Flixborough waste-to-energy facility given greenlight

THE UK government has approved a waste-to-energy (WtE) facility at the Flixborough industrial estate, set to process 650,000 t/y of waste.

The North Lincolnshire Green Energy Park will process refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to generate up to 95 MWe, providing power, heat, and steam at the Flixborough Wharf site on the River Trent.

The park will join 53 other WtE facilities currently operating in the UK, and aligns with the new regulatory standards set by Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), which require WtE sites to come “carbon capture ready”.

CCS

Usually sourced from industrial sites, municipal solid waste is shredded, dried, and incinerated to produce RDF, which the park will use to create low carbon hydrogen through electrolysis. The Green Energy Park aims to power more than 221,000 homes a year.

At the start of the year, the government set out new requirements for waste disposal sites, specifically waste-to-energy, saying it will only support future sites that can easily incorporate carbon capture units in their lifetime.

As part of Green Energy Park’s energy recovery system, CO2 released during recovery will be captured, stored, and utilised on site to produce concrete blocks. Irish owners Solar 21 says it is exploring the possibility of connecting the park to the Drax carbon pipeline planned for the Humber.

Solar 21 has also planned 10 MW of hydrogen storage, 30 MW of battery storage, 120 t of steam storage, and an ash treatment facility. The park will include a railway line to supply hydrogen for a hydrogen bus pilot in the nearby town of Scunthorpe, and a community electric vehicle charging scheme.

Solar 21, which operates various biomass plants in Hull, said the North Lincolnshire project will create 257 jobs and foster new skills that “support the region’s transition to net zero”.