20-22 SB1009 Cover story 18/9/09 11:41 am Page 22
COVER STORY
Energy from waste
al on the county achieving 50% recycling rate,
but there are no plans for separate collection
of food waste, which will end up in the incin-
erator by default. “Once you go for incinera-
tion, you close the door on the production of
biomethane,” says Michael Chesshire, tech-
nology director of BiogenGreenfinch, which
runs an AD plant for Shropshire County
Council, one of only three based on food
waste in the country. “It’s a big risk.”
Yet incinerators are still being considered in
major PFI waste deals across the country. In
total there are 28 PFI deals in the pipeline, of
which 16 include incinerators as their ‘refer-
ence case’ – the template against which private
sector bids are assessed. If all these incinera-
tors were built, they would require 3.4M
tonnes of waste a year. On average about one Biogas could supply half the UK’s household gas consumption, according to National Grid
fifth would be food waste, which John
Baldwin of CNG Services estimates could lecting household waste, and county councils year, enough to supply 12,000 homes, or pro-
produce enough biogas to supply 43,000 for disposing of it. That means the counties duce transport fuel equivalent to 13M litres of
homes with renewable heat, or transport fuel worry about disposal costs, and that makes diesel – worth £14M at the pump.
equivalent to over 50M litres of diesel, worth AD look expensive relative to composting. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that
about £55M at the pump. Once the cost of collecting the food and gar- policy on biogas is a farce, but it wouldn’t be
AD cannot process plastics and other non- den waste – borne by the district councils – hard to put right. Dominic Hogg favours a
organic residual waste, but there is a range of has been taken into account, there is “scarcely simple rule restricting the capacity of inciner-
technologies that can, without the major any difference” between the overall costs of ators to just 25% of an authority’s residual
drawbacks of incineration, and which can be AD and composting, according to a study by waste. That would force councils to develop
used in combination with AD – as demon- Eunomia. The report concludes: “This is an more recycling, anaerobic digestion and flexi-
strated by a deal struck in April by Greater important observation as traditionally local ble MBT to deal with the rest. “Flanders
Manchester with Viridor Laing to manage authorities have tended to view AD as an already recycles 70% of its waste”, says Hogg,
1.2M tonnes of waste annually. Most of the expensive alternative to composting options.” “so we must be able to recycle 75% by 2020.”
waste will go through a mechanical biological And still do, apparently. As part of Greater In the waste industry, contractors would be
treatment (MBT) plant, which shreds, sorts Manchester’s deal with Viridor Laing, almost grateful even for an early indication of the
and recycles much of the waste before turning 180,000 tonnes of food and garden waste a level of support the Renewable Heat Incentive
the residue into fuel pellets for a chemicals year will be collected separately. But the sepa- (RHI) will deliver for biogas from April 2011,
plant and processing the organic fraction in but the Government will only launch a con-
four AD plants. The biogas will be used to sultation this summer. Tony Lewis, of Aecom
generate electricity, and some of the heat will
dry the digestate to make more fuel pellets.
Yet most local authorities continue to
favour incinerators over solutions such as
‘
When all the waste PFIs have
Design Build, which provides incinerators and
tied up for 25 years, we’ve missed
AD plants, says the uncertainty is damaging.
the opportunity to push digestion The company is bidding five projects at the
because at the time of bidding it
moment, and Lewis says if he knew what the
MBT and AD that are better for the climate value of the RHI was going to be, they would
and the energy supply. According to Dominic
Hogg, director of waste consultancy
Eunomia, it is the result of policy blunders
and two structural problems in particular.
’
didn’t make commercial sense be offering very different solutions. “In three
years’ time when all the waste PFIs have been
rated waste will be processed through in-ves- let, and tied up for 25 years, we’ve missed the
sel composting rather than AD, despite the opportunity to push digestion because at the
First, although councils overwhelmingly construction of four MBT-AD plants for the time everybody was bidding it didn’t make
claim to be ‘technology neutral’, and their job residual black bag waste. commercial sense to do it,” he says.
is simply to pick the most competitive bid, the David Taylor, director of contract services for That would be a disaster not only for the
entire PFI procurement process favours incin- Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, climate and the energy supply, but also for
eration. The technological conservatism and explains: “All of the garden/food waste destined council tax payers, according to Peter Jones,
financial interests of all the players – waste for IVC is suitable for AD treatment. If this was former director with waste company Biffa,
companies, legal and technical advisors, banks, mixed back with residual waste to go through and now waste advisor to Boris Johnson. As
Defra – pushes councils towards big energy- MBT-AD it would not count towards recycling glacial as the development of UK waste policy
from-waste plants, says Hogg. As a result, under Defra definitions. This separately-col- may be, the direction of travel is clear, says
councils are anything but neutral: “They lected stream would need a dedicated facility Jones, and organic waste is going to become a
might as well start out by saying ‘build us an to produce a compost-like product.” valuable commodity that local authorities will
incinerator, boys, what’s the best price?’.” If the waste that Manchester plans to put be able to sell, not pay to be taken away. Any
Second, the division of responsibilities into in-vessel composting – producing no council signing an incinerator contract today
between county and district councils discour- energy – were diverted into an AD plant, John that ties it into rising fees for 25 years would
ages joined-up thinking, and that discourages Baldwin of CNG Services estimates it would be “crazy”. The problem is, that may be exact-
AD. District councils are responsible for col- produce over 22M cubic meters of biogas a ly what many are about to do.
22 October 2009 ❘ Sustainable Business
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