Encycle- a wholly owned subsidiary of welsh technology firm Inetec – wants to build 10 such energy power stations to process food waste and packaging in the next five years.
The 12-acre site will process 500 tonnes of food and packaging waste each day and will produce 24MW of renewable electricity to the national grid.
The construction at Immingham will begin in October and take an estimated nine to 12 months to build. It has the potential to providing an alternative to Anaerobic Digestion (AD) for commercial customers wanting to divert food waste from landfill.
Encycle has already secured contracts with food manufacturing companies Greencore, Northern Foods and high street bakery Greggs, to take their food waste and non recyclable packaging and turn it into biofuel.
Technology
The technology will take the food waste and packaging and treat it in enclosed chambers using technology designed by Inetec. This will remove all the moisture from the waste and break it down into small particles similar to coffee granules. It will then be vapourised in a gas conversion process.
The facility will be enclosed and will operate under negative pressure which will also avoid any odours from being emitted.
The process will create 98% energy and 2% ash by- product which at the moment is likely to be landfilled. Encycle are currently considering how to divert this material to use in the construction industry.
Ed Mant, Encycle spokesman, said that the difference between treating waste using AD and this process is that AD is reliant on a “constant stream of waste to keep it going, as it is a biological process and needs 'bugs' to survive”.
However, Encycle's is purely mechanical and does not need a consistent supply of material. It can have more food waste or more packaging although the energy value of fuel may vary depending on the input.
Encycle hopes to build regional sites across the UK over the next five years and divert 1.5 millions of waste from landfill at the 10 sites.
The company has said that the technology is “the first food waste to energy
plant in Europe”. Smaller scale versions of the technology are in use in different parts of the country but these are not converting energy into biofuel for the national grid.
In Swansea, ready meals and packaging are processed to generate steam and in Grantham, also in Lincolnshire, chickens which never hatch are processed to create heat for hot water pipes within the hatchery to help other chickens develop.
When it opens next year, Immingham will take food waste and packaging from outside of North Lincolnshire but as Encycle's other sites are developed, the operations are likely to become regionalized.
Peter Corris, director of Encycle said “We are delighted that the authority has granted planning for us to develop this vital renewable energy centre. The need for such centres is huge as the demand for convenience foods continues to grow. This plant will represent a significant step forward in terms of how the UK disposes of its food waste.”
Encycle has also said that the site will create 70 construction jobs during the building stage and then 60 full time jobs once it is up and running.
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