Defra explores markets for refuse-derived fuel

In new guidelines to the Waste Private Finance Initiative (PFI) published this month, entitled 'PFI FAQ', the Department explained that it was developing both producer and user markets for solid recovered fuel – an engineered fuel made from black bag municipal solid waste.

The work is likely to be welcomed by a number of authorities such as Wiltshire county council. The authority revealed last week that its plans to send SRF to a cement kiln at Westbury had stalled after the kiln's operator, Lafarge Aggregates, said that it would be slowing production due to the economic downturn.

And, power generation firm Novera Energy, which has been planning to build a gasification plant to burn SRF produced by Shanks in Dagenham, East London, told letsrecycle.com yesterday that it was currently focusing on “more proven technologies” in the short term.

The outlets for SRF are important for councils looking to gain both private funding and PFI support for “intermediate” waste treatment technologies such as mechanical biological treatment (MBT), autoclave and anaerobic digestion, which all produce residues that need a disposal outlet.

In the FAQ document, Defra explained: “The PFI credit allocation criteria stipulates that projects using intermediate technologies must demonstrate a clear, realistic disposal solution for the output residues.

“RDF/SRF compromise a wide range of outputs from MBT plants and other waste management processes and by stimulating markets, Defra (Waste Infrastructure Development Programme) is trying to make intermediate technologies a genuine waste management option for Authorities,” it added.

Work

In order to develop SRF markets, Defra explained that it had developed a minimum standard for SRF, in recognition of the fact that industrial users may prefer to take an engineered fuel rather than black bag waste and that current standards vary widely.

The minimum standard was included in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's (BERR) Banding Review and forms part of the Renewables Obligation Order (ROO) which was laid before parliament earlier this month.

Alongside this work, the department has published a series of reports, databases and maps on its website which examine the potential for using SRF for each region where councils are currently seeking PFI support. This includes Coventry and Derby, the West of England and Dorset, South and West London, North London, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and Hull and East Riding.

Study

In the West of England and Dorset the study concluded that there were 115 potential sites within a 25 mile radius of the region's boundaries that could use SRF, while it claimed that 101 could include CHP. In South & West London, the WIDP claimed 76 sites had SRF potential and 147 would be capable of CHP. Coventry and Derby was also said to have 130 sites capable of using SRF.

In Hull & East Riding, the report identified 105 SRF sites and 30 with CHP potential, while in North London – where the cornerstone of its bid for £520 million in PFI funding is dependent on MBT – it was claimed there were 126 potential SRF sites and 172 which could be used for CHP.

In the study, Defra's WIDP also identified outlets where SRF could be used as an alternative fuel source, such as: solid fuel power generation replacing a fraction of coal, direct solid fuel replacement of cement, as a fuel source for CHP, and as a heat source for large public sector bodies.

Problems

Defra's work is likely to benefit  projects which have faced problems due to the markets for SRF; a situation which has been heightened by the impacts of the economic downturn.

Wiltshire county council has revealed that its plans to build a 60,000 tonne-a-year capacity MBT plant at Westbury have been delayed after one of the main markets for the residues – Lafarge Aggregates – has had to slow production at one of its cement kilns due to the downturn in the housing market.

Andy Conn, Wiltshire County Council's waste services manager, said: “The news that the cement works is to be mothballed is therefore a setback, but it does not mean that the need for more waste treatment goes away, or that the proposal should be abandoned.”

In East London, Novera Energy's plans to develop a gasification facility next to the Shanks MBT plant at Frog Island have also been delayed, with a spokesman commenting this week: “We have not started construction. We have signed deals with Ford and Shanks, but it has not progressed a great deal.”

Both revelations come just weeks after Norfolk changed its technology choice from MBT to energy-from-waste due to fears over securing markets for the outputs (see letsrecycle.com story).