Resource Park Model

Thames Gateway Power will generate renewable energy and heat from 120,000 tonnes residual waste materials that would usually have gone to landfill each year. It will generate enough renewable electricity to supply 31,500 households in Barking & Dagenham – 45% of the town's requirement.

Vehicles for waste delivery will come into the site and drive onto the weighbridge where they will be monitored using CCTV to ensure that any waste materials coming into the facility comply with the Environmental Permit and Operating Licence.

Once the delivery trucks have delivered to the waste reception hall, they will tare off on the second weighbridge to ensure accurate weights are taken for every load.

It is intended to use the ash from the Energy Recovery process for secondary aggregates, however, if this is not the case then a worst case scenario will be that only 6% of the incoming waste by weight will require landfill disposal.

The energy plant will be used to generate electricity and heat from the residual waste materials and recover its energy value. The process used to generate this heat and power is called Gasification.

The generation of renewable electricity and heat by Thames Gateway Power uses syngas from the gasification process as the fuel to create steam and electricity. The syngas fuel is combusted in a single chamber to give off the heat necessary to pass through a boiler that will generate high quality steam for renewable electricity production using steam turbines. The high pressure steam is passed through turbines that spin at high speed and generate electricity in the same way as many power stations in the UK. The electricity generated by Thames Gateway Power is then fed into the local electricity distribution network to be used by local homes and businesses – this is enough for more than 31,500 homes, equivalent to 45% of household needs in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.

Waste that will be used in the Energy Generation Facility will be material that has already been sorted by other waste transfer stations and Materials Recycling Facilities as well as waste from businesses that already recycle and remove recyclate at source. There will also be a small element of waste such as oil filters, oily rags, tannalised timber, etc. that under legislation is now considered as hazardous waste.

The electricity generated by the Thames Gateway Power plant will be low carbon, saving circa 46,400 tonnes of CO2 by not landfilling recoverable resources and generating electricity from means other than coal or fossil fuels. In addition to this, gasification has been classified as a renewable form of providing electricity by the Government, so Thames Gateway Power can claim 50% of the power produced as renewable. This is based on the assumption that 50% of the waste being gasified is biodegradable and, therefore, qualifies for Renewable Obligation Certificates.

Additionally, there are great quantities of hot water at about 50°C to 100°C that come from the cooling system of the electricity generating turbines. This hot water can be used in the winter for heating other Sustainable Industries Park buildings and offices as well as other businesses and homes surrounding the development. The hot water could also be condensed and then used for cooling in the summer months.

Gasification has been used since the late 1800s for the production of town gas for street lighting and cooking in the home. It's a process that can take non-inert materials and convert the solid materials to a gas (synthesis gas or syngas) made up of differing proportions of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some methane. Gasification uses the principles of combustion but the conditions are controlled so that they remain sub-stoichiometric, that is to say one part of the reaction is at a level less than required for the perfect reaction. In the case of gasification the oxygen levels are kept purposefully very low so that the combustion reaction only gets to the volatilisation stage where combustible gases are produced. The low level of oxygen ensures that these gases cannot combust themselves to complete the combustion reaction where all energy in the waste materials is then spent. The syngas generated can then be tapped off and used elsewhere for a multitude of applications.

Gasification is a highly efficient process whereby virtually all the energy in the material being gasified is released into the gas and, therefore, a very efficient method of generating steam and electricity from waste materials. Waste types accepted for energy generation will be along the lines of packaging that is too contaminated for recycling, treated wood wastes, damaged and/or out of date stock from supermarkets and other wastes that are too low in value to recycle.

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