The familiar cry of ‘not in my backyard!’ is a problem many waste management companies face when trying to build a plant. The very idea of mass burn incinerators conjures up all sorts of frightening images in the mind of the public and it has not helped that, until recently, many governments across the world have done little to educate the masses.
The problem with waste and waste treatment plants is the perception society has of them and the damage they do to the environment. The spectre of mass burn incinerators blighting the skyline, throwing out all sorts of nasty gases from huge chimneys, does little for the reputation of the industry. Add to this the notion of convoys of wagons carrying waste, clogging up the road infrastructure, and you have a formidable task on your hands to convince the public that waste-to-energy plants are a good thing for their local area.
Yet despite all this, European countries are facing a serious and daunting predicament. It is a fact that landfill sites are filling up fast and it is a fact that the amount of waste will continue to grow as populations increase and commercial and industrial activity continues. Of course, greater awareness of existing practices such as recycling is helping to alleviate the dilemma at a grass roots level, but governments across the world know it is going to take more than this to bring the problem under control.
This realization has lead to downward pressure being put on local authorities to tackle their waste disposal issues by means other than landfill. Finding a solution to the problem has meant that alternative methods are being considered and with energy prices going skyward, and the EU setting a target of 20% of energy consumption having to come from renewable sources by 2020, particular attention is being drawn to those technologies that can produce energy as a by-product of dealing with waste.
 Forus Energos plant at Stavanger, Norway |
Having facilities that can process waste as well as help achieve renewable energy targets is an exciting prospect. That said, given the general dislike of large scale plants of any kind, the construction of waste-to-energy facilities needs to be sympathetic to public opinion. It is perhaps here that WTE plants with smaller footprints come into their own by providing the compromise everyone is looking for.
Funding issues
Although the groundswell of finding an answer to the waste problem is gathering momentum, proven WTE technologies are limited. Funding is often the stumbling block for many companies. The lack of it prevents R&D projects getting off the ground and the situation is compounded if the finance is not there to help refine the technique. While financial institutions do get involved with untested yet promising systems and good business cases, local authorities are apprehensive. Accountable for their decisions, they are reluctant to spend the tax payer’s money on tech-nologies that are not proven beyond all doubt.
A UK company leading the way with one form of WTE processing is Lancashire based BioGen Power. Co-founder and chairman, James Short has been championing the cause of Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT) – a process that allows the extraction of clean, high calorific value gas from waste products by means of pyrolysis – for almost a decade and in August 2007 won planning permission to design, build and operate an 80,000 tonne Energos gasification WTE plant in Irvine, Scotland. In a proposed joint venture agreement with Ener-g Holdings plc, owner of the Energos EfW technology, the plant will be the first of its kind in the UK and is expected to be up and running by 2011. Over the next five years BioGen Power plans to invest around £600 million building a further 11 WTE plants across Scotland, the north west and north east of England, south Wales, East Anglia, London and Northern Ireland. BioGen Power plans to submit a further three planning applications before the end of 2008.
‘The main problem many local authorities in this country have with ACT plants is the fact that the technology isn’t always tried and tested,’ says Christian Reeve, CEO of BioGen Power. ‘The Energos technology has been fully operational across six plants in Norway and Germany for a number of years now, the oldest of which has been operational since 1997, so it really is a proven technology that works.’
The EU’s Landfill Directive is making strides to reduce waste, but it is not, and can not be relied upon, to be the only solution. Government intervention through landfill tax increases combined with technologies like BioGen Power’s plants provide a solution in part, but it is generally accepted that it will take a number of methods to tackle the issue. What cannot be underestimated, however, is the public’s passion for the size of these solutions.
Smaller scale plants
‘The challenge for WTE is public opinion. When people think of waste they think of landfill and huge ugly incinerators casting imposing shadows across the land, so size is a key issue’, says Reeve.
 BioGen power plant, Irvine, Scotland |
In comparison, BioGen Power’s ACT plants only take up around four acres – a huge contrast to the 20 or so acres needed by many mass burn incinerators. The advantage of this is that because the buildings have a low profile and minimal emissions, they can be integrated into society much easier and with far less fuss. ‘Aesthetically, a BioGen Power facility is far more pleasing on the eye than large scale plants, which makes them much more acceptable from a public perspective,’ Reeve continues.
