Energos secures approval for flagship waste-to-energy plant

UK waste-to-energy specialist Energos is seeking fresh investment after the company last week secured planning approval for a new £40m advanced gasification plant at Knowsley on Merseyside.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, managing director Nick Dawber said the company was looking to get financing in place for the new facility, alongside contracts to sell the energy produced by the plant, and ensure it has access to secure waste streams.

He said that work on the plant was expected to start next year with a view to it being fully operational by 2012, at which point the facility is expected to provide enough power for up to 10,000 homes, as well as heat for local industrial sites, several of which have already engaged in initial discussions with the company about using heat from the new plant.

Energos' technology uses a gasification process to produce energy from conventional waste while releasing significantly lower levels of emissions than traditional waste incinerators.

Dawber explained that the plant would work by partially combusting the waste to create a synthetic gas that is then burned to create heat and electricity. He said the process meant the facility would release just a quarter of the NOX emissions permitted under EU rules, and also deliver significant carbon emissions savings.

"Around half the waste feedstock is biomass-based, which means it is regarded as carbon-neutral," he explained. "On top of that a combined heat and power plant is far more efficient than conventional power plants and you don’t get the methane emissions you would get if you send waste to landfill – overall carbon emissions levels are close to those achieved by the most efficient combined cycle gas turbines."

Energos is also hoping to use the Merseyside plant as an international training centre and customer showcase as it seeks to promote wider adoption of its technology.

"This is the fifth planning application we have submitted and they have all been granted within 12 months," said Dawber. "All those projects are now looking to move forward and one of the big issues for the industry as a whole will be training people to support that rapid growth."