SIR,
With reference to the proposed wood burning plant (planning ref DC/2010/00658) on Hadnock Road.
I oppose the application as it is not the best available technique and a health hazard to inhabitants of greater Monmouth.
Wood burning and burning red diesel create almost entirely PM1-size particulates plus some PM2.5s containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
This size is not regulated in the UK.
The Environment Agency wrote this year that 90 per cent of PM1s and 35 per cent of PM2.5s escape through UK bag filters, if fitted.
PM1s are the worst possible size particulate for adults and children to inhale.
This was known in the USA in 1943, yet is still ignored in the UK.
A recent study in Austria published in a journal proved PM1s are even worse than PM2.5s for damaging children's lungs.
PAHs cause low birth weight babies, lower IQ in direct proportion to concentrations, cause asthma, heart attacks and contribute to cancers.
PM1s and PM2.5s cause asthma, COPD, heart attacks, compromised immune systems and clinical depression at least, and any heavy metals present could cause diabetes type two and further cancers as well.
The best available technique for a wood-fired power station is plasma gasification, using an electric welding arc.
The emissions are safe, and three times the electricity is produced compared with incinerator/ combined heat and power units.
Some four times the electricity is produced compared with what is used.
These units have been built in USA, Canada, France, Puerto Rico and elsewhere and are now also being built in Russia and China.
The syngas formed can alternatively be treated to produce petrol or diesel fuel in a scaled system as is happening in Canada, UAE and USA.
If a plasma gasification unit was built instead, Monmouth could add much of its residual and/ or commercial or hazardous waste to waste wood for safe treatment to produce green electricity safely.
Dr Dick van Steenis
(Monmouth)