The plant has been in operation since 2015 and has a capacity to process over 500,000 tonnes a year of RDF and solid recovered fuel (SRF).
In 2014, it was announced that the facility was to be developed along with the purchase of Tilbury-based industrial waste and recycling specialist Nordic Recycling from Forth Ports Ltd under a share purchase agreement (see letsrecycle.com story).
It is understood that the plant faced some challenges to process significant volumes of waste into SRF at the correct calorific value. SRF is a fuel produced to a much higher quality than RDF, with a specific calorific value, chlorine and mercury content.
Suez has also confirmed that employees at the facility could face redundancy.
A Suez spokesman said: “We can confirm that we are considering options for the long-term future of our alternative fuels production facility at Tilbury Dock.
“Meetings were held last week with members of staff employed at the facility to inform them that they are at possible risk of redundancy, and we are now going through a formal consultation process with individual employees.
“As such, no decisions about the future of the plant will be made until this consultation process has concluded.”
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