destined for Drax Power Station — the UK’s biggest renewable power station.
Additional photos from Louisiana:

: Biomass wood pellets loaded onto the Zheng Zhi bulk carrier vessel at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in February

: Biomass wood pellets on the Zheng Zhi bulk carrier vessel at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in February

: Tractor preparing biomass wood pellets for shipment after loading onto the Zheng Zhi bulk carrier vessel at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in February

About ABP

ABP is the UK’s leading ports operator with 21 ports and other transport related businesses creating a unique national network capable of handling a vast array of cargo.

The company contributes £7.5 billion to the UK economy every year and supports 119,000 jobs. Our current investment programme promises to deliver an extra £1.75 billion for the economy every year.

ABP:

Handles over 1.5 million vehicles every year
Generates around one quarter of the UK’s rail freight
Has 1.4 million square metres of covered storage
Has 1,000 hectares of open storage
Handles around 90 million tonnes of cargo each year
Owns 5,000 hectares of port estate
Has 87km of quay

Our five-year investment programme across the group is worth £1 billion. Our investment is designed to respond to the needs of our customers whose business relies on our ports for access to international and, in some cases, domestic markets.

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030.

Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country’s electricity needs.

Having converted two thirds of Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe.

Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan. It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Drax Group CEO says Budget ‘demonstrates the government’s commitment to communities and businesses in the North’

11 March 2020

Press releases

Innovation engineer inspecting carbon capture pilot projects at Drax Power Station’s CCUS incubation area

“The funding pledged today for the development of two or more carbon capture and storage clusters demonstrates the government’s commitment to communities and businesses in the North – ensuring the region is well placed to take advantage of new opportunities created by a decarbonising economy.

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner in the control room at Drax Power Station. Click to view/download.

“By accelerating the development of vital negative emissions technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), which is being pioneered by Drax, we can permanently remove millions of tonnes of CO₂ each year from the atmosphere.

“The Humber is the UK’s most carbon intensive region and home to 55,000 jobs in manufacturing and other industries. Decarbonising the Humber would therefore have a major impact – delivering for the environment and the economy, securing jobs and a long-term future for businesses which could otherwise be left behind.”

Background

Drax is already running a successful BECCS pilot at its power station.
BECCS is the only negative emissions technology which can produce renewable electricity whilst removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
By using BECCS, Drax will remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it produces, creating a negative carbon footprint for the company by 2030.
Drax launched the Zero Carbon Humber campaign last year with partners Equinor and National Grid Ventures, aimed at creating the world’s first zero carbon industrial cluster in the region. By using BECCS Drax could capture and store 16 million tonnes of CO₂ a year and become the anchor for a net zero industrial cluster in the Humber region.
As part of its global leadership in addressing the climate crisis, the UK government is developing a policy and investment framework to support urgently needed negative emissions technologies like BECCS
The UK Committee on Climate Change’s ‘Net Zero’ report states that BECCS could generate up to 173TWh of electricity by 2050, capturing up to 51 million tonnes of CO2 – around half of the remaining carbon in the economy that the UK will need to capture to become net zero.

Photo caption

Innovation engineer inspecting carbon capture pilot projects at Drax Power Station’s CCUS incubation area. View/download.

Opus Energy helps build greener businesses with new 100% renewable electricity tariff

9 March 2020

Press releases

Drax urges UK to seize the opportunities to build a zero carbon economy – Drax Group Director of Corporate Affairs Clare Harbord’s speech to the British Chambers of Commerce

5 March 2020

Press releases

Thank you very much it’s a pleasure to be here again. We meet today in extraordinary times.

Britain is forging a new relationship with countries around the world following our departure from the EU; The climate emergency is gathering pace; with unprecedented weather conditions facing people and business across the country, including on our doorstep at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. And now we have the Coronavirus – which risks unleashing a medical emergency right around the globe and has already wiped billions off global stock markets. 2020 is set to be a challenging year for British businesses up and down the country.

But it will also, we believe, be a pivotal year for Britain in achieving its net zero emissions targets; Despite all of the challenges we face – this is a year of great opportunity for British business to take the lead in tackling the climate crisis and build a zero-carbon economy. Last week, in a landmark move for Britain’s energy transition, Drax announced that we would stop using coal to generate power after nearly 50 years. We will do so 4 years ahead of the current Government deadline of 2025.

For generations, Drax has been at the heart of Britain’s energy system. We are a strategic national asset, supplying secure, reliable power to more than six million homes and businesses in the North. But we understood a long time ago that coal no longer had a place in our energy system.

So we have embarked on the biggest decarbonisation journey in Europe, transforming the majority of our Power Station at Drax from coal to sustainably sourced, renewable biomass.

