The UK’s first plastic waste to hydrogen facility is one step closer to being operational with the completion of the front-end engineering design phase.
Completed during lockdown, the study assessed all the design and engineering aspects of the proposed facility and evaluated the total project costs at an estimated £20m.
The facility, planned for Protos, Peel L&P Environmental’s strategic energy and resource hub in Cheshire, will create hydrogen which could be used to power vehicles from waste plastic.
Richard Barker, Director at Peel L&P Environmental said, “This FEED phase is an important step forward in delivering this innovative technology at Protos.”
“Working with Powerhouse Energy we’re creating a blueprint for this UK first plastic-to-hydrogen facility, with plans to roll out over 70 more across the UK. With hydrogen increasingly being seen as an important part of our journey to net zero the time is now.”
The facility will feature distributed modular generation (DMG) technology developed by PowerHouse Energy Group at Thornton Science Park, located next door to Protos.
Peel L&P Environmental has said it will develop 11 facilities across the UK in the next few years and has the option of exclusive rights to the Powerhouse Energy technology in the UK leading to over 70 facilities in total.
Jayne Hennessy, Development Manager at Peel L&P Environmental said, “The Powerhouse Energy technology was developed right next door to Protos at Thornton Science Park which illustrates how the North West is leading on innovation around net zero.”
“It’s great to see the project moving forward and paves the way for construction starting later this year.”
David Ryan, CEO of Powerhouse Energy said, “I would like to congratulate Peel L&P on bringing the FEED phase for the DMG plant at Protos to a successful completion, especially during the lockdown period which is a significant achievement.”
“Defining the application at Protos has provided further commercial and technical validation of our DMG technology. We are confident that the delivery of this first commercial plant will provide a community based distributed source of hydrogen to further the hydrogen economy in the UK.”
