The 13 million Huyton plant, which produces a fuel and recyclables, has had a throughput of up to 80,000 tonnes per year and operated for the past two years on a merchant basis. It opened in partnership with the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) which had said it would help the Authority in the years before it appointed a waste treatment contractor.
In 2007, Carl Beer, director of Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA), said: This technology will play a crucial role for Merseysides waste management in the period before we implement our new longer term contracts. If successful the Huyton project may be part of this solution.
Shotton and Bexley
The plant, which is understood to be the only one of its kind in the UK, has been closed by the Lancashire-based company as it focuses on developing two larger MHT facilities, at Shotton, in North Wales, and at Bexley, in South East London. Like the Huyton project, the proposed London facility has public sector support. The company has secured a 4 million loan from the London Waste and Recycling Board (see letsrecycle.com story) for development of the facility in Bexley. Planning permission for the Shotton plant was granted in 2008 and will be in an existing former Corus Steel building.
Orchid Environmental today acknowledged that it did not as yet have full funding finalised for either of the proposed new plants. Managing director, Steve Whatmore, told letsrecycle.com: Were very close to getting funding realised for the two 160,000 tonne-a-year capacity facilities.
Financial close
The company says it will achieve financial close on the entirely-privately financed Shotton facility in the near future, while funding for the Bexley plant was described as being close to fruition by Mr Whatmore. He explained that the nature of the funding for the Shotton project had impacted on the companys decision to close Huyton.
When you privately fund something, you want the money spent on exactly where youre looking to fund. Our focus is now on getting the build with Shotton, he said. The Shotton project was mooted as costing 20 million to develop when planning permission was secured in December 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story)
Funding support
The Huyton facility officially opened in June 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), with Defras funding support for the project formally running out when the New Technologies Demonstrator Programme ended in March 2009. It uses a process that involves steam being used to separate out recyclables from the waste, leaving a fuel. As such, it is similar to autoclave, but does not involve pressure.
Mr Whatmore explained that, since the end of the Defra-programme, the plant had been privately funded as merchant facility treating a blend of residual household and commercial waste.But, he said that the company had achieved its aims with the facility, which treated between 50,000 and 80,000 tonnes-a-year of material depending on the type of waste feedstock being delivered.
As a research and development facility it achieved everything we set out to do in there, he said, noting that, in particular, the facility had helped to create robust supply chains both for feedstock for the plant and for the fuel and recyclables produced by the MHT process.
Related links
While Orchid does not envisage the Shotton facility opening until the second quarter of 2012, Mr Whatmore was confident about the markets the company had in place. We have developed partnerships and relationships with offtake markets who are looking across five, six, seven or eight years, he said. The fuel goes to a variety of clients in the renewable electricity and heat sectors, theyre in much demand.
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