Energy from waste plant sparks concern in Lisburn

Ronnie Nesbitt, who lives near the site, said he is worried about the implications for the people in the surrounding area if the planning application lodged by Lisburn Energy Recovery Ltd, is given the go-ahead.

"I am concerned about odours and gases being released and also what they could do to the environment" Me Nesbitt said. "The area around it is densely populated."

"I have spoken to the agent and the main questions I put to him were: what type of waste?, how will it be processed?, what odours will develop and what is is the time frame for the project to be completed if the applictaion is successful?"

He continued: "I was told that the waste will be commercial and industrial and there would be no odours as the process will be done internally."

Mr Nesbitt said despite these reassurances he is still sceptical. "How can you dispose of waste without odours or harmful gases being released?", he asked.

He said he now intends to rally support for a petition against the application.

Councillor Ronnie Crawford said that from an environmental point of view the application will have to be "examined carefully".

A spokesman from SLR Consulting Ltd, the agent for the application, explained the company's facilities treat municipal and commercial waste. He said: "BioGen Power is the UK's largest and fastest growing renewable energy company in the UK using Advanced Conversion technology (ACT) to treat non hazardous waste."

He said the firm uses 'modern and well proven gasification and pyrolysis technology to dispose of waste'.

"The technology utilised by BioGen Power and proposed for our facility at Lisburn has over 450,000 hours of successful operational uptime" he said. "There are eight Energos facilities operating across Europe with the most recent entering the commissioning stage in February this year, located at Sarpsborg, near Oslo. This is a similar sized facility as that planned for Lisburn.

"The Energos facility at Sarpsborg is the second to be built there and for the same customer, providing renewable electricity and steam. I don't think that the people of Sarpsborg would have allowed a second facility to be built in their city had they not been pleased with the original facility built there in 2003."

The spokesman said gasification was not incineration.

"Rather, we use a partial combustion process which creates a gas rather than smoke, there are few emissions (emissions are generally less than 10% of EU permitted levels). The gas is then used to heat water in a conventional boiler, raising steam which then drives a steam turbine that produces low carbon renewable electricity, just like a power station, though far cleaner and greener.

"Instead of generating electricity by using our limited and valuable fossil fuels, we use waste to make energy.

"Our proposal for Lisburn would utilise a site that has until recently been used as a rendering plant. It is intended as a local solution for local waste arisings. It will fit neatly onto the existing site near Lisburn and will blend with the existing small industrial area that make up the area on Moira Road."