Viridors 45 million energy-from-waste (EfW) incinerator in Exeter is set to take its first delivery of waste on Monday (April 7) as it begins a new hot commissioning phase.
Having completed its cold commissioning testing process, it is expected that the plant, which has the capacity to treat 60,000 tonnes of residual waste per year, will then begin full-scale operations from July 2014.
The Exeter EfW plant is being developed on the Marsh Barton Trading Estate under a deal agreed in July 2011 between Devon county council and its existing waste disposal contractor Viridor (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, while the first waste is being delivered to the incinerator on Monday, the first combustion steps are not scheduled to start until later in the week.
According to waste management firm Viridor, sufficient waste has to be brought to the plant, which also has to be fully prepared internally to receive and handle waste for the first time, and then allowed to reach the correct temperature before any operations can start.
Construction traffic to and from the site is now also slowly reducing, the firm said, but vehicles making waste deliveries will soon increase as household waste from Exeter and the surrounding area is collected and sent for processing at the EfW plant.
One fully operational, between 35 and 40 journeys each day will be made by waste delivery trucks, alongside other vehicles disposing of ash and removing ferrous and scrap metals from the site.
‘We do not anticipate any issue or disruption for local residents from the hot commissioning process, but it is important to ensure that everything is running smoothly. During normal operations there should be no smell, dust or noise, and we will do all we can to be good neighbours.’
TIRU representative Ian Crummack
Noise
At the end of February, the cold commissioning process was suspended for a week after concerns from local residents about high levels of noise emitted by steam blowing through the plant to dislodge grit from the internal pipework.
Viridor said the noise far exceeded initial forecasts and the operation was halted while technical modifications took place, but that steam blowing was a one-off process during construction and that the noise would be barely audible outside the site once the plant is fully operating.
French company TIRU is building the facility and will also operate the plant for the first five years it is open from 2014, before Viridor takes over operations.
TIRU representative, Ian Crummack, said: We do not anticipate any issue or disruption for local residents from the hot commissioning process, but it is important to ensure that everything is running smoothly. During normal operations there should be no smell, dust or noise, and we will do all we can to be good neighbours.
In February, Viridors parent company Pennon Group said it was making good progress in growing its EfW portfolio, with the Exeter facility and also Viridors Runcorn EfW plant both set to open this year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Plymouth MRF
Elsewhere in the county, Plymouth city council has also today (April 4) named Viridor as the preferred bidder for a contract to refurbish, upgrade and operate the existing materials recycling facility (MRF) at Chelson Meadow in the city.
The waste management firm will now begin upgrading the facility to enable it to separate glass from other materials for recycling, allowing residents to have their glass collected from the kerbside.
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