Winning the war on plastic

Infrastructure investment in reducing plastic waste

At the end of August, property development giant Peel L&P Environmental signed a partnership agreement with low carbon energy start up Waste2Tricity to help develop 11 plastic to hydrogen facilities across the UK.

The first of these new ground-breaking facilities will be built at Peel L&P Environmental’s rapidly expanding Protos site – “a strategic resource recovery and energy hub” at Ellesmere Port, just east of Chester.

In energy infrastructure investment terms, the £7m facility is a comparatively small-scale deal. But, with almost 1.2 million tonnes of unrecyclable waste plastics going to landfill every year, this technology is set to transform both waste management and energy generation across the country.

“Waste2Tricity came to us three years ago with a prototype in a container,” says Protos development director Jane Gaston. “The team was working with PowerHouse Energy, who had been developing the technology and proving the concept at Thornton Science Park, next to Protos. We are now working with them to secure planning permission to develop the first commercial-scale plant, and roll ahead with this new technology.”

Turning the plastic problem in to an energy solution

The 54-hectare Protos site sits at the heart of the Energy Innovation District (EID) which spans the industrial heartland of the North West between Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. The EID encompasses energy related industry, large-scale energy assets, energy intensive industries, the associated supply chain and a centre for research and development.

“Industry in this area consumes around 5% of the UK energy supply, making it a prime target for research, investment and development to drive a new energy revolution,” explains Jane. “The drive to deliver energy security and to lower the cost of energy, as well as the increasing focus on clean growth, provides an opportunity to deliver a new, decarbonised energy system for the North West, while also creating new economic growth and investment.”

Unlocking energy potential

Peel L&P Environmental acquired the Protos site in 2000, as part of a wider property transaction to manage the Ship Canal, which it owns, and associated land. Carter Jonas has been working with the project to assess and value the development opportunities on this vast site, as well as to help Protos unlock the potential of the surrounding area and to boost the region’s employment market with the creation of around 3,000 jobs.

The £700m strategic investment programme is ambitious. So far, outline and detailed planning consent has been awarded for B1, B2 and B8 uses – business, general industrial and storage and distribution – as well as energy generation, which has been a core concept for the masterplan. Alongside this sits a strategic focus to stimulate investment in research and innovation, while also identifying new low-carbon energy sources to power the area.

The Protos development clusters complementary businesses, with the nearby University of Chester and its Thornton Science Park providing academic leadership, support and direct access to a highly-skilled workforce and state-of-the-art research facilities. The area is renowned for its skilled manufacturing and engineering workforce and established supply chains – investment should not only regenerate this vast site but also bolster and increase access to new skills and resources, and help grow the local economy.

Starting the waste to energy revolution

The Waste2Tricity hydrogen facility is just one example of the investments that Protos is encouraging on the site, which include a number of Waste to Energy projects involving biomass and non-hazardous domestic and commercial waste.

Operation of a new £100m biomass plant kicked off earlier this year alongside the new timber recycling facility being built to feed the plant. Developed with energy business CoGen, the biomass facility is expected to generate some 21MW of clean renewable energy from around 170,000 tonnes of waste timber each year – enough to power around 40,000 homes.

This is just the start. A new £300m Energy from Waste facility being taken forward by Covanta is about to start construction, and should come on line as the site’s centrepiece in around three years. Meanwhile, energy business Progressive Energy has had plans approved for the UK’s first commercial-scale Bio-Substitute Natural Gas plant at the site, costing £150m and generating gas from up to 175,000 tonnes of unrecyclable wood and refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

Valuation plays a key role in successful infrastructure projects

Carter Jonas’ role on the project to date is around property valuation. Being able to demonstrate the value added to a site from, say, investing in a grid connection is crucial to securing investment as the project rolls forward.

“Valuation is where we really value Carter Jonas’ knowledge and experience,” Jane explains. “This kind of site is unique, so it’s very difficult to value the land and measure the value uplift from investment.”

Protos is now stepping up its plans, ploughing ahead over the next 18 months with investment in supporting infrastructure – some £30m is about to be invested in the development’s remaining roads, as well as upgrading the shipping berths that will become key to accessing the site via the Manchester Ship Canal.

Critically, it is also working with Scottish Power to reinforce and expand the electricity grid to ensure that it has both the capacity and resilience to support Protos’ plans for generation. The long-term plan is to create a decentralised local energy grid which can directly serve occupiers of Protos and the surrounding industry.

“Our diversified power supply means we can offer tenants secure and resilient supply at a lower financial cost, but also at much lower carbon cost,” explains Jane. 

Planning around local communities

“As a nation and as a region, we need these facilities. At Protos we have worked hard to demonstrate that the site is the right location for them,” Jane says. “We have done a huge amount of work with the community to highlight the need for, and benefits from, these sorts of developments in terms of creating new jobs and employment, but also in terms of providing greater opportunity for an existing skilled workforce.”

The reality, she adds, is that the UK needs an indigenous waste management solution – we can no longer avoid this responsibility by simply shipping our waste overseas. In particular, there is a priority around dealing with plastic pollution, an issue that has gained significant traction in the public consciousness over the last few years.

“Society as a whole is now more conscious of the need to take responsibility for the waste that we produce,” she adds. “While single use plastic production will inevitably disappear, there will always be plastic in our waste stream – as a material it is just too useful to ignore. So, because we'll never be plastic free, we need to develop end of life solutions.”

To find out more about protos visit protos.co.uk