North East & Yorkshire Premier Construction

A breath of fresh air

Tees Valley Energy from Waste
Written by Roma Publications

 Tees Valley Energy from Waste

Air Product’s Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility is an energy plant located in the Northeast of England.

Using advanced gasification in energy-from-waste (EfW) technology, Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility is the UK’s largest renewable energy plant, producing enough reliable, controllable and renewable electricity to power up to 50,000 homes.

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 is collected from homes and businesses and fed into the facility’s gasifier where the process of transforming waste into renewable energy begins.

Employing advanced gasification technology, Tees Valley Renewable Energy Facility heats waste in the gasifier which in turn is cooled and cleaned to become a source of fuel for generating electricity. The energy produced by the plant diverts up to 350, 000 tonnes per year of non-recyclable waste from landfill and in turn helps the country to achieve its renewable energy targets.

 Tees Valley Energy from Waste

As the UK has very stringent targets for reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill, the plant is a positive move forward in improving the environment. All emissions that are produced by the facility are 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. Foster Wheeler is a leading international engineering, construction and project management contractor and power equipment supplier operating through two business groups: The Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group and The Global Power Group.

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

 Tees Valley Energy from Waste

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

However the largest single movement by road was 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 transported we 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.”

 Tees Valley Energy from Waste

Stuart added:

“As a specialist transport company it was very important to us to be involved with these projects. We appreciated our involvement as this is a very prestigious site.”

Air Products is developing a second renewable energy facility on Teesside which is targeted to enter operation in 2016.

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

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Roma Publications