North Ayrshire council has granted waste management company Doveryard Ltd permission to build a 180,000 tonnes per annum capacity energy from waste (EfW) plant in Irvine.
The plant, sited at the Oldhall West Industrial Estate, will use refuse derived fuel (RDF) supplied by Lowmac Alloys, the operator of the adjacent waste management facility.
This fuel is to be derived from residual commercial and industrial waste as well as municipal solid waste, according to the planning documents.
An artist’s impression of the proposed Doveryard EfW facility
In a statement given to letsrecycle.com, a Doveryard spokesperson said: “Doveryard is delighted to have received planning permission for the proposed Oldhall Energy Recovery Facility.
“When operational, the facility will generate at least 15MW of energy – enough to power over 30,000 homes while diverting up to 180,000 tonnes of local waste per year from landfill. It will also provide heat that can be used by nearby businesses.
“The group is proud to own and have developed the project which harnesses non-recyclable waste as a sustainable energy resource, creating local jobs, local energy supply and heating for the Irvine area.”
As well as producing to steam to power turbines and create energy, heat generated by the incineration process will be available for distribution to local businesses or residential areas via a district heating system or equivalent.
Plant
The plans also include a residual MRF, which will be built next to the EfW plant and will remove any remaining recyclable material and then shred the waste prior to transfer to the next stage.
Under the plans, the MRF will be linked by a conveyor to the EfW building.
Doveryard estimate that, during the three-year construction phase, around 200 people will be employed. Once complete, the plant would provide between 25 and 30 jobs.
Joint venture
“The group is proud to own and have developed the project which harnesses non-recyclable waste as a sustainable energy resource”
Doveryard Limited is a joint venture company between Waste Energy Partners and Low Carbon, who have come together to develop and operate EfW facilities.
Developers Waste Energy Partners acquire sites and deliver assets including the necessary planning permission, while investment and asset management company Low Carbon manages assets for listed and unlisted third parties.
Feedstock
Most of the feedstock to be used by the plant will be RDF supplied by recycling centre Lowmac Alloys.
This RDF will be derived from non-recyclable plastics, card, paper and other combustible materials which remain after normal recycling processes extract materials that can be reused or recycled.
The RDF used by the plant will be derived from non-recyclable plastics, card, paper and other combustible materials
The rest of the feedstock is to be obtained from contracts with other waste companies, who will supply the site with materials that would otherwise go to landfill.
Using a process known as circulating fluidised bed combustor technology the incineration of the RDF will produce high temperature steam.
This will be used to generate an estimated 15MW of electricity per annum, of which 3MW would be used by the facility itself.
Electricity will be supplied to the national grid and directly to nearby businesses or residential areas.
Heat
The plant has been designed to allow for a heat offtake should a suitable end user be found, which would most likely be businesses in the surrounding industrial estate and nearby business parks.
Heat, either in the form of steam or hot water, will be exported from the plant using insulated pipes buried underground.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