‘In Scandinavia, where the technology has been in use for many years, most WTE plants are located within central urban areas. Because the buildings themselves are not out of proportion with their environment, over there, it’s an accepted practice. This has obvious advantages in terms of the supply of electricity and heat to ‘district heating’ schemes. In the UK, our plants will be built in existing industrial areas so they won’t upset the status quo, but they can help to supply the energy and heat requirements of local homes and businesses. The Irvine plant in Scotland will be built next to a paper mill and a large pharmaceutical manufacturer. In addition to providing electricity for the area, we hope to be supplying both with steam to use within their production processes.’
Energos plants operate on a two-tier bunker system in tandem with processes that recover recyclable materials at the front end. The extraction of these materials can significantly increase a waste supplier’s recycling levels. In use 5.5 days a week, both waste reception and treatment is carried out during normal working hours, yet the gasification process and power generation is continuous, allowing the plant to feed the electricity grid 24/7. A typical BioGen Power WTE plant will dispose of around 120,000 tonnes of waste per year, exporting approximately 9 MW of electricity, enough power to enable up to 15,000 homes to benefit from renewable electricity. Emissions to air are significantly lower than the EU Waste Incineration Directive limits as a result of employing a two-stage system that gasifies the waste to produce a synthetic gas then transfers the syn gas into a second stage chamber where it is oxidized. As a result, the height of the stack is much smaller than conventional waste plants while, as with other incineration practices, the bottom ash is used in aggregate applications.
 An inside view of BioGen power plant, Irvine, Scotland |
Given its success in Europe, BioGen Power’s ‘small is beautiful’ formula is proving a winner. Its straightforward approach means that, other than the usual planning application and licensing processes, there are usually no legal restrictions or loopholes.
Prior to any planning application, BioGen Power carries out an EIA at each site, scoped in consultation with the planning authority concerned. As with all applications, each WTE facility has to prove there is a demand for it and that its proposed location is suitable. Any issues regarding the impact on surrounding highways have to be dealt with along with evidence that the volume of waste from the area will be enough to match the plant’s capacity. Equally, because each plant exports renewable electricity to the network, connectivity to the grid is a must.
In order to meet the requirements of planners, all WTE plant applications must comply with legislation surrounding air emissions and health effects. Questions concerning local wildlife, proximity to heritage sites, water drainage, local hydrology, building design, waste storage, amongst others, all have to be satisfactorily dealt with.
Clearly, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Whereas a BioGen Power plant typically takes around 36 months from site identification to full operation, different technologies have to satisfy different criteria. Large scale plants, such as mass burn incinerators, tend to attract far more objections from both the public and non-government organizations, such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and often include extended public consultations, resulting in considerably longer development timeframes and associated delays.
Is smaller better?
But what of the future? Reeve believes keeping it small scale and local is the way forward. ‘People understand that we are at a stage where the problem is reaching critical mass and something needs to be done. What they don’t want, however, is more big incinerators which inevitably lead to more traffic and, consequently, more greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. The introduction of alternative technologies has given us a choice. We can tackle the waste and energy issue at a local level or continue to shunt waste up and down the country’s motorways at huge expense to the tax payer.’ A compelling argument.
 Inside a waste-to-energy plant |
Where environmental issues are concerned, the Scandinavians tend to lead the way. In Norway, a smaller, greener, cleaner technology, to eventually replace the mass burn practices that have traditionally dominated the sector, were required and where they have been implemented, gasification WTE plants have been very successful. These small scale plants are cost effective, can be sited close to the waste source, minimizing transportation and, in most cases, they provide heat and hot water to industry. For example, in February 2008, BioGen Power’s technology provider Energos contracted with Hafslund Heat and Infrastructure AS to supply an 80,000 Tpa WTE gasification plant at Borregaard Industries Limited, a chemical manufacturer based in Sarpsborg, Norway. The new plant will compliment the existing Ostfold Energi owned Energos plant which has been supplying steam to Borregaard Industries since 2003.
One fact that still remains is until society gets to the ideal stage where it is producing a minimal amount of waste, there is no doubt recycling targets are going to increase and landfill tax will continue to rise. As fossil fuel stocks decline the need for alternative energy sources is ever greater, so waste-to-energy technologies grow more important. Finding ways to integrate WTE plants within communities is essential, and with the EU, government, NGOs and the public advocating the advantages of smaller-scale waste management, recycling and energy recovery technology, surely they can’t all be talking rubbish?
Jane Kinsley, Cloud Nine Communications, PR for Biogen Power.
e-mail: jane@cloudninecomms.co.uk
www.biogenpower.com
