News
UK’s first waste plastic to fuel facility approved
Peel Environmental – part of Peel L&P – and Waste2Tricity have received unanimous planning consent from Cheshire West & Chester Council for the UK’s first waste plastic to hydrogen facility at the 54-hectare Protos site near Ellesmere Port.
The £7M development will see 14 full-time permanent jobs created at Protos with over 100 jobs created in the North West during steel fabrication and construction.
According to Peel Environmental, the plant will transform how plastic waste is dealt with in the region, treating up to 35t of unrecyclable plastics a day and using it to create a local source of hydrogen. This hydrogen could be used as a clean fuel for buses, Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and cars, helping to reduce air pollution and improve air quality on local roads.
The facility would also generate electricity which could be provided to commercial users via a microgrid at Protos, helping to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
Myles Kitcher, Managing Director at Peel Environmental said: “The creation of this UK-first facility makes great strides to solve two important issues; the huge amount of waste plastic produced, and the over-reliance on fossil fuels for energy.
The technology has been proven at Thornton Science Park and will now be commercialised at Protos, before being rolled out across the UK. This is hugely significant for Cheshire and the wider region, demonstrating how we’re rising to the challenge of being the UK’s first low carbon industrial cluster and setting a standard for others to follow.”
John Hall, Waste2Tricity said: “Securing consent for our first facility in the UK is a huge step forward and we’re delighted that Cheshire West & Chester Council has got behind the project. Working with Peel Environmental, we have plans to roll out the technology across the UK.”