Work to begin to prepare site for new pyrolysis plant in Ludlow

Work to prepare the site on Ludlow’s Coder Road business park to allow a new biochar plant to be built is set to start early next week.

The environmentally-sustainable plant received planning consent in March and will assist the council towards achieving its climate change targets, produce a small amount of renewable energy and biochar that can be sold for many uses in agriculture, construction and industry.

The first on-site activity will be the decommissioning and removal of redundant material and equipment from the former biodigester use of the site. Specialist professional contractors will carefully undertake this phase. Inevitably there is potential for this short phase of work to cause some disruption through vehicle movements, noise and potentially dust and odour.

Work to install the new plant will take place over summer and autumn 2025, with the aim to have the plant operational early in 2026. BioDynamic Carbon Ltd, a joint venture company with Shropshire Council will operate the plant following its successful tender application earlier this year.

Once operational, the plant is expected to produce around 1,000 Tonnes of biochar per year from feedstock such as low-grade arboricultural arisings from managing the many thousands of trees the council is responsible for and from waste from the timber supply industry.

Biochar has excellent environmental benefits. As well as stabilising and storing carbon to prevent its release to the atmosphere, it has many uses including as a soil improver in agriculture, filtering pollutants from water, within poultry litter to improve bird hygiene and welfare and within many construction materials.

This latest plant follows a successful introduction into biochar production for the council, after it was the first council in the UK to enter into the biochar market.

Just after Christmas, its first pyrolysis unit near Welshpool in Powys became operational producing biochar, helping to offset carbon emissions, whilst being sold to a range of customers.

Rob Wilson, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for green technologies, said:

“The creation of biochar is an innovative and sustainable way to reduce our net carbon emissions as a council as well as generating income to support delivery of essential public services.”

Mark Foxall, Shropshire Council’s technical support and projects manager said, “Our first plant is already producing biochar and we are pleased with its performance and output. With the planning application for our Ludlow site having now received approval we’re now looking forward to getting started on our second biochar project.”

Dan Wrench, Shropshire Council’s climate and carbon project officer added:

“Shropshire Council is continuing to engage with government, academia and other councils who have registered their interest in the many benefits of producing biochar.

“It’s great that we’ve had so much interest in our biochar plans. We have been approached by over 30 other councils and several businesses looking to invest in the technology.’’

The site will be used for educational purposes and knowledge sharing about this climate action technology. The council intends to continue engaging with the local community to share the benefits this plant can bring to the local economy and to the environment.