We’ve cut our carbon emissions by more than 85% – further and faster than any other energy company in Europe. Today, more than 90% of the power generated by Drax is renewable – allowing businesses like yours to choose power that is both reliable and renewable. But at Drax, we won’t stop there. We want to go further.

That’s why we announced our ambition to be carbon negative by 2030. In fact, Drax was the first company in the world to announce this ambition at the UN climate change conference in Madrid last year.

Since then, Microsoft – and many others – have followed us with similar pledges.

Let me tell you how we will get there. We are using pioneering British technology to capture carbon from bioenergy. In doing so, we are taking carbon out of the atmosphere and creating negative emissions.

Today, we are already capturing one tonne of carbon per day, but with the right investment we could be capturing up to 16 million tonnes every year. Think of that – negative emissions. On a huge scale. The UN and Committee on Climate Change tell us negative emissions will be vital if the UK is to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This is an exciting opportunity for Drax and the UK. And It is also a huge opportunity for British businesses and communities in the North, too.

At Drax, we are working with businesses from around the country to explore how to use carbon in new ways. We’re working with Econic – a cleantech company – to remove oil from plastic production. We’re working with Deep Branch Bio to create proteins that feed animals and plants. And we’re having discussions with airlines and Heathrow about decarbonising the aviation industry with renewable jet fuel.

Scaling up our carbon capture project will help the UK’s biggest industrialists in the Humber reduce their emissions and continue to prosper. A Zero Carbon Humber by 2040 – that is our vision. This would transform the economic outlook of the region, which already contributes £18bn towards the UK economy each year and supports over 55,000 manufacturing jobs alone.

By decarbonising the region, we will protect the businesses that form part of the supply chain for energy intensive industries, as well as establishing new ones. Not since the first industrial revolution has the Humber had this world leading opportunity.

Our vision is to put the Humber – the UK’s most carbon intensive industrial region – back on the global stage as an example to the rest of the world of climate leadership in action, creating green jobs and clean growth.

We are working with academics at leading universities who are helping to create new businesses, new innovations and new products. Through forging these partnerships, we can protect and grow new supply chains to support the green economy.

Next week the Chancellor is due to deliver his first budget. This is the first major opportunity for government to demonstrate its commitment to ‘levelling up’ the economy by investing in infrastructure in the North and tackling the climate emergency. Our message to the Chancellor is clear – support for the Zero Carbon Humber project will help secure the future of our biggest industrial cluster and put the UK on the map as a global leader in the fight against climate change.

At the heart of our ambition to decarbonise the Humber are jobs and businesses. We must ensure people are equipped with the skills they need for the green jobs of the future.

That’s why we are spearheading a Zero Carbon Skills Taskforce, which will bring together employers, government, unions, academia and others to ensure that the journey to net zero provides jobs for the future.

Right now the future seems challenging and uncertain. But at Drax we are optimistic. We know that with the right support we can meet our climate targets and boost our economy at the same time.

We can help build workforces that are equipped to meet the demands of a green economy by boosting skills and opportunity.

And as Britain seeks to secure its place in the world – we can seize the opportunities of infrastructure and new technology investment that will put our country and our businesses at the heart of a global green economy.

Thank you.

Drax urges UK to seize the opportunities to build a zero carbon economy

Press releases

Speaking at the British Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference in London on Thursday March 5, 2020, Clare Harbord Drax Group Director of Corporate Affairs said:

“By investing in the skills and new technologies needed to get the country to net zero, businesses can be world leading, creating new opportunities to develop and grow.”

Drax has announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030 by pioneering bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) – a ground-breaking negative emissions technology which is essential if the UK is to meet its climate targets.

It is also spearheading a zero-carbon skills taskforce in the North, aimed at ensuring the region has a workforce which is ready to reap the rewards of a net zero economy.

Giving the keynote address at the British Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference in London, Clare Harbord said:

“Despite all of the challenges we face – this is a year of great opportunity for British business to take a world leading role in tackling the climate crisis.”

She added: “We can seize the opportunities of infrastructure and new technology and investment that will put our country and our businesses at the heart of a global green economy.”

Through the Zero Carbon Humber initiative, being delivered in partnership with National Grid Ventures and Equinor, Drax aims to establish the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.

The Humber is the UK’s biggest industrial region employing 55,000 people in energy, manufacturing and engineering and as the most carbon intensive region in the country – taking steps to decarbonise the area would make a more significant impact on addressing the climate crisis than anywhere else in the UK.

“Our vision is to put the Humber back on the global stage as an example to the rest of the world of climate leadership in action, creating green jobs and clean growth,” she said.

“As the world’s attention turns to Glasgow and the COP26 conference this Autumn, there is no better time for government to show its support for British businesses and the British technology that is leading this fight.”

Read the full speech here.

-ENDS-

Media contact:

Ben Wicks
Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07761 525 662

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030.

Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.