Work has started on a new multi-million pound waste gasification plant in the West Midlands.

The SynTech Energy Centre is being built on the site of a former steel fabrication and waste recycling facility in Portway Road, Wednesbury.

Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is investing £5m into the new centre, matching a £5m investment from Denver-based SynTech Bioenergy LLC.

The 1.5MWe facility will produce enough electricity to power 2,500 homes, using advanced gasification to produce power at high efficiency and high reliability from sorted and processed municipal waste.

The centre will convert about 40 tonnes a day of post recycling, refuse derived fuel (RDF) produced locally into a clean syngas. The syngas will then be converted into power using a modified high- efficiency gas engine, and waste heat generated from the engine will be made available to heat a local swimming pool.

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In addition, it will incorporate a unique test facility which will allow the testing of new engines, turbines and upgrading processes which produce products from waste derived clean syngas, including a proprietary methanol production process.

Mace are the project managers on the scheme, while engineering, procurement and construction is being led by Otto Simon Ltd. Up to 100 construction jobs will be created, with 25 permanent roles upon completion.

ETI Bioenergy Project Manager Paul Winstanley said: "This project is about more than just generating clean electricity, although that is an important first step.

"The SynTech Energy Centre will produce a clean, consistent high quality syngas from waste in the form of refuse derived fuel (RDF). Producing a clean high quality syngas opens up a huge variety of new opportunities in addition to making clean electricity including the generation of hydrogen, jet fuel and even plastics from wastes."

Kamal Kalsi, SynTech Bioenergy UK's Chief Technology Officer said: "The work in Phase 1 of the project  has permitted us to carry out a significant level of risk assessment and mitigation work to ensure that we can deliver not only a technology that works reliably on a wide range of waste sources but does so in a cost-effective manner. Our process differs in many key aspects to all others in the marketplace and we believe that this provides us with key advantages that allow us to meet our technical and commercial objectives.

"We look forward to being a key part of bringing advanced thermal conversion into a new era of high efficiency, end-product flexibility and most importantly demonstrating the technology to make it more attractive to future investors."

(LM/MH)