A PROJECT which turns waste wood into fuel for council buildings is in the running for a national environment award.

Warm from Wood, pioneered by Durham County Council, has been shortlisted in the Environment Initiative category of the Buildings Services Awards 2001.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Clive Anderson, in London's Grosvenor House Hotel, at the end of the month.

Warmth from Wood turns clean waste wood into pellets, which are then used in boilers instead of coal.

The initiative is funded by a grant of £78,500 from County Durham Environment Trust and is expected to save 10,000 tonnes of waste wood from going to landfill and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from council buildings by eight per cent.

County council environment and technical services director, Chris Tunstall, said: "When the county's last deep coal mines closed, the county council was using about 5,000 tonnes of solid fuel a year in boiler plants in schools. Our policy is to phase out solid fuel and wood fuel is readily available alternative in the county."

Boilers at two schools were initially adopted and wood pellets were found to be successful as fuel for existing boiler plants.

Durham County Waste Management Company, which is wholly-owned by the county council, has installed a wood processing plant at its landfill site at Coxhoe, where large quantities of wood waste are now processed for chipboard manufacture.

A pelleting plant produces wood pellets from strictly-sorted and analysed raw material to make sure only clean waste wood is used.

Mr Tunstall said: "We are still at the experimental stage, but all the indications are that phasing out solid fuel boiler plants to burn wood will reduce the county council's carbon dioxide emissions by eight per cent and save some 10,000 tonnes of wood being landfilled."