The contractor’s team includes Ramboll, which brings experience of designing biomass handling facilities in mainland Europe.

Local consultant HBPW Consulting and materials handling contractor Whitwick Engineering along with local electrical firm Lectec Services will also work on the job.

John Fitzgerald, ABP port director, said: “Immingham has always been an energy port ever since it opened just over 100 years ago, so it is fitting that the UK’s largest, most technically advanced biomass handling terminal will be built here.”

Leo Martin, director at Graham, said: “The challenge is now to complete the design and construction of this complex project on programme and provide ABP with a plant that meets their requirements.”

The 11.5-acre facility will be a fully automated bulk-handling terminal handling pellet fuel for the planned transformation of three of Drax’s six coal-fired generating units to biomass at the Selby power station.

The terminal will be able to handle three million tonnes each year, and store 100,000 tonnes of wood pellets in four silos ^_ equivalent in size to over 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools.