Green light for Deeside energy plant

Waste-to-energy business EQTEC has secured a resolution to grant consent for an advanced gasification facility in Deeside, where it is working with Logik Developments.

Flintshire County Council has resolved to grant consent for the proposed 9.9MWe plant to enable a complete and local waste-to-energy solution, combining a 182,000 tonne waste reception plant along with anaerobic digestion and EQTEC Advanced Gasification Technology.

The planning authority’s decision follows its prior approval of the site for the original plan of a recycling and AD facility.

Caulmert and architect Fletcher Rae are involved on the professional team.

The project SPV acquired the 15-acre site off Weighingbridge Road, a former Gaz de France power station, in December 2020. EQTEC, which also counts Southport among locations in which it is developing such schemes, is lead developer and technology provider for the Deeside refuse-derived fuel project.

The Flintshire venture has also entered into a co-operation agreement, through Logik WTE, with Anaergia Inc. to develop a proposal for the delivery of the multi-technology waste-to-energy project at Deeside.

Under the agreement, Anaergia will develop the engineering design for both the waste processing facility and the AD plant. The processing facility will take the waste and produce the required standard of RDF fuel for EQTEC’s Advanced Gasification Technology employed at the plant.

Anaergia has deferred the majority of its fees for the front-end engineering and design until financial close, to further demonstrate commitment in the project and partnership, EQTEC said. The parties have agreed to work exclusively together to reach commercial agreements for the design and build of the waste processing and the AD technologies and for the operation and maintenance of the plant for a minimum of five years.

In March this year. EQTEC entered into a three-year collaboration with Toyota to explore a circular waste-to-energy solution for the vehicle maker’s engine manufacturing plant in Deeside.

David Palumbo, chief executive of EQTEC, said: “This decision paves the way for us to formalise our agreement with Anaergia, with appetite and synergies between the two parties to replicate this type of project configuration on other plants in the UK and potentially worldwide.

“It will also accelerate our partnership with Toyota, taking us a step closer to delivering a localised and environmentally-friendly waste-to-energy plant for the area around Deeside. Our Advanced Gasification is not a concept technology for the future but a proven solution for today’s challenges of waste management and clean energy generation.”

Neil Spencer, director of Logik Developments, added: “To be involved in the first combined anaerobic digestion and gasification plant in the UK and work with the likes of EQTEC and Toyota is a great honour and we look forward to the construction of this site as well as developing other sites with them throughout the UK.”

Logik is also part of a tripartite venture progressing a £200m masterplan around Manchester’s Upper Brook Street.