ESD has a long history in biomass energy, starting out originally as an associate company of BEST Pty which carries out innovative biomass R&D and process development in Australia.

One of the first ESD biomass projects involved the development of cookstoves for the Ethiopian domestic market. Seen by the World Bank as an outstanding success this enabled both product development, and supply chain improvement, to take place simultaneously.

In the UK market it has been difficult to replicate this success. Projects often focus on demonstrating new assets, rather than sustaining the commercial process of new energy supply. The result has been boilers that struggle for fuel supplies, power projects that fail to reach financial close, and biomass companies that do not reward their shareholders.

ESD has contributed to this; engineering the new build wood heating system at Woebley school, developing the standalone AMBIENT NFFO 3 contracts, and in pioneering the use of tumbling bed gasifiers first with CPL, and then with Primergy and Novera.

Learning from this experience ESD Biomass now works on projects which are closely adapted to fit identified market needs such as wood heat ESCOs – Lignatherm, producer led power projects – Roves Energy, and evolutionary technical development – Compact Power. ESD Biomass is also committed to act as an ‘intermediary’ supporting the development of energy crops for co-firing as a way of kick-starting the sustainable development of biomass energy crops.