Teesside trial for recycling plant

Nov 5 2009 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

A WORLD first in renewable technology that could revolutionise the chemical process industry by reducing its reliance on petrochemical feedstocks, looks set to be trialled on Teesside.

The syngas-based technology, acquired by INEOS Bio - a division set up only last year by global chemical giant INEOS to take the process to licensing stage - turns organic and non-organic waste to bioethanol in what the company described as a “genuinely sustainable way”, de-coupled from food production.

More than £2m of public money will be pumped into a detailed feasibility study in advance of a decision expected early next year to build a 25,000t plant at the company’s existing Seal Sands’ site, which was acquired from BASF last summer.

The proposed plant, around which advanced discussions have already taken place with local waste management firms to supply around 8,000t/pa of local household waste, will also produce an estimated 3MW of electricity a year as a by-product to be sold into the National Grid.

The bioethanol will be initially used as a road fuel transport, but ultimately the company hopes to license the process for the production of low-cost chemical intermediates from a range of recycled waste materials - a move regarded by some senior members of the chemical sector on Teesside as the only way of ensuring Wilton’s future.

Graham Rice, external relations and development manager for INEOS Bio, said for that to happen, the regulatory environment needed to change.

While renewable obligation certificates (ROCs) and the renewable fuel transport obligation (RTFO) provided incentives for energy producers to fundamentally change the way they operated, there was “no incentive for renewable chemicals”, he said.

The current system was perverse in incentivising the use of certain biomass materials over others, which, arguably were more sustainable.

“If you have a choice for your biomass, the incentive drives you down a certain way,” said Mr Rice.

The advantage of the INEOS Bio process was that it made the production of renewable fuel economic at relatively small production rates, said Mr Rice.

But he declined to say how the company intended to finance a full-scale plant. The company is building a similar unit in North America.