Energy-from-waste recovery firm New Earth Solutions Group Ltd (New Earth), has partially re-financed its Avonmouth Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) with a debt facility from Macquarie Bank.
Billed as the UK’s ‘first commercial thermal energy plant of its kind’, the 13-megawatt (MW) utilises pyrolysis and gasification technologies from New Earth’s sister company, the NEAT Technology Group Ltd (NTGL), to produce electricity from refuse-derived fuel (RDF). Pyrolysis is used to heat the RDF to a high temperature in the absence of oxygen to produce gas and carbon char, with the latter material being processed through gasification to produce gas and some ash residue. The gas produced, known as ‘syngas’, is then burnt for electricity.
The facility began exporting power to the National Grid last year.
Speaking of the refinancing, Darren Stockley, Managing Director of New Earth, said: “All our six operational plants now include bank finance. For two we used ‘conventional’ project finance through the construction stage, but the others, which include the Avonmouth ERF, we re-financed post commissioning. By this means we have been able to build new infrastructure quickly using novel processes through a period of general constriction in the availability of bank debt. We expect now to be able to fund our next development projects for which planning permissions, waste contracts, and land have been lined up. ”
Mark Scobie, Chief Executive of New Earth and NTGL, added: “The ERF passed strict technical and operating tests prior to the refinancing. We believe that this demonstrates the potential of our NEAT pyrolysis and gasification process as a game changer in the waste management and resource recovery space. ”
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