Construction of forestry management company Active Energy Group PLC’s (LON:AEG) first five-tonne-per-hour CoalSwitch biomass fuel plant in Utah will be completed next month.
Full commissioning and revenue generation will follow thereafter, with the plant providing sufficient CoalSwitch fuel to satisfy existing early-stage demand in Utah and for commercial (paid for) burn testing at full-scale power utility plants.
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The CoalSwitch product is made from waste wood that would normally be left to decompose following forestry operations.
Research, development and testing have taken place over the past two years with the help of the University of Utah, which has included both burn and handling tests.
Nothing beats “real world” testing, however, and Active Energy (AEG) believes the plant will demonstrate that the CoalSwitch technology can be scaled to full commercial production, paving the way for the technology to prove a disruptive force in the global biomass industry.
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AEG said in a statement, that strong commercial interest has already been received for CoalSwitch from governments and corporate entities in North America, Asia and Europe.
Construction of the next plant is planned to commence upon completion of post-commissioning tests of the first plant.
"This is a landmark occasion for AEG and represents the advent of the commercialisation of CoalSwitch, our ground-breaking and world-beating 'drop in' biomass coal replacement fuel,” said Brian Evan-Jones, a director of AEG and AEG affiliate, Advanced Biomass Solutions.
“The completion of the plant construction in Utah and commissioning enables us to commence scalable commercial operations of the CoalSwitch technology and generate revenues. The international interest in CoalSwitch has been extremely encouraging and we have made excellent progress in developing feedstock and off-take agreements for the product in recent months,” he added.
Shares in AEG were up 1.6% at 2.54p in mid-morning trading.