Kerry firm leads the way in key area of ‘green’ technology - Kerryman Article – 05/10

FOSSA based Kerry Biomass — a division of Kerry Die Products Ltd — last week celebrated the culmination of six years of hard work when they shipped the world’s first integrated wood pellet system to a client in Sweden.

Research, development and manufacturing of the energy efficient product, officially named the ‘BMass 800 Wood Pellet Press’, has largely been completed on-site, so it was a proud moment for employees of the local company as they watched the product being loaded for transportation to Sweden.

CEO Liam O’Connor said the rapid development of the market has means that further orders can be expected when an exhibition highlighting the finished product for potential customers is held in Sweden.

“We would hope to have five or six orders by the end of the summer, so we will then be able to estimate better the full impact of future production. If orders go according to plan, we would expect to employ anywhere up to 40 people to work on local and international marketing, development and research, manufacturing and distribution,” he said.

Mr O’Connor said the present environment of climate change and renewable energy meant that biomass wood pellet manufacturing had huge potential especially in Scandanavia and Canada, while customers have also expressed interest from as far afield as the USA, Austria and Germany. He expects interest in Ireland the UK to follow.

“Our machines currently have an output of 10 tonnes per hour but it will be more attractive for the likes of Coillte and SWS when we develop a smaller version at five tonnes per hour,” he said. “Wood pellets are the only economically viable biomass immediately available to meet the EU’s stringent renewable targets for coal fired power plants and other hungry fossil fuel industries,” project engineer Hugh O’Connor added.