UK’s first plastic waste to hydrogen plant proposed

The UK’s first plastic waste to hydrogen plant could be built in Cheshire.

The plant would use Distributed Modular Gasification (DMG) technology which can produce a local source of hydrogen from unrecyclable plastics.

Peel Environmental, who are working in partnership with Waste2Tricity to add the facility to their Protos site in Ellesmere Port, believe the clean and low-cost hydrogen could then be used to initially power buses and HGVs in the region, before being rolled out to hydrogen cars, helping to reduce air pollution and improve air quality on our roads.

The £7m plant would be able to treat up to 25 tonnes of waste plastics a day that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration.

Peel also says the plant will generate electricity which could be supplied to businesses located at Protos via the private network.

Waste2Tricity is currently in discussions with suppliers of unrecyclable plastics across the region, including companies that could send their waste to the Protos site. The development would see a further 25 full time permanent jobs created at the Protos site with over 100 jobs created in the North West during fabrication and construction.

Myles Kitcher from Peel Environmental said: ‘We have a huge problem with waste plastic in the UK – almost 1.2 million tonnes goes to landfill every year.

‘Working in partnership with Waste2Tricity we are developing a closed loop solution where plastics are brought to Protos and recycled on-site with the leftover material used to create hydrogen instead of ending up in landfill. This project really sums up what Protos is about – using innovative technologies to create value from waste, recover resources and provide low carbon energy sources which then can be used on site.

‘Not only will this help tackle the problem of waste plastics, it will provide a local source of hydrogen which could be used as a clean and low cost fuel for buses, HGVs and eventually cars, helping to reduce air pollution and improve air quality on our roads. The hydrogen revolution is taking place now in the North West and this project shows how we’re leading the way.’