Glanford Power Station is an electricity generating plant located on the

Flixborough Flixborough is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,664. It is situated near the River Trent, approximately north-west from Scunthorpe. The village is noted for ...

industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park, ...

near

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton ...

. It generates around 13.5

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

(MW) of electricity, which is enough to provide power to about 32,000 homes. It was designed to generate electricity by the burning of

poultry litter In agriculture, poultry litter or broiler litter is a mixture of poultry excreta, spilled feed, feathers, and material used as bedding in poultry operations. This term is also used to refer to unused bedding materials. Poultry litter is used in ...

, and was only the second of this kind of power station in the world to have been built when it went into operation in 1993. The station is owned by

Energy Power Resources In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat ...

(EPR) and operated by its subsidiary Fibrogen.

History

After the

BSE BSE may refer to: Medicine * Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle * Breast self-examination Stock exchanges * Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain * Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan * B ...

crisis in the 1980s, millions of cattle were slaughtered, and almost half a million tons of dried

meat and bone meal Meat and bone meal (MBM) is a product of the rendering industry. It is typically about 48–52% protein, 33–35% ash, 8–12% fat, and 4–7% water. It is primarily used in the formulation of animal feed to improve the amino acid profile of t ...

(MBM), the cause of the disease, was stockpiled in secure sheds. Glanford Power Station was re-commissioned in May 2000 to burn them. It charges a

gate fee A gate fee (or tipping fee) is the charge levied upon a given quantity of waste received at a waste processing facility. In the case of a landfill it is generally levied to offset the cost of opening, maintaining and eventually closing the site. ...

for the fuel it burns, which would have otherwise been disposed of using conventional

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

s. MBM has around two thirds the energy value of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...

s such as

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, and has been labelled

carbon neutral Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "p ...

. Despite producing "green energy", Glanford Power Station is listed as the 27th largest

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

air emitter in England and Wales in an air quality report published in February 2000. In January 2004 Glanford Power Plant received

planning permission Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

for the site to be extended to allow other sources of

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

to be burned. The plant technology is based on a conventional moving grate boiler and steam cycle. In accordance with the

United Kingdom Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

's new

Renewables Obligation The Renewables Obligation (RO) is designed to encourage generation of electricity from eligible renewable sources in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in England and Wales and in a different form (the Renewables Obligation (Scotland)) in Scot ...

incentive mechanism, a premium is paid for renewable electricity generation. Each renewable generator is issued with

Renewables Obligation Certificates The Renewables Obligation (RO) is designed to encourage generation of electricity from eligible Renewable energy in the United Kingdom, renewable sources in the United Kingdom. It was introduced in England and Wales and in a different form (the Re ...

(ROC), which they may sell to other electricity supply companies. This trade allows them to meet their obligation for the proportion of supplied electricity generated from renewable sources. The power output from the Glanford plant qualifies for ROC trading. The combustion ashes produced by the station are then disposed of via landfill (21% of fuel by mass). Before the switch to MBM, they used to be sold as agricultural

fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

References

External links

EPR Corporate website"Promising Future for Bioenergy in the United Kingdom"
{{Incineration in the United Kingdom Biofuel power stations in England Power stations in Lincolnshire Power stations in Yorkshire and the Humber Waste power stations in England