Waste treatment technology company Sterecycle has revealed "very exciting" plans to recover energy from the fibre produced by its autoclave process by building a biomass power plant at its Yorkshire facility.
And, the company said it was also exploring the potential of developing anaerobic digestion technology at the Rotherham site, which became operational in August 2008 with the potential to treat up to 100,000 tonnes of residual waste a year.
The facility uses autoclave technology to recover recyclables, including cans, plastics, aggregates, glass and wood, from residual waste and also produces an organic fibre, known as Sterefibre.
To date, the fibre has largely been used in landfill site restoration, but, speaking to letsrecycle.com this week, Sterecycle's chief executive, Tom Shields, revealed that the firm was now in the process of utilising the fibre in energy generation.
It secured planning permission from Rotherham metropolitan borough council earlier this month (August 12) to develop a biomass plant with combined heat and power (CHP) technology at the Rotherham site, which Mr Shields described as a "very exciting development for us".
Joint venture
He explained that Sterecycle was a "short distance away" from full legal agreement with an as-yet-unnamed "household name energy company" to develop the power plant as a joint venture.
"It's very exciting that they want to do this with us," he added, claiming that the plans were particularly attractive because whereas "most biomass plants have a problem over secure fuel supply", building the power plant at the Rotherham site offered a guaranteed fuel in the shape of the Sterefibre.
Sterecycle says it has carried out "extensive" and "very successful" trials of the fibre as fuel which had confirmed that it has a "high" calorific value, and Mr Shields said that, by building the biomass plant, the Rotherham autoclave would become self-sufficient.
"It will supply us with electricity and heat to run the autoclave, instead of burning fossil fuels to power it," he said.
The company expects to only need a "minor" proportion of the electricity produced by the plant, and Mr Shields said that he expected much of the rest of it to qualify for green energy subsidies such as the Renewable Obligation and proposed Renewable Heat Incentive.
"As far as heat is concerned we take steam but could also sell heat to neighbouring operations," he said, revealing that the company had held discussions with the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham about the possibility of selling them some heat.
Anaerobic digestion
In terms of developing anaerobic digestion technology at the Rotherham site, the company has submitted a separate planning application to develop the technology alongside its existing autoclave facility.
Mr Shields claimed that the Sterefibre digests "very well", creating biogas "much faster" than was the case when green waste was processed using AD due to the lack of contaminants in the material.
Describing the plans for AD as "fairly far down the line" with an unnamed AD specialist, Mr Shields explained that there was the potential for AD technology to be built alongside a smaller combustion facility, and also for digestate for the AD process to be burnt in the combuster alongside the fibre, but these decisions had yet to be made.
"It will be purely an economic decision as to which is the best economic proposition," he said. "AD generates double ROCs but the capital investment is a bit higher.
"We're going to have to come off the fence and make a decision by the end of the year," he added, noting that the company was "confident" that it would get planning permission for the AD plans due to them involving a smaller combuster.
Mr Shields, who was appointed as chief executive of Sterecycle in January 2010, explained that the plans to use Sterefibre in energy represented part of a strategy to "diversify" its use.
"When I came in we decided diversification should come up the agenda," he said, and noted that the firm also had aspirations to use the fibre as an agricultural enhancement for soil with its "good nutrient quality" but, due to permitting requirements in this area, this was "some way off", although trials had been held.
Extension
The plans for the company's output come as it continues construction of an extension to the autoclave capacity at its Rotherham site from a current 100,000 tonnes-a-year to 240,000 tonnes-a-year, which it expects to complete by the third quarter of 2011.
The extension plans were announced in February 2010, when the company revealed it had secured £10 million of investment to support its development (see
letsrecycle.com story), and Mr Shields revealed the company was now working on another round of fund-raising,
"I expect to close it in the next couple of months," he said, adding, "I am confident we are going to close with the next round."
And, he said the next step could be to sell shares in the firm, explaining that: "We would look at some stage to bring in equity through a public offering - we have done some preparation for it and are keeping an eye on the market."
"We definitely will do it, and I hope we do something sooner rather than later."
In particular, he highlighted the need for the company to secure investment to allow it to move forward with plans for other autoclave plants, such as in Cardiff, where it secured planning permission to build a facility which would also offer CHP potential in July 2009 (see
letsrecycle.com story).
"We have planning permission so development there depends purely on us generating significant investment cash to be able to press ahead with that," Mr Shields said. "Also that's very much after we have pushed ahead with Rotherham - investment determines the time-scale."
Waste inputs
Mr Shields claimed that, in terms of waste inputs for the Rotherham facility, the company was currently "turning business away" from its Rotherham plant, with 75,000 tonnes-a-year of the existing capacity accounted for by an interim residual waste treatment contract from the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham waste partnership and the rest taken by other councils and from trade waste.
He revealed that the three Yorkshire councils had together "incentivised" the amount of capacity they were willing to take up to 130,000 tonnes-a-year, but noted that Sterecycle had also bid for interim contracts being let by Leeds and Bradford councils, and also was also planning to build up its trade waste input "vigorously".
And, in terms of being able to fill the plant's capacity in the future, Mr Shields claimed there was 1.7 million tonnes of household and trade waste being produced every year within the facility's catchment area, and said: "We're only talking about 240,000 tonnes so it's not a huge part."
He also said he expected the company to "prosper" despite the number of councils developing treatment facilities under PFI, and claimed: "PFI is quite a troubled way of trying to meet a need.
"They seem to work for buildings and hospitals but for waste we're talking about a process and for that reason there haven't been that many PFIs closing and even if that's not the case there's plenty of waste to be diverted from landfill," he added.
©2010 letsrecycle.com
