London, UK based Waste2Tricity (W2T), which specialises in advancing the use of plasma gasification technology to treat waste, as well as the integration of fuel cells to generate electricity is to start a Concept Design Study for the development of an advanced waste to energy plant.
According to the company, waste, mineral and environmental infrastructure developer, Peel Environmental, will provide the property for the facility.
W2T said that the facility will process around 100,000 tonnes per year of residual household or commercial and industrial waste sourced from several suppliers including Energy Gap Ltd.
The company added that in common with the Air Products plant on Teesside which recently started construction (see WMW story), the plant will use Westinghouse plasma assisted gasification from Alter NRG.
Alter NRG is providing a discounted technology license for the Project in exchange for an option to take a minority investment.
W2T, in conjunction with its engineer AMEC and consultant Foster Wheeler, said that it is also working with partners to draw up plans for the 13.6 MW plant, which will produce nearly 109,000 MWh of low carbon electricity a year – enough to power around 24,000 homes.
Fuel cells
The project will utilise internal combustion engines to generate electricity from the syngas produced by the gasification process. However W2T said that it expects to also demonstrate AFC Energy’s alkaline fuel cells, as they become commercially available.
The company claimed that the equivalent fuel cell plant will export an additional 43% of electricity from the same amount of feedstock.
“We expect this to be the first of many similar programmes for the project partners in the UK,” commented Peter Jones, chairman of W2T.
“The 100,000 tonnes a year model will meet the localism agenda – using locally derived feedstock to supply electricity to local homes and businesses,” he added.
According to the chairman there is a potential market in the UK for up to 100 plants of this size.
“Once we are able to deploy fuel cells, the output from our plants will increase substantially and be carbon capture ready – holding out the prospect of carbon negative electricity,” added Jones.
Source: Waste Management World
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