Isle of Wight gasification plant is first to get ROCs

The facility is an Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT) facility and under the 2003 Renewables Obligation Order (ROO) receives ROCs for each megawatt hour of renewable electricity generated from the renewable portion of the residual waste (Energos claims this is typically more than 60% of the waste).

Full accreditation was granted by Ofgem after agreement had been reached regarding the fuel measurement system including the measurement of the biomass content of the fuel and the syngas gross calorific value (GCV).

ROCs have been received by Energos for an initial period from October to December 2010, after the facility reopened following emissions limit breaches (see letsrecycle.com story).These will continue to be issued by Ofgem in accordance with the regulations. The auction price for ROCs approached 50 in March 2011.

ROCs are not available to incineration facilities, unless they generate both heat and electricity and meet the requirements of the Quality Assurance Scheme for CHP, but are available to gasification and pyrolysis schemes as Advanced Conversion Technologies.

The Energos plant is part of the Isle of Wight councils Resource Recovery Facility operated by Biffa subsidiary Island Waste Services. It uses a refuse derived fuel, supplied under contract from the Isle of Wight Councils integrated waste management contractor. As the fuel has been pre-treated, the biodegradable energy content has to be measured rather than being deemed.

The plant was the first to employ a continuous calorimeter to measure the GCV of the syngas produced by the process. This was also a first for the supplier of the metering facilities as the syngas is produced at a high temperature and has to be measured in its raw condition. The plant is producing a syngas with a GCV in excess of the 4 MJ/m3 required for double ROCs.

Developing

Nick Dawber, managing director of Energos – part of UK clean tech group ENER-G – said: Now we have reached agreement with Ofgem and are receiving ROCs, we can press ahead with developing several small scale projects in the UK. Planning consent has been granted for seven more energy recovery facilities using Energos technology. These are community sized plants that can supply both heat and/or electricity from non-recyclable and non-hazardous municipal solid waste and commercial waste streams.

The Energos gasification technology is also expected to qualify for the forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive. In addition, as renewable energy it is exempt from obligations under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, under phase two of the scheme, companies should be allowed to trade the resultant CO2 credits.

Energos eighth energy recovery facility has recently been completed in Sarpsborg, Norway. It is supplying medium pressure steam to an industrial complex and is fuelled by non-recyclable commercial/industrial waste. It brings operating experience for the Energos technology to more than 450,000 hours over 14 years.