Further details have been revealed regarding a planned renewable energy centre in Rotherham that would convert waste to energy using new forms of gasification technology.
Rothbiz revealed first in December that pre-application discussions have been taking place between a joint venture of leading industry players and Rotherham Council about the potential of the former Sterecycle site that is adjacent to the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Templeborough.
Rolton Kilbride is hoping to secure planning permission for a facility that will use an advanced conversion technology - a form of gasification process - to generate heat and power from Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) together with other non-recyclable waste.
Rolton Kilbride is a distributed energy company that builds embedded power and heat generation assets for high energy use businesses, communities and large-scale development projects. Kilbride Infrastructure is backed by Cracknore Investment, a company that has extensive experience in developing and funding projects within the transport and energy infrastructure. The Rolton Group is a firm of advisors and designers specialising in the areas of built environment, renewables and carbon.
Combining in 2013, the joint venture plans to build energy from waste plants across the UK. The generation of power from these plants will lower costs for high-energy users and councils looking to dispose of non-recyclable waste.
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A scoping report has now been submitted to the Council which gives more details on the proposed development.
Drawn up by consultants at the Pegasus Group, the report states that the current buildings will be demolished to make way for three main buildings.
The site, which is temporarily being used by Costain, the contractors working on the M1 smart motorway scheme, would include a mechanical treatment plant with a reception and tipping hall; a 35 to 40 metre-high gasification and boiler building with a flue located next to the gasification unit; and a steam turbine building. A smaller building containing office and workshop units is also planned.
Whilst details of the plant specification for the gasification process have not been fully finalised, the report states: "The Renewable Energy Centre (REC) is capable of accepting approximately 200,000 tonnes per annum of residual commercial and industrial waste (CIW) and potentially municipal solid waste (MSW) as well as refuse derived fuel (RDF). The facility will not accept hazardous or hazardous clinical waste."
In comparison, Sterecycle's waste processing plant on the site had a 180,000 tonnes-per-year capacity and up to 250,000 tonnes of leftover waste a year is being processed at the multimillion pound facility at Manvers.
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Vehicles will bring the waste to the site where it will be stored before being conveyed into the sorting treatment and process areas. The Advanced Thermal Treatment (ATT) process creates "syngas" which is then combusted in a second chamber and the generated heat used to create superheated steam that is fed into a condensing turbo-generator to produce electricity.
Gases that are released during the process will be cleaned and treated before they are discharged whilst byproducts such as ash and residues will be taken off site for recycling, processing or landfill.
The applicants anticipate that the gross power output of the Renewable Energy Centre will be rated up to 27MW. This is comparable to the £150m biomass plant currently under construction nearby which is set to generate 41MW of energy.
Designed to operate continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days per week, the centre could create 30 jobs.
As the planning process progresses, further studies will be carried out covering the environmental impact, air quality and emissions, transport and traffic, flood risk, noise and ecology.
Sterecycle used a patented steam processing method on the site called autoclaving to "pressure cook" household and commercial black-bag waste. The Templeborough site was operational from August 2008 and employed 70 local people. It was as a blueprint for a future roll out of waste processing sites around the country. However, the company, which called in administrators in 2012, was found guilty of corporate manslaughter following a fatality at the Rotherham waste treatment facility in 2011.
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