However, speaking to letsrecycle.com this week, many of those responsible for getting individual projects off the ground as part of the programme were positive about the performance of their sites – which were established to showcase new waste treatment technologies to local authorities.
Although four facilities became operational within the deadline, the Programme was hit by delays (see letsrecycle.com story) and the withdrawal of three commissioned plants from the project.
Now that the deadline has passed, all the companies who were commissioned to develop new technology facilities – including those that did not become operational in time – are to submit their final reports on their participation in the Programme to Defra to allow a full assessment to take place.
A Defra spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “The New Technologies Demonstrator Programme finished at the end of March and its success in demonstrating innovative waste treatment technologies as possible alternatives to landfill will be assessed in due course.”
Completed
According to consultancy Enviros, which was contracted by Defra to project manage the Programme, four of the commissioned sites met their contractual obligation.
These include: an in-vessel composting facility run by Envar in Huntingdon; an anaerobic digestion facility operated by Biocycle (which is now BiogenGreenfinch) in Ludlow; a mechanical thermal treatment plant run by Orchid Environmental on behalf of the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority in Huyton; and an in-vessel composting facility in Herford run by now-defunct organics company Bioganix.
At the same time, a gasification plant on the Isle of Wight developed by Energos, which is part of Manchester-based renewables company ENER-G, an aerobic digestor constructed by Premier Waste in Durham and a pyrolysis plant developed by Yorwaste at Scarborough have all became operational although not for the required number of hours.
And, proposed gasification facilities which were being developed by Novera Energy in Dagenham and Ethos Recycling in Avonmouth both withdrew from the programme. Ethos said it still intends to complete construction of its facility (which was originally proposed by Compact Power) and Novera is seeking additional funding for its plant.
Interest
Of those that look to have managed to achieve their contractual obligations, Envar claimed that there had been “a lot of interest” from local authorities in the in-vessel composting facility which it developed in Cambridgeshire.
Alison Webb, waste management consultant at Envar said: “We had 278 individual visitors through the door, and we had 78 individual organisations which included local authorities, WRAP, regional agencies and Defra, and also other waste management companies. From that about 50% were local authorities.
“We did get a good response and a lot of the feedback was that they found it very informative and got to look around the site and it exceeded their expectations. Also they said it wasn't as smelly as they thought it was going to be,” she added.
Premier Waste, which developed an aerobic digestion facility at Durham, claimed that there was a large amount of interest even in the technologies which did meet their contractual obligations.
Marketing manager Tony Hitchens said: “We were getting about one visit per fortnight at one time. Not all from councils but building a visitors centre as part of the demo programme has made it much easier to host visits. The councils that came to visit were usually about to do something major with their waste contracts.”
And, assessing the value of the project, Tony Grimshaw, technical director at Energos, claimed that there were definitely lessons to take from the assessment stage of the Programme.
He said: “If anyone has learned anything we have to be aware of the whole range of things that we have to have in place to get these projects in place. There are a lot of hurdles and things like planning can be quite difficult.”
Withdrawals
Uxbridge-firm Ethos Recycling purchased the Avonmouth gasification with pyrolysis project in January 2008 when original contractor Compact Power went into receivership (see letsrecycle.com story).
David Sweeting, an engineer at Ethos, said: “We are still submitting a report to the NTDP and we are still intending to do the plant once we have been granted a lease. The lease could happen in the next few weeks, and it would take slightly less than a year to build then.”
A spokesman for Novera, which withdrew when it was unable to reach financial close for its proposed gasification facility, said that it was currently discussing investments in the proposed East London facility.
In addition to the withdrawals, the Programme was also affected by one instance of a fire breaking out at a commissioned site.
In October 2008, a blaze broke out at the £13 million Huyton mechanical thermal treatment facility being operated by Orchid Environmental (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, the plant recommenced operations at the end of January after the company repaired damage to one waste processor, a small area of the roof and a conveyor belt.
Praise
The Programme, which eventually took £19.56 million of funding rather than £30 million original earmarked due to projects withdrawing, received praise from the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) which said it had provided long-term benefits for waste management at a local authority level.
Andrew Craig, principal policy officer at LARAC, said: “As a general process, LARAC's interest in it is because it is important to deliver new technologies to deal with residual waste in ways which haven't been commercial developed.”
“In terms of long-term development it is about us going and learning about the technology and what they can do and how they can improve waste management and make it more sustainable,” he added.
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