Scotland’s biggest biomass energy plant opens with a little helping hand from Unic mini spider cranes.

Never has the expression ‘waste not, want not’ been more fitting than at Scottish & Southern Energy’s brand new biomass plant in Barkip, North Ayrshire.  The £13.5m plant, which opened in April this year, is Scotland’s largest biogas facility, capable of processing around 75,000 tonnes of waste each year to generate 2.5MW of electricity for Scottish homes.  Feedstock materials, waste materials, wood and organic sludge will be processed using bacterial cultures in silo tanks to generate methane-rich biogas to generate the renewable electricity.

The restricted access around the tanks and within the plant itself meant lifting was tricky yet easily overcome thanks to GGR’s Unic mini spider cranes. A GGR Unic 506 spider crane was used to erect ladders and platforms between the silo tanks to finalize their construction, whilst the more compact Unic 295 crane was hired to install valves and pipes within the facility. Lastly a Unic 376 mini crane was tracked inside the building to install conveyers and put finishing touches into place.