26-01-2009

Gasification specialists Energos have been appointed to provide the technology for a multi-million pound waste treatment facility being built in Derby.

The company, which is part of Manchester-based renewable energy firm ENER-G, will help to develop a 140,000 tonne-a-year gasification facility on Sinfin Lane in Derby on behalf of a joint venture between United Utilities and services firm Interserve.

An artist’s impression of the Sinfin Lane facility that will use Energos’ gasification technology

United Utilities and Interserve were confirmed on January 13 as preferred bidder for a 27-year deal, beginning in 2010, to design, build and operate a facility to process both Derbyshire county council and Derby city council’s residual household waste.

Energos’ appointment means the plant will use their patented version of the advanced thermal treatment process to convert the waste into a gas, which will then be used to produce 8MW of electricity for export to the National Grid.

Energos’ process has already been installed in a plant on the Isle of Wight which opened last year (see letsrecycle.com story) and, in July 2008, the company submitted a planning proposal to build an 80,000 tonne-a-year capacity facility at Knowsley, on Merseyside (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Derby project’s joint venture project director, Blair Marriott, said: “We are pleased to be working with Energos which offers a world class, low emission technology and a proven reputation for excellence.

“Our proposed state-of-the-art waste management facility points the way forward for UK municipal solid waste management and is a viable and environmentally friendly alternative to landfill and incineration,” he added.

Energos’ managing director, Nick Dawber, described the facility as “a community-sized solution to responsibly dealing with local waste.”

United Utilities and Interserve were announced as preferred bidder for the Derbyshire contract in December 2008, winning a lengthy head-to-head contest with Spanish-owned Waste Recycling Group (WRG) (see letsrecycle.com story).

The deal represents United Utilities first major contract success in the waste sector, though it is one of four shortlisted bidders for the Cheshire PFI contract (see letsrecycle.com story), and is also part of the consortium the ‘Resource from Waste Alliance’ which is the running for the Merseyside PFI waste deal (see letsrecycle.com story).

This years edition provides the following list of the top twenty waste contractors, which in this context means a ranking of the top construction contractors in the landfill development field. These companies normally also carry out landfill capping/restoration projects and many also work in building recycling facilities and composting plants.

1. Ascot Environmental
2. J N Bentley
3. Edmund Nuttall
4. Fitzpatrick Contractors
5. Balfour Beatty
6. Norwest Hoist Civil Engineering Division
7. North Midland Construction
8. J Breheny Contractors
9. Fox Owmby
10. Amalgamated Construction Company
11. Dean and Dyball
12. Raymond Brown Construction
13. Alun Griffiths Contractors
14. Forkers
15 UCS Civils
16 Wrenco Contractors
17. Highland Quality Construction
18. Interserve Project Services
19. Barhale Construction
20. Buckingham Croup Contracting

Although the top listed players are well known and respected within the waste industry they are not household names outside the waste industry, and the really large national contractors are under-represented with only Balfour Beatty present.

This is a very specialist area of work and has the large value contracts have the past been dominated by landfill development and restoration works, with some work also in waste facility construction.

The split of the value of the work will soon reverse with increasing demand for waste treatment and processing facilities rising fast to eventually exceed landfill type projects. This will happen as the largest of the UK’s planned PFI integrated waste management contracts to move into the construction cycle and the start of their operational contract periods. The UK government has plans to pump a lot of money into this sector, to have the necessary effect on the redirection of waste away from landfills in a big way, over the next few years.

Archive information etc on the top contractors of past years is available at the Landfill Site Top Twenty Contractors.