Biomass plant opens in Scots trade park

A BIOMASS plant heralded as a "benchmark" for other commercial and public-sector projects was unveiled yesterday at the Midlothian Innovation Centre

The prototype reactor – which burns wood chips to provide heat – was installed by Reactor Technologies in Roslin.

Heat from the biomass plant will be supplied to all 65 businesses at the centre, which include biotechnology, IT and material science companies.

Murdo Mackenzie, vice-chairman of the centre, said the reactor at Roslin could be used to demonstrate the feasibility of such schemes to heat hospitals, schools or office blocks.

He explained that the system provided heat to the centre's existing boilers, simply bypassing the existing oil supply.

Waste products – including activated carbon and charcoal-like "bio-char" – will be sold on and Mackenzie hopes the system would pay for itself. Activated carbon is used in filtration systems, while bio-char can be used as a soil conditioner.

Mackenzie said: "The attraction for us is that it's self-financing and potentially could produce a little income."

Duncan McLaren, from Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "Biomass schemes are the sort of innovations that we need to be exploring and testing.

"The use of wood chip for heating is definitely a sustainable way of making use of Scotland's biomass resources."