Milton Keynes planning permission signals start for Energos’ ninth advanced conversion facility
Clean energy recovery from waste specialist ENERGOS is preparing to build its ninth advanced conversion facility at AmeyCespa’s Milton Keynes Waste Recovery Park, which received planning approval this month.
The Waste Recovery Park, which is scheduled to start on site in 2014 and begin processing waste in 2016, was approved unanimously by Milton Keynes Council’s Development Control Committee following six months of borough-wide community consultation and liaison.
As an integral part of the Waste Recovery Park, which includes recycling and anaerobic digestion, the 90,000 tonne ENERGOS advance conversion facility will generate 7MW of electricity, sufficient to power approximately 11,000 homes. It will process non recyclable, non hazardous household waste – as the final stage of a three-step waste treatment process.
Energos has developed a total of seven waste fuelled advanced thermal conversion facilities across Europe, including the UK’s only operational facility. The UK-based company is currently building its second UK plant at the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre, and has recently received planning permission for a third facility in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.
The ENERGOS technology uses a proven gasification process that has accumulated more than 550,000 hours of operation over 15 years. Energos was the first UK company to be awarded double Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs).
The Energos gasification process converts residual, non-recyclable waste into a syngas by using the heat of partial combustion to free hydrogen and carbon in the waste. The syngas produces high temperature steam that can then be converted into electricity in a turbine.
Andrew Cousins, Project Manager for AmeyCespa, said: “This facility will utilise the most up-to-date and cost effective technologies to deal with the borough’s waste. It will make the most of people’s everyday rubbish, ensuring as much is recycled as economically possible as well as generating renewable energy and creating electricity from waste which would otherwise have gone to landfill. This in turn creates a saving for the council and ultimately Milton Keynes taxpayers.”
The Waste Recovery Park will reduce Milton Keynes Council’s current waste management bill by more than 50 million and help reduce the amount of household waste going to landfill. In combination with Milton Keynes Council’s existing recycling initiatives, the new facility will ensure that only around 2% of the borough’s waste will be landfilled.
