EXCLUSIVE: Waste management contractor Amey and the Isle of Wight council have confirmed that work has started on its new waste treatment facility at Newport with moving bed incineration chosen as the technical solution for the energy plant.
The switch to a moving bed technology marks the end of years of difficulties on the island with its early gasification system that saw various modifications implemented, and which were not always successful.
The council said that the new energy from waste system, from the German waste technology provide, Michaelis Environmental Technology, has been secured and that work is now expected to be complete in May 2019. The order for Michaelis marks a first of its type for the company in the UK – it has about 500 existing projects for different sectors in Europe and around the world.
Other works at the Forest Park site in Newport, in the centre of the island, include construction of a mechanical treatment plant. This and associated civils works are “progressing well”, with the plant to operational in Nov 2018, the council added.
The choice of a moving bed system comes after a planning application last year by Amey to renovate and rebuild the existing ‘gasification’ plant at Forest Park, which was originally scheduled to be completed by summer 2018. Gasification technology firm Energos had been sub-contracted by Amey to install the new energy from waste facility using thermal gasification but the company went into administration in July 2016. Energos is thought to have first become involved on the Isle of Wight when it received Defra demonstrator funding for work on a gasification plant on the island.
Mr Gundert confirmed that the project was not gasification and instead involved a “patented moving bed incinerator, flue gas cleaning system and a recuperative superheated steam boiler with a turbine power generating set”.
Describing the proposed waste facilities overall at Forest Park, Amey said they will include mechanical treatment technology to extract recyclable materials, as well as an advanced thermal treatment centre (ATT), which will create energy from waste which cannot be recycled. The ATT will be able to take up to 40,000 tonnes of waste per year, generating 23,000 megawatt hours of energy per year. According to Amey, the new facility will help increase recycling rates on the Isle of Wight and will be capable of processing 80,000 tonnes of waste per year.
Councillor Michael Murwill, Isle of Wight council cabinet member for procurement, waste management, projects and forward planning, said: “The Isle of Wight Council and Amey remain committed to achieving the high reaching waste targets set out in the Contract to divert 90% of waste from landfill and Recycle/Compost 55% of municipal solid waste by April 1 2020.