Eqtec signs Anaergia on to Southport energy development

Hydrogen and biofuels technology developer Eqtec announced on Friday that, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Southport WTV and its partner Rotunda Group and Rotunda's subsidiary Shankley Biogas, the special-purpose vehicle has entered into a cooperation agreement with Anaergia.

The AIM-traded firm said the agreement was for the construction and operation of a multi-technology waste-to-energy facility at Southport Hybrid Energy Park in Merseyside.

It said the plant would include an Anaergia waste processing facility, that would accept 80,000 tonnes of pre-processed municipal solid waste per year, to both recover organics produce refuse-derived fuel (RDF), as well as an Anaergia anaerobic digestion facility that was designed to convert the recovered organics into six million cubic metres of biomethane per year, to be injected into the national gas transmission system.

Through combined heat and power (CHP) engines, the plant would also pull gas from the grid to generate 9MWe for export to the national electricity transmission system.

The plant design also included a 2MW battery storage facility.

Under the agreement, Anaergia would undertake a full engineering, procurement and construction role for the plant, based on a fixed-price lump-sum contract for the capital works scope as well as a separate, minimum five-year contract to operate and maintain the plant.

The establishment of the two key relationships was described by the board as "critical" for completing the development, and moving into the next phase of the project.

Eqtec, which was leading the plant's development, said it intended in a future phase of work to add Eqtec 'advanced gasification technology' that could convert 25,000 tonnes of RDF per year, supplied by the plant's waste processing facility, into an estimated 2.5 to 3.0 MWe of "clean" electricity.

The company said it was further exploring the option of producing clean hydrogen at the plant, by applying its own synthesis gas technology together with syngas-to-hydrogen technology provided by a technology partner.

Together, the full plant facilities were expected to export to the grid the equivalent of 20% or more of Southport's energy requirement.

"Anaergia has been a great partner at our Deeside project, and we are very happy to be co-developing Southport with them as well," said chief executive officer David Palumbo.

"We are even happier that they are bringing their EPC and operations and maintenance capabilities to the project, to complement their world-class technologies."

Palumbo said the future of renewable energy beyond fossil fuels would be a "mixed economy", adding that the Deeside and Southport plants would demonstrate that.

"These projects are at the cutting edge of clean, waste-to-energy and hydrogen innovation in the UK.

"We look forward to these and future opportunities with Anaergia to demonstrate successful, sustainable cleantech in practice."