The Durham-based waste company has applied to Defra's New Technology Demonstrator programme for 3.5 million towards costs of building the “economic-scale” plant at Tursdale.
Premier Waste Management already operates an aerobic digester, which processes 5,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste from Easington district council in County Durham. The plant was designed by Civic Environmental Systems of Sheffield and funded by County Durham Environmental Trust.
Dr Les Grant, chief executive of Premier Waste Management, told letsrecycle.com that the company is now hoping to build a larger plant to process up to 42,000 tonnes a year of municipal solid waste, with some trials processing separately collected biowaste.
“It is going to process municipal waste. Durham is an interesting county because it has a very varied set of districts councils from urban right through to very rural and that affects the type of waste you get. So we will be looking to process waste from all over the county,” he said.
Landfill diversion
The 30 million Demonstrator Programme is aiming to reduce the amount of municipal biodegradable waste going to landfill by building ten pilot plants in the next two years, so the UK can meet its targets as set out in the European Landfill Directive (see letsrecycle.com story).
Premier Waste's existing aerobic digester recovers over 65% of the mixed waste it processes, including glass, ferrous and non ferrous metals, plastics and a soil conditioner. Because the process has been approved under Animal By-Products Regulations, the soil conditioner can be used on pasture land.
Dr Grant said that by extracting the materials out after the biological process they are cleaner than extracting it out from mixed waste. The glass is used for aggregates and the company is looking into a number of applications for the plastics, including pellets for fuel and furniture.
If the project is unsuccessful in its application to the Demonstrator Programme, Premier Waste Management will have look for funding elsewhere. Dr Grant said: “Defra, in some of their roadshows, have said that they have had so many applications to the programme that they are encouraging people to explore other funding routes.”
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