Waste2Tricity is set to apply for planning permission to build the £7m facility later this spring, after parenting with developer Peel Environmental, which has agreed to host it on its Protos site near Ellesmere Port.
The proposed facility will span 54 acres and have the capacity to treat up to 25 tonnes of waste plastic each day, generating one tonne of hydrogen and 28MWh of electricity in the process. Waste2Tricity claims that it would be capable of processing almost all kinds of plastics, including packaging, rigid plastics and used tyres.
The process which will be used at the proposed plant is called Distributed Modular Gasification (DMG) and was developed by clean energy firm PowerHouse Energy at the nearby University of Chester Energy Centre. It involves placing the plastics into a sealed chamber, where they are heated to ultra-high temperatures in order to remove carbon and convert the solid matter into a synthetic gas called “syngas”. The syngas is then modulated in a separate chamber to produce road-fuel quality hydrogen.
PowerHouse Energy (LON:PHE) has developed a proprietary process technology called DMG® which can use waste plastic end-of-life-tyres and other waste streams to convert them into cost efficient energy in the form of electricity and ultra clean hydrogen gas fuel for use in cars and commercial vehicles (FCEV: Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles) and other industrial uses. The PowerHouse technology is the world’s first proven, modular hydrogen from waste (HfW) process.
