In brief: Energy-from-waste contract news

Plenty of activity to report on this week, north and south of the country as plans for new energy recovery plants to deal with food and residual waste get underway.


Agrivert has won planning permission from Hertfordshire County Council to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility at Coursers Farm near St. Albans.

The plant, which will have a capacity of 48,500 tonnes per annum, will initially accept mainly commercial food waste from local restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals and food manufacturing companies.

Going forward, Agrivert also hopes to treat some of Hertfordshire’s municipal food waste at the site. The facility will also generate up to 3MW of renewable energy, enough for over 4,500 homes.

Meanwhile Shanks Group has been appointed by Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council to help both authorities increase their recovery rates using its mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) plant at Frog Island in London.

The MBT process will produce solid recovered fuel (SRF), which is used in energy generation and is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel.

Under the six-year contract with Bedford, Shanks will manage all of the local authority’s black bin waste – amounting to 50,000 tonnes per annum. Shanks has also secured a two and half year contract with Central Bedfordshire.

Further north, Peel Environmental is looking to invest over £400m to bring forward four significant waste infrastructure projects.

In Glasgow, the company has submitted planning applications for an energy centre in South Clyde and a recycling facility in North Clyde.

The energy centre, which includes a 220,000 tonnes per annum incinerator and a ‘front end’ materials recovery facility, could generate up to 21MW of electricity for export to the grid and supply heat to local commercial or residential users within a proposed district heating zone.

The recycling facility will separate out recyclates and create a refuse-derived fuel from the mixed waste feedstock. It will also process separately collected food waste in an on-site AD facility.

Also in Yorkshire, Peel is looking to build a 60,000 tonnes per annum AD facility and a glasshouse to host a specialist plant propagation facility on the site of the former North Selby mine.

This will be accompanied by another low carbon energy centre in Kellingley, adjacent to a colliery. Once operational it could power the colliery and nearby businesses, using up to 280,000 tonnes of waste per year to generate 26MW of electricity and heat.

Maxine Perella

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