Month: June 2016

Switzerland: Construction of an agricultural biogas plant
On 9^th June 2016, Nestlé Waters officially opened Switzerland’s largest agricultural biogas facility which will provide renewable energy for the Henniez bottling plant and the Swiss power grid, as well as natural fertiliser for local farms.

The CHF 9.5 million plant has been built at Valbroye (Treize-Cantons) in the Canton of Vaud on a plot owned by Nestlé Waters, in collaboration with Group E Greenwatt, which owns the facility. The biogas plant is able to process 25,000 tonnes of cattle slurry and poultry manure per year, as well as 3,800 tonnes of co-substrates, namely coffee grounds. The facility can generate nearly 4 million kWh of electricity annually.

For more information on this project, click here.

Honduras: Commissioning of a 43 MW biomass plant
On 10^th June 2016, Honduran Green Power Corporation (HGPC) commissioned a 43 MW biomass plant, located in Choloma, Cortés Municipality in the Valle de Sula. The US$130 million facility uses biomass comprising giant king grass as well as weevil affected pine wood, African palm tree rachis and sugarcane bagasse as fuel.

According to the Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, the plant is considered unique as there is no other project of this kind in the world.

To take a look at the journey taken on this development, click here.

The decision of the UK in the recent referendum to leave the European Union (EU) is a supremely important decision, both for the country and Europe as a whole. The UK can be expected to leave the EU at some point over the next two years, although the precise timing is not known at present.

What effect is this likely to have on the treatment and disposal of waste in the UK?

The UK has been a major investor in new technologies for waste treatment in recent years. This is to replace landfill, which until a decade ago was by far the most popular form of disposal. A major driver for this has been the adoption of EU directives regarding waste, including greater recycling and reuse, and financial penalties for landfill. This will continue during the transitional phase, and most likely afterwards. While a post-brexit government would have the ability to adopt a new approach, this is unlikely to be a priority and any new laws would be sure to follow similar environmental concerns.

Perhaps more movement could be seen in the power generation field. Here, in order to comply with EU regulations, the UK has been closing older coal-fired power stations and replacing them with a variety of newer technologies, such as waste-to-energy or biomass incineration. A post-brexit government, faced with the rising prospect of a gap between generation and consumption, might wish to adopt a new approach or retain existing stations for longer than would have been the case.

The wider macro-economic and political position should not be ignored. Brexit could feasibly have a short-term impact on the economy and in particular on government finances. This could lead to reduced investment in capital projects, as was seen in the 2008-2010 period. Also worth noting is the position of Scotland, which voted firmly to remain in the EU and may decide to separate from the UK as a consequence. This could lead to renewed dislocation, with a potentially negative impact on Scottish government finances.

Moves towards brexit are some years away, however, and unlikely to affect current investments. Where can information be found on the state of the UK’s waste treatment market as of 2016? Publicly-collected statistics on waste generation and treatment are available, but they can only tell you so much. While they offer a useful pointer to trends and the general direction of travel in the industry, they are often several years out of date, and can be beset with inconsistencies and reporting errors.

AcuComm’s proprietary waste database is different. Our researchers seek out data on recent and forthcoming investments, to provide an accurate picture of requirements and funding availability right now and in the future. We currently have over 4,000 active projects listed worldwide, with an average value of US$76 million each. In the UK, we have 153 dealing with the treatment of municipal solid waste, worth an estimated US$20.3 billion. Of these, 41 are due to become operational by the end of 2017, worth an estimated US$6.6 billion.

The pie charts below are taken from freely-available Eurostat data. They show the change which has taken place in the UK waste treatment market over the past decade, as landfill has become less prominent, and greater use has been made of recycling and WtE incineration.

The following map shows the location of investments opened or planned between 2013 and 2016 by treatment type, taken from AcuComm’s database. The full database contains detail on each one, including values, timescales and contact names for each of the companies involved. WtE incineration is the leading technology, with 48 active investments across the country.

Eric Wigart, AcuComm Chairman & Andy Crofts, Chief Researcher

Portugal: Installation of an anaerobic digestion system at a supermarket
SEaB Energy has installed its Flexibuster containerised anaerobic direction/biogas power plant at a Modelo Continente hypermarket in Gaia. The hypermarket is owned by Sonae Group, Portugal’s largest retailer.

This is the first time that an anaerobic digestion system, that converts inedible food waste to energy, has been installed at a supermarket site anywhere in the country. The Flexibuster will convert approximately 600kg of inedible supermarket food waste into energy per day, and this will generate around 80,000 kWh of electricity, as well as 180 tonnes of fertiliser per annum.

For more information on the new installation, click here.

UK: Development of an RDF-fuelled CHP plant
CalaChem is looking to replace its 20-year-old combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Grangemouth with a new modern facility that will use refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as its energy source. The plant is budgeted at £150 million and will be built by Standardkessel Baumgarte.

Public consultations closed in April 2016 and in June, CalaChem advised AcuComm that it had submitted a planning application which is now being reviewed by Falkirk Council Planning department. CalaChem is hopeful that work could start in winter 2016 with the facility becoming fully operational in 2018.

For the latest updates on this project, click here.

Hungary: Construction of a co-generation power plant
Hamburger Hungaria has officially inaugurated a new €150 million co-generation power plant at its paper mill production site in Dunaújváros. The new plant uses solid fuels, including the paper mill’s own residual waste from paper production, as well as biomass and coal. The power plant has a capacity of 172 MW in used fuels, 158 MW in generated heat and 42 MW in generated electricity.

To find out more about this project, click here.

In the week ended 17th June 2016, AcuComm added 47 new or updated waste projects to our Business db, worth an estimated US$3,661 million and waste capacity of just over 9.6 million tonnes.

This takes the total estimated investment value of projects since 2013 to US$316.5 billion.

• Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was the leading feedstock type reported on in the past week, accounting for an estimated 5.1 million tonnes, or 52.9% of the total.
• The leading countries in the past week were the USA with eight projects and the UK with seven.

If you or your organisation is looking to keep up-to-date with the latest waste, bioenergy and recycling projects from across the globe, look no further than AcuComm’s Sales Package. With daily updates on new and existing projects in our database, you can identify the latest sales opportunities and direct contact details for key decision makers before anyone else.

For more information and to see the benefits for yourself, arrange a demo today.