Multi-fuel energy innovators EQTEC have unveiled latest steps in bringing their Teesside mega-plant to fruition.
CEO David Palumbo’s enterprise last month announced a partnership intended to turn 80,000 tonnes of municipal waste into 6 million cubic metres of methane at Southport Hybrid Energy Park on Merseyside.
Switching coasts this morning to Haverton Hill, near Billingham on Teeside, the AIM-quoted company told investors it has appointed refineries designer and petrochemicals engineers Petrofac to deliver front-end engineering design for the new plant, capable of turning 200,000 tonnes of council-collected garbage every year into 25MW of electricity for output to the national grid
From letters of intent signed between the two firms, the further prospect arises of Petrofac as possible procurement and construction contractor.
EQTEC’s wholly owned project-specific firm Haverton WTV possesses all relevant permits and permissions. But the waste-to-methane project is likely to occupy less than half of the Haverton Hill plot. The parent confirmed in December it was contemplating additional generation technologies on the spare land, and adding offtakers for the plant’s output.
Developers such as EQTEC aim to reverse decades of decline in the Haverton Hill locality, near Stockton-on-Tees. It sits in a revived industrial cluster which boasts heavy users of energy such CF Fertilisers UK and pharmaceuticals firm Seqens Group.
In collaboration with neighbouring industrial companies, partners and potential investors, EQTEC is weighing up its options in hydrogen production, battery storage and/or hydrogen refuelling at Haverton Hill.
All options depend on grants of further planning permission and the agreement of future owners. EQTEC is prepared to split the project’s special purpose vehicle (SPV) development company into new ventures, sharing their ownership.
The partners have not set a formal start date for the design, thus freeing up inclusion of prospective investors in various site designs. Petrofac has agreed to support EQTEC efforts with engagement of funding candidates.
Eqtec’s chief operating officer Jeff van der Lynden enthused:
“As our largest and most complex project, Billingham represents a wide range of opportunities for innovative application of EQTEC technology. But it also requires a different approach to assemble investment.
“By applying flexible funding options and strong partners, I believe we will advance the Billingham project steadily, toward bringing EQTEC syngas-based solutions to Teesside and to the wide range of industrial businesses that will benefit from them.”
For Petrofac, its VP for new energy Jon Carpenter commented: “We look forward to supporting the engineering of EQTEC’s Billingham project and to working with their team to de-risk the project leveraging our construction experience of complex process plants.”
