As part of the commissioning process, Encyclis combusted its first load of residual waste on Friday last week (21 August 2026).
The facility – which is located near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire – has also now received over 2,500 tonnes of residual waste.
Mark Burrows-Smith, Chief Executive of Encyclis, said: “Achieving first fire on waste is an exciting milestone for Protos ERF as it transitions into commercial operations.
“The progress we have made is a credit to the hard work and expertise of our construction teams, contractors and suppliers.”
Once fully operational, the Protos ERF will have an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes for both commercial and municipal waste, with the ability to generate up to 49.9MW of baseload electricity. This is the equivalent of powering 75,000 UK homes.
The ERF entered its hot commissioning phase in March 2026, which saw engineers progressively energise and test the plant’s electrical and mechanical systems, ensuring they operate safely and effectively ahead of the first deliveries of waste.
The phase was managed by Encyclis’ turnkey partners METLEN and Standardkessel Baumgarte GmbH.
Carbon capture at Protos
In the next three years, the Protos site will also be the location of the UK’s first carbon capture plant on an adjoining plot of land.
Around 370,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions from Protos ERF will be captured and transported via pipeline for permanent storage in Liverpool Bay as part of the HyNet North West carbon capture and storage (CCS) cluster.
Encyclis has currently employed 45 people to run the Protos ERF, and will increase this once the carbon capture plant is online in 2029.
The company has also recruited four local apprentices who are currently undertaking formal training.
Burrows-Smith added: “This week’s news also takes us closer to delivering the UK’s first decarbonised Energy-from-Waste infrastructure, with construction of our groundbreaking carbon capture facility well underway alongside Protos ERF.”
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