Myles Kitcher, managing director at Peel NRE, part of Peel L&P, looks at the energy from waste market, saying the changing net zero landscape is driving change.
In 2019/20, the amount of waste collected by local authorities for treatment in energy from waste facilities reached a peak of over 11 million tonnes, generating an estimated 7,769 gigawatt hours of energy. Despite the technology having its critics, it’s clear that for the foreseeable future energy from waste (EfW) will remain a vital means of managing non-recyclable waste and a source of low carbon energy.
However, the landscape is changing which is driving innovation in the sector. With legally binding net zero carbon emissions targets in 2050, it’s inevitable that there will be some form of carbon tax introduced, with EfW likely captured by the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Like the introduction of the landfill tax, this will drive change within the industry as we seek greater efficiencies and an even lower carbon intensity.
The potential is for EfW to become carbon negative if combined with Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), helping to achieve the UK’s net zero goals.
A carbon tax would drive innovation in the sector. Removing the non-biogenic fraction from the waste stream will become even more important and increase the focus on plastics. There will be added emphasis on the collection of all plastic, which will increase levels of recycling but also incentivise more effective means of recovering energy from the unrecyclable fraction.
This is already starting to happen. At Protos, Peel NRE’s strategic energy and resource hub in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, we’re developing our first Plastic Park which will deal with a wide range of plastic wastes, providing solutions for materials where recycling has not previously been a viable option.
This will include the UK’s first waste plastic to hydrogen facility using pioneering Powerhouse Energy technology to turn end of life plastic into hydrogen. This hydrogen will be used as a clean fuel for cars, HGVs and buses, helping to improve local air quality.
Providing more front-end sorting and a more sustainable solution for unrecyclable plastics will improve the overall economics and therefore drive higher levels of recycling. We see Plastic Parks being rolled out across the UK.
Carbon capture and utilisation or storage is something we are also likely to see alongside EfW. The Government has committed to creating two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s and while the focus has been on how this could help industry decarbonise and kick start a hydrogen economy, the role it could play in EfW should also be part of the discussion.
The potential is for EfW to become carbon negative if combined with Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), helping to achieve the UK’s net zero goals.
Increasing efficiency
Increasing efficiency will also bring a greater focus on district heating. Around 20% of UK carbon emissions are created by heating buildings and it’s simply not feasible to say we can electrify all heating. Combining EfW with district heating could improve the efficiency of a typical facility, while helping developers meet exacting new building regulations.
A generation of EfW facilities will soon start coming to the end of their life and this capacity will need replacing, albeit with more efficient and more innovative facilities. This is even more important as the impacts of Brexit mean (quite rightly so) that we are dealing with more of our waste on our shores and not exporting the problem overseas.
We still need technologies to treat waste that can’t be recycled. COVID-19 has highlighted the ongoing role that plastic will have to play in our society, for example in PPE and other medical products. Even in a circular economy many products have a finite life.
EfW isn’t going to make huge inroads into our energy generation needs. In the first instance it’s about finding ways to manage waste more sustainably.
EfW isn’t going to make huge inroads into our energy generation needs. In the first instance it’s about finding ways to manage waste more sustainably. If this also creates electricity then great, but if there’s a better alternative, such as creating transport fuel to offset diesel or even aviation fuel, then we should be looking at that. This is where the circular economy meets net zero.
The important thing in this transition is that the industry is given time to prepare. Transitionary procedures, or at the very least, reasonable notice, will be essential to prevent any unintended consequences of an immediate step up in EfW gate fees, such as increased fly tipping. We must not forget that EfW is primarily there for good sanitation, so any change needs to be carefully managed to ensure that effective waste management is maintained.
That’s why saying that we have sufficient waste management capacity can never be the answer, we must continually innovate and improve. If we do this, we’ll maximise the value from our resources and play an important role in our net zero future.
