" The proposed new plant will be genuinely innovative and will attract international visitors. The technology involved will maximise the energy produced from the non-recyclable waste much more efficiently than can be done by other means"
John Miller, Yorwaste’s Recycling and External Affairs Manager
A new, revolutionary £4m plant is to convert household waste into gas to produce energy in the form of electricity and heat.
The advanced technology plant is to be installed in a new multi-million pound showcase facility at Seamer Carr, near Scarborough.
North Yorkshire County Council gave planning approval last week for the new gasification facility the first of its kind in the world, according to Yorwaste.
The new facility will be developed by Scarborough Power, a partnership between Yorwaste Ltd, NEL Power Ltd (the design, installation and commissioning engineers) and GEM (the technology provider).
The Pyrolysis plant
Pyrolysis involves heating the waste in the absence of air to produce a gaseous fuel, called “syngas”. This gas is then used as a fuel by a gas engine to generate electricity. The use of this technology for wastes management would be one of the first applications in the UK of its kind. However the process has been employed for many years in the petrochemical industry where it is called “destructive distillation” or “cracking”.
This latest proven technology will be used to convert 18,000 tonnes a year of domestic refuse into gas, which can then be used as fuel to generate more than 2 MW of electricity (enough for more than 2,000 homes). The renewable electricity produced will be exported from the site into the local electrical distribution system.
In addition there will be 2.5 MW of available heat, some of which will be used to dry the waste before it is converted into gas. The remainder will be available for heating local businesses through a district heating system.
All exhaust gases from the power generation unit will be routed to a thermal oxidiser to ensure full combustion before they are discharged into the atmosphere. The power-generation process will produce a small quantity of inert ash residue suitable for disposal in landfill as non-hazardous waste.
"It is particularly attractive because it is environmentally sound, small scale and modular. This means it can be expanded to suit local requirements."
John Miller
The land immediately to the southwest of the proposed plant site rises and some excavation would be required to provide a level plot. However these works would help to visually shield the site.
The largest part of the proposed plant would be the fuel store; at 20m x 20m with a height of 6m. The other components of the plant will consisting of the gas engine, gasifier, thermal oxidiser and the control room would be sited adjacent to the fuel store with the entire plant measuring 55m in length and 22m in width at the widest point.
The gas engine, gasifier and thermal oxidiser would be 8.5 metres high with the exhaust stack being 13 metres in height.
The power-generation facility should be in operation by 2008. The project will be partly-funded by Defra, through it’s Waste Implementation Programme and Yorkshire Forward.
It will showcase the technology as a potential solution to the national waste problem and could be of international significance in terms of waste management.
Not only will it divert waste from landfill, it will also support the Government’s target of generating 20 per cent of the UK’s power from renewable sources by 2020.
Defra New Technologies Demonstrator Programme
The proposed new plant forms part of the Defra New Technologies Demonstrator Programme and will allow other Local Authorities to view the project, by means of a dedicated visitors centre at the site.
Supported funding from Defra as a New Technology Demonstrator Project will be for a period of three years.
Defra requires that demonstrator projects demonstrate an 8,000 hour continuous operational period and the three year demonstration period is to enable an operator to cover the following activities:
- Site establishment.
- The ground works.
- Plant and the engineering construction.
- Completion.
- Commissioning.
- Initial ramping up operations to the maximum design throughput.
However planning officers said in a report to Committee that there was no justification to restrict the period of the development to only three years under a planning consent as provision can be incorporated into any grant of permission to enable a review of the operational controls at the end of the DEFRA trial period.
Planners reported that the landfill site at Seamer Carr is currently permitted until 31 December 2020 and it was considered that this development would provide a useful addition to the recycling facilities already located at the site and enable a further diversion of waste away from landfill.
Yorwaste
Yorwaste is a local authority waste disposal company or LAWDC, owned by North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council. The company manages more than 1m tonnes of waste each year, provides a comprehensive range of services from engineered landfill and recycling to liquid waste treatment and waste-fuelled power generation.
The Seamer Carr landfill has been in operation since 1977 although since that time changes in waste management processes mean less waste is landfilled and the site is now effectively an “integrated waste management facility”.
The landfill was originally served by a waste pulveriser with a hammer mill at its centre and the main site building is that of the former plant. Scarborough Borough Council originally planned and requisitioned the plant, but NYCC inherited the situation when the 1974 Control of Pollution Act was finally implemented in 1976. This act created waste disposal and waste collection authorities with NYCC designated as the larger, strategic WDA and Scarborough Borough Council as a WCA.
The site was vested in Yorwaste together with other waste management assets when the company came into existence in 1993.
Currently about 33,000 tonnes of household waste is delivered to the site annually with approximately 5.2% being recycled, the remainder being disposed of to the landfill.
Other waste management operations at Seamer Carr include an enclosed composting system approved in 2004, electricity generation from methane gas taken from the landfill site and aggregates recycling.
A new Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) was opened in 2004 which diverted 1,600 tonnes of material from landfill during its first six months of operation.
Comments
John Miller, Yorwaste’s Recycling and External Affairs Manager, commented:
“The proposed new plant will be genuinely innovative and will attract international visitors. The technology involved will maximise the energy produced from the non-recyclable waste much more efficiently than can be done by other means.”
“It is particularly attractive because it is environmentally sound, small scale and modular. This means it can be expanded to suit local requirements.”
Mr Miller added that the technology fitted with Yorwaste’s recycling ethos because it would be applied only when all recycling options had been exhausted.