A major Teesworks project has received a huge boost after the signing of a key partnership deal.

SUEZ recycling and recovery UK and Circular Fuels Limited have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to deliver a sustainable liquid petroleum gas replacement from waste material.

The companies have entered into an agreement to produce renewable and recycled DME, a low-carbon liquid gas which allows off-grid businesses and households, reliant on LPG, to decarbonise their energy use. It has a low greenhouse gas footprint, reducing emissions over 85% over the project lifetime.

It can also achieve over 100% emissions savings when carbon capture is used significantly helping the UK achieve its 2050 Net Zero Target.

The Northern Echo: -- (Image: Newsquest)

SUEZ’s role in the Circular Fuels led project has three key goals:

  • Jointly design and operate the pre-treatment process to produce a refuse derived fuel
  • Provide operation and maintenance services for the plant that will produce over 50,000 tonnes of rDME, a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) replacement fuel
  • Supply some of the c.250,000 tonnes of RDF feedstock required each year to produce over 50,000 tonnes of low-carbon LPG replacement, providing over 5% of UK’s LPG demand

 

The industrial scale plant will deploy KEW’s modular advanced gasification units at the scale of the existing operational facility, KEW’s Sustainable Energy Centre (SEC), and RenFuD’s syngas-to-DME synthesis technology.

Feedstock for the plant will come from household and commercial sources. The non-recyclable waste will go through a pre-treatment process to create a refuse derived fuel to feed the advanced gasification process to produce a syngas.

This is then synthesised into the liquid petroleum gas replacement fuel to be supplied at commercial scale from the Teesworks plant as an alternative fuel for the LPG Industry.

SUEZ CEO John Scanlon said: “We’re looking forward to deploying SUEZ’s extensive expertise in energy recovery to work with Circular Fuels Limited as it scales up production of its LPG replacement fuel for households and businesses. Not only will this offer a fossil fuel alternative for off-grid households and businesses, it provides SUEZ’s customers with an innovative solution that reduces the carbon impact of managing their residual waste.

"Renewable and recycled carbon DME is a sustainable fuel that can form part of the UK’s transition to a Net Zero economy. It also has the potential to achieve negative CO2 emissions and replace more carbon intensive fuels, such as coal and heating oil.”

Recommended reading:

Ed Hartley, Commercial Director at Circular Fuels, said: “As part of this MoU, we’re exploring numerous opportunities to work together, across all parts of the supply chain.

"Seeing the commitment from companies like SUEZ in the development of a circular economy through production of Renewable & Recycled Carbon DME enables its critical role in delivering an energy transition for off-grid areas, and cements the importance of our mission. I look forward to seeing what we are able to achieve together in this partnership.”

Circular Fuels Ltd (CFL) is a subsidiary of Dimeta (a joint-venture between SHV Energy and UGI International; the world’s two largest LPG market players), partnered with KEW Technology (a sustainable energy solutions company).

KEW’s advanced gasification solution, a form of Advanced Conversion Technology, provides an innovative approach to tackling climate change by efficiently converting various types of non-recyclable wastes and low-grade biomass into sustainable energy products, such as DME, hydrogen, heat, sustainable chemicals and advanced molecules such as rMethanol, rMethane and SAF.