SIMEC advances Welsh waste pellet power project at Uskmouth

SIMEC Atlantis Energy has produced 100 mt of waste-derived fuel pellets for large-scale milling and combustion tests at its Uskmouth power station site in south Wales, the company said Monday.

The next stage is for contractor Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe to carry out combustion trials at a 24 MW facility at the site in Q2 2020 to validate system design prior to engineering, procurement and construction negotiations with project partners, SIMEC said.

"This project is the world's first example of a coal-fired power station being repurposed to run on 100% waste derived fuel pellets," said SIMEC chief executive Tim Cornelius.

The results of testing could have "material implications for the way plastic waste, and aging coal-fired power stations, are managed globally in the future," he said.

Eventually SIMEC plans to build a 220 MW waste pellet-fuelled plant at Uskmouth, with first generation currently slated for a 2021 start.

The project has a 20-year power purchase agreement with GFG Alliance's Liberty Steel, which has a steel plant in Newport close to the Uskmouth site.

Testing had boosted confidence that the pellets, produced by Dutch project partner N+P Group, can be milled using industry standard designs and produced in commercial quantities, SIMEC said.

The pellets contain 50% biogenic waste material such as paper and cardboard, with the remainder made up predominantly of plastic waste.

"The waste used to make the pellets is not currently economically recyclable and therefore, if not used in production of fuel pellets, would likely have to be disposed of in landfill," SIMEC said.

The pellets have an average calorific value of 20 megajoules per kg versus around 29 MJ/kg for hard coal.