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WASTE GASIFICATION I n 2014, the Energy Tech- nologies Institute (ETI) embarked on a project to advance practice and knowledge on waste gasification, the process where household waste is heat- ed to high temperatures with controlled amounts of oxygen and steam to produce "synthe- sis" gas, or syngas. Aƒer a com- petition in which three consortia were invited to develop their ideas, the ETI progressed with a patented process from a start-up called Kew Technology – the company says that its process is more versatile and less energy- hungry than other forms of waste gasification. Built on an industrial site in Wednesbury, in the west A high-efficiency waste gasification demonstrator project funded by the Energy Technologies Institute is producing electricity for the grid, but its sponsoring organisation was wound up at the end of November. Before closing day, ETI project manager Paul Winstanley told Elaine Knutt about what the ETI/Kew Technology Sustainable Energy Centre has achieved, and possible future milestones. NETWORK / 24 / DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020 a modified high-efficiency gas turbine to generate electricity. At the same time, the plant can pump cogenerated heat to local users – such as a nearby swimming pool – although that option has not yet been tested. In a different operating mode, however, the unrefined syngas – containing hydrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide – can be further puri - fied into hydrogen and sold to industrial customers. However, around per cent of the syngas is expected to be sold in its unre- fined state to other companies developing low-emission fuel products and solutions, such as liquid methanol used as a trans - port fuel, or producing methane as a form of energy storage or for injection into the gas grid. "The plant is designed to supply slipstreams of syngas for other people to experiment on," notes Paul Winstanley, project manager at the ETI. The project was also designed to commercialise smaller-scale waste gasification plants, including making them easier to construct, finance, and offering a greater degree of reassurance on ion the techni - cal risks and health, safety and environmental concerns. Largely, the Wednesbury- project has dealt with these questions positively. "A lot of people are very interested, the site is starting to prove the concepts we've talked about", says Winstanley. The project's technical success has also been established: the first syngas was produced in April 2019, while in September it contributed the first generation to the gird (while the gas turbine is still in the commissioning phase). But that milestone was reached just as the ETI – formed in 2007 as a public-private partnership to accelerate the development of low carbon technologies – reached the end of its lifespan. But while the ETI is no longer around, Winstanley will continue to work with the Wednesbury team as an adviser and consultant. Midlands, with a £5m invest- ment from the ETI, the dem- onstrator plant is designed to burn around 13,000 tonnes per year of locally sourced waste, and provide 1.8 MW of electrical power to the grid. Based on a scalable, modular design, it converts post-recy- cling refuse-derived fuel (RDF) into syngas that's used to power Squeezing efficiency from energy-from-waste