A power station run on chicken waste is hoping to create an 80,000sqm shed to help create fertiliser from bi-products. Owners Suffolk-based Energy power Resources (EPR) claims the bio power station, at 38.

A power station run on chicken waste is hoping to create an 80,000sqm shed to help create fertiliser from bi-products.

Owners Suffolk-based Energy power Resources (EPR) claims the bio power station, at 38.5MW is the largest chicken litter fuelled plant in the world and is Europe's largest biomass fuelled electricity generator.

Now it wants permission to create a fuel curing and storage facility on the site off Mundford Road, in Thetford.

The site gets through 420,000 tonnes of poultry litter per year and EPR says it wants to deal with 70,000 tonnes of ash left over each year on the site in a new proposed building measuring 80m by 45m.

“The building will be used as a holding, mixing and curing facility for the biomaterial created at the adjoining power station,” a supporting statement from the firms says in its planning application.

“We currently have a similar but smaller facility off the A11 near Barton Mills. This has been running for a number of years preparing the material for re-use in the agricultural industry.”

Power is generated using a conventional moving grate boiler and steam cycle, the firm says.

Fertiliser produced through the process at the plant is marketed through a group wholly owned subsidiary, Fibrophos.

The plant was commissioned in June 1999 and has 31 staff, EPR says.

EPR also has a 12.7MW poultry litter fuelled generating plant at Eye.