Biffa has today (August 20) revealed plans to build an energy-from-waste incinerator, with combined heat and power potential, at Shepshed in Leicestershire with the capacity to treat up to 300,000 tonnes of residual waste a year.

An artist's impression of Biffa's proposed EfW incinerator at Newhurst Quarry in Leicestershire

The Birmingham-based waste management company has unveiled the plans as part of its bid to secure Leicestershire county council's PFI-funded waste treatment contract, for which it is one of the three final bidders (see letsrecycle.com story).

Although Biffa already manages a waste gasification facility on the Isle of Wight, the Leicestershire facility would be its first waste incinerator.

Biffa said that it would pursue the project, at its Newhurst Quarry site, even if it did not win the PFI deal, by building the EfW facility as a merchant plant for commercial and industrial (C&I) waste.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, the company's director of environment and external affairs, David Savory, revealed that, if it did pursue the merchant facility option, it had a "large quantity" of C&I waste sources in the local area.

PFI

If Biffa does win the PFI deal, the EfW plant would be expected to treat up to 180,000 tonnes-a-year of Leicestershire's residual household waste, with the remaining 120,000 tonnes being filled by waste coming from the East Midlands' commercial and industrial sector.

The proposed facility would generate 21MW of electricity, and would also have the potential to be fitted as a combined heat and power plant, with a proposed expansion of an adjoining industrial development and a possible expansion of nearby Loughborough University mooted as potential markets for the heat.

Supersede

The EfW plans supersede earlier proposals from Biffa to develop a 375,000 tonne-a-year landfill pre-treatment facility on the site, which won planning permission from Leicestershire county council last year.

These would have involved infilling the 600m³ quarry and building a materials recycling facility and composting operation, with residues from the sorting process being landfilled on site.

Difference

Commenting in the difference between the two proposals, Biffa's development director, Simon Allin, said: "Whilst our original plans for this site are still viable, technology has progressed and the Leicestershire procurement process makes an energy plant totally viable."

"We are so convinced of its benefits that even if we were not successful in gaining the council waste contract we would still progress this plant for the region's business waste.

"This is an excellent opportunity to move away from landfill and all its associated environmental issues and provide a modern energy recovery facility on a site which is already established as being suitable for waste management on a similar scale," he added.

Planning

Biffa said that it planned to apply for planning consent for the EfW facility in November, and envisaged a three-year construction period, using technology provided by German EfW specialists Von Roll Inova.

If planning permission is awarded by the end of 2010, Biffa aims to have the facility up-and-running in 2014.

In the run-up to applying for planning consent, the company began a community consultation process with a liaison meeting yesterday (August 19) and is set to hold public exhibitions on the plans next month.