Runcorn EfW on schedule for 2012 commissioning

The chemical company behind the largest single facility being built under the Greater Manchester waste PFI has revealed that construction has begun on the plant and it is on schedule to begin commissioning in the second half of 2012.

INEOS Chlor, which is developing the large-scale energy-from-waste facility at Runcorn under a joint venture with the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority's PFI contractor Viridor Laing, told letsrecycle.com that “very good progress” had already been made on the development.

The facility is intended to act as the final destination for the estimated 275,000 tonnes-a-year of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) that is expected to be produced by the five mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plants being built by Viridor Laing in Greater Manchester itself under the PFI deal.

However, it is unclear exactly how the remaining capacity of the facility will be filled. The project potentially requires 800,000 tonnes-a-year of RDF in total, but a spokeswoman for Viridor was unable to give “specific figures” about where the rest of the fuel would come from, due to “the various different parties involved in the INEOS development”.

According to Viridor, 130,000 tonnes-a-year of RDF is set to be sourced from a MBT facility that Viridor hopes to develop near Northwich in Cheshire if it wins the county's waste PFI contract (see letsrecycle.com story).

The INEOS Chlor facility is set to be developed in two phases – 400,000 tonnes-a-year capacity at a time- and a spokeswoman for INEOS Chlor explained: “The first phase is in construction and Viridor have a number of options for sourcing the remaining fuel requirement.”

She added that, while enough fuel had been secured to ensure the “financial viability” of the first phase, the second would only proceed “once Viridor are confident that they will be able to source sufficient additional fuel”, noting that a decision on this was expected “soon”.

Construction

In terms of actual work on the site, the INEOS Chlor spokeswoman said: “Very good progress has been made with the initial activities to clear the site of buried services and to relocate the workshops on the site.”

She confirmed that the site had been handed over to the project's main contractor in May and construction had started “immediately”, with no “significant” unexpected problems having been encountered so far.

The power plant is being built by Keppel Seghers, a subsidiary of Singapore-based engineering company Keppel, which was formally awarded the £233 million contract to build the facility shortly after the PFI contract was signed in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Viridor Laing

The news comes as Viridor Laing also hailed the progress that has been made on the rest of the facilities being developed under the contract, as Peter Scholfield, construction manager for the company set up to run the PFI told letsrecycle.com that 27 out of the 42 facilities had now been completed and handed over for operation.

He explained that, due to delays in the signing of the PFI contract “inevitably the front end got squeezed” on some of the facilities, with the start and therefore end dates for some of the plants earmarked for early completion being pushed back slightly.

But, he said that the progress was still “fairly impressive”, explaining that “the rest has gone really well. They look good and we've had good customer feedback”.

A further 11 facilities are under construction and work is yet to begin on the remaining four.

Facilities

Of the facilities handed over to date, 25 are static sites, such as household waste recycling centres.

The other two are processing facilities – a 25,000 tonne-a-year capacity in-vessel composting plant at Waithlands in Rochdale, which began working in November 2009, and a 90,000 tonne-a-year capacity Longley Lane materials recycling facility (MRF) in Manchester, which has completed commissioning.

Mr Scholfield said that the MRF was now taking in waste and also highlighted the progress being made on the first of the five MBT and AD facilities being built under the contract – which is being built on Reliance Street in Manchester.

Dubbing the MBT facility “critical” to the contract, he confirmed it was due to be handed over in early January 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

“I'd like to see the first one up and running properly. Once we have got once under our belt, I'll feel much more comfortable,” said Mr Scholfield, noting that, while the technology was not new, using it in an urban situation was “novel”.

Mr Scholfield also highlighted the staged approach being taken to building facilities under the Greater Manchester contract. “Even on the HWRCs there was a progression through,” he said, adding that, in the case of the MBT plants, “in a way it's the resources of our subcontractors, you can't do all five plants at once.”

Facilities being built or redeveloped under the contract include:

• A MRF at Longley Lane in Manchester;
• Four in-vessel composting plants (at Bredbury, Trafford Park, Waithlands and Over Hulton);
• Five MBT plants (Reliance Street, Cobden Street, Bredbury, Longley Lane and Arkwright Street);
• 25 HWRCs (including nine new builds, nine major redevelopments and nine improvements);
• Retain use of the Bolton energy recovery facility;
• The CHP plant at INEOS Chlor's Runcorn site;
• Two green waste shredding facilities;
• Seven transfer facilities.