North East & Yorkshire

A breath of fresh air

 Tees Valley Energy From Waste

Work continues on a new renewable energy facility in Teesside.

Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility – which is being implemented by Air Products – is a brand new energy plant being built on a section of industrial land known as the Reclamation Pond site. Using advanced gasification in energy-from-waste (EfW) technology, Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility is set to become the UK’s largest renewable energy plant.

Once work is complete on the scheme, the new plant is expected to produce enough reliable, controllable and renewable electricity to power up to 50,000 homes. In addition, the new plant will create 50 direct permanent employment opportunities, on top of the 700 jobs that have been created during the construction phase.

Tees Valley Energy From Waste

The plant benefits from good access and connectivity to the local and national electrical distribution infrastructure and has the potential to generate a renewable source of hydrogen for commercial use.

Waste will be collected from homes and businesses and fed into the facility’s gasifier where the process of transforming waste into renewable energy will begin. Employing advanced gasification technology, Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility will heat waste in the gasifier which will in turn be cooled and cleaned to become a source of fuel for generating electricity.

It is projected that the energy produced by the plant will save up to 350, 000 tonnes of waste per year from going to landfill – proving beneficial to all.

As the UK has very stringent targets for reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, the new plant is a positive move forward in improving the environment. All emissions that are produced by the facility will be monitored and will follow guidelines as set out by the Environmental Agency.

Work began on the project in 2012, with Foster Wheeler as the main contractor on the Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility.

Tees Valley Energy From Waste

The creation of the new plant has been carefully planned, and before work began Air Products took into account many aspects of the project, including local planning and economic policies. The site – owned by impetus – is ideal as it has good infrastructure and is a designated site, set away from local housing.

The project includes landscaping, the upgrade of access and earthworks. Work on the new energy facility continues to make good progress and is scheduled to enter commercial operation in 2014.

Working on the Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility project, North Yorkshire Heavy transport specialist GCS Johnson Ltd is responsible for the transport of all abnormal loads into the site. The average size of load that GCS Johnson Ltd has transported measures 5.2 metres high, 27 meters in length and 5 metres wide.

Some of these have been collected from mainland Europe including setting a new standard in high loads from Antwerp to the UK via the road/Ro-Ro network.

However to date the largest single movement by road has been the Gassifier measuring 9.9 metres wide, 11.8 meters high and 33 metres in length with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 300 tons.

GCS Johnson Ltd Director, Stuart Johnson, said:

“Due to the sheer size of the pieces that we are transporting we have had to build roads and liaise with landowners for access. We were involved in the project several months before any site works took place to ensure that we would be able to transport the abnormal loads to the location.”

Stuart added:

“As a specialist transport company it is very important to us to be involved with these projects. There are few works such as this taking place in the North East at the moment, so we appreciate our involvement as this is a very prestigious site.”

Tees Valley Energy From Waste

Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility is the first of what will be a number of gasification plants from Air Products over the coming years. This current facility has received support from One North East, the regional development agency.

Air Products provide services to a range of clients, from the industrial and technology sectors, to energy and healthcare. Founded in 1940, the company has an enviable portfolio and employs more than 20,000 people around the world, with 1,500 members of staff based in the UK.

For more information on Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility, please visit: www.airproducts.co.uk/teesvalley/.

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Roma Publications