Eco-plant gets go-ahead
Planning permission has been granted for a £80M energy plant, which will use food and packaging waste from manufacturers such as Greencore, Northern Foods and Greggs as a source of fuel.
North East Lincolnshire’s planning authority has given consent for the UK’s first food waste to renewable electricity power station. The plant, to be developed by Inetec’s wholly owned subsidiary Encycle will divert up to 180,000t of waste a year away from landfill and generate 24MW of electricity.
The plant will be developed at an existing 11-acre site in an old railway decommissioning building at Stallingborough, near Immingham Docks and is expected to be the first of 10 similar facilities constructed around the UK. When commissioned, these will divert more than 1Mt of food and non-recyclable packaging waste away from landfill.
Encycle spokesman Ed Mant said: “Even though planning permission has been formerly granted, there is still that formal period before we can start, which I believe is about three months.”
At the Stallingborough plant, up to 500t of waste a day will be minced through a shredder without any need for sorting. Once all moisture has been removed, the granulated remains will be fed through a thermal cracker. This generates gas, which is converted into electricity.
