What is an Energy from Waste (EfW) facility?
An EfW facility burns rubbish left over after recycling and composting to generate steam and electricity. Burning rubbish in an EfW facility is a modern way of reducing the volume of waste with the additional benefit of making electricity.
Crucially it means that the resulting ash is not biodegradable and so it helps us comply with the EU Landfill Directive. Its a proven technology, with hundreds of similar plants worldwide. Its an important part of an integrated waste strategy and represents a step up from landfill.
What is being proposed?
Subject to planning approval, it is proposed that an EfW facility would be built on Battlefield Enterprise Park in Shrewsbury on land adjoining the existing household recycling centre. Each year it would burn 90,000 tonnes of rubbish and could produce enough electricity to power 10,000 homes a year.
Why build the EfW facility at Battlefield Enterprise Park?
The Battlefield site emerged out of a wide-ranging and detailed assessment of sites for the Waste Local Plan. It was the only site identified in the exercise that was suitable for housing a significant waste treatment and recovery facility. The site itself is centrally placed, near to where the waste is produced and adjacent to the existing waste management facilities. It is easily accessible and well served by the existing road network.
What would it look like?
A major consideration is to ensure that the EfW facility is of a high architectural standard and fits in well with its surroundings. It would be designed by an experienced architect who has already designed a number of successful UK energy recovery facilities.
When would the EfW facility be operational?
This would depend on the time it takes to secure planning permission and Environment Agency authorisation. However, using the most realistic estimates, the facility would be fully operational by the spring of 2013.
What are the main benefits of an EfW facility?
An EfW facility in Shropshire would:
- Provide a safe and proven means of dealing with household waste that cannot be reused, recycled or composted.
- Reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill, to meet Government targets and avoid landfill fines.
- Produce more electricity for the National Grid, providing energy whilst reducing fossil fuel use.
Energy from Waste facilities also offer the following environmental benefits:
- Waste is managed in a sustainable manner.
- Energy is recovered from the waste.
- Dependence on landfill is reduced.
- Release of methane (a greenhouse gas) from landfill is avoided.
- Use of fossil fuels to produce electricity is reduced (one tonne of waste equals one third of a tonne of coal).
- Up to 4 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs could be met by EfW.
In addition jobs would be created for the construction and operation of the facility.
Would there be enough rubbish for the energy from waste facility to operate at capacity if recycling targets are met?
Yes. Although household waste in Shropshire is declining, there are plans to build thousands of new homes in the County so we expect total waste will grow as a result of this. It is of course difficult to accurately predict the amount of rubbish available in the future but if there is a shortfall then VES will source similar commercial wastes which should be available locally.
Would the EfW facility be safe?
Yes. EfW is a tried and tested technology, subject to stringent legislation - including the same pollution limits as other EU countries must meet. The Health Protection Agency, Environment Agency and Defra have concluded that EfW operated in compliance with relevant legislation is safe for human health and the environment.
In its position statement on Municipal Waste Incineration in November, 2005, the UK Heath Protection Agency says: “Incinerators emit pollutants into the environment but provided they comply with modern regulatory requirements, such as the Waste Incineration Directive, they should contribute little to the concentrations of monitored pollutants in ambient air. Epidemiological studies, and risk estimates based on estimated exposures, indicate that the emissions from such incinerators have little effect on health...”
In relation to dioxins, the Environment Agency (EA) is even more specific. In a 1996 report it states:
“…Dioxin emissions from an energy-from-waste plant operating to the new pollution control standards will not pose a health risk to people living near the plant, irrespective of the location and size of the plant, the profile of the people concerned (such as nursing children) or the activities of the surrounding area (such as other industrial processes).”
Would the EfW facilityproduce an odour?
No. In an EfW facility all combustion air is drawn from the bunker area and therefore controls any risk of odour by maintaining a slight negative pressure in that area. The emissions from the chimney are odourless.
How are emissions from the EfW facility controlled, and what are they?
VES must make sure that the site is managed in a way which is satfisfactory to the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency will conduct a risk assessment before they grant the site a permit to operate under the 2008 Environmental Permitting Regulations.
The main emissions from the chimneys would be carbon dioxide and water vapour, with minimal amounts of oxides of nitrogen, trace elements, heavy metals, dioxins and particulate matter. To ensure that emissions comply with these regulations the EfW facility would employ a sophisticated gas clean-up system.
How are the emissions from the plant monitored?
VES would monitor the majority of emissions from the facility on a continuous basis. Other trace emissions are required to be monitored by sampling; this would be carried out at regular intervals. The emissions data would be logged and stored and reported to the Environment Agency. It would also be available on the company website.
The Environment Agency would act as an independent monitor of the facility’s outputs and, if limits were breached, it would have powers to shut down the facility and impose fines accordingly.
The emissions data for a similar Veolia EfW plant in Chineham, Hampshire can be viewed via the link on this page.
How high will the chimney be?
The most suitable height for the chimney would be determined by specialist consultants following discussions with the architects, Environment Agency, planners, and other bodies involved in the planning process and in line with the regulations. This would be undertaken using latest dispersion modelling technology, taking into account factors such as the topography of the surrounding land, plant emissions, existing local air quality and weather conditions. For reference the average chimney height of EfW facilities operated by Veolia Environmental Services in the UK is 76m.
Are there other sites like this in the UK?
There are currently 20 EfW facilities in the UK with more in planning. Six of these have been built/operated by Veolia. The company also operates 47 similar household EfW facilities in continental Europe. The most similar type of facility in terms of technology is the Chineham plant in Basingstoke, Hampshire.
Does this proposal tie in with the national waste strategy?
Yes. The strategy supports increasing the amount of energy produced by a variety of energy from waste schemes, using waste that can't be reused or recycled. It is expected that from 2020 a quarter of municipal waste - waste collected by local authorities, mainly from households - will produce energy, compared to just 10 per cent today.
How does an EfW facility work?
Recyclable and compostable material is first separated by each household, collected via kerbside recycling schemes or the network of household waste recycling sites and then processed for recycling. The remaining waste is sent to an energy recovery facility where:
- It is tipped into a bunker.
- A crane grabs the waste and places it into the feed hopper. It then drops down a feed chute onto the grate.
- The action of the moving grate turns the waste to allow it to burn fully.
- The burnt out ash passes through the ash discharger onto an ash handling system, which extracts metal for recycling.
- The remaining ash is suitable for recycling or disposal.
- Hot gases produced in the combustion process pass through a water tubed boiler where they are cooled, the heated water becomes steam.
- A turbo-generator uses the steam to produce electricity for export to the National Grid.
- The gases from the boiler go through an extensive flue gas cleaning process. This consists of a gas scrubber and a bag filter where particulates are filtered out. The resulting material known as Air Pollution Control Residue is sent for disposal at a licensed site.
- The cleaned gases are finally released to the atmosphere through the chimney.
Further information
We hope that the information on this page will help to answer any questions you may have. If you have any further questions, please contact us via the details on this page.