What is Energy from Waste?
Energy-from-Waste (EfW), also known as Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF), creates power by turning water to steam to generate electricity – all from the combustion of non-recyclable residual waste. This process can also export steam and/or hot water to nearby homes and businesses.
The innovative technology in today’s EfW facilities makes them super-efficient in recovering energy in waste that remains after recycling, known as residual waste.
State-of-the-art air pollution-control equipment scrubs and filters exhaust gases to achieve superior environmental performance. This entire process is fully protective of human health, local communities and the environment. This proven and tested technology is continually being developed and improved and is the most sustainable and effective way of diverting waste from landfill.
Benefits of Energy from Waste
Safe, advanced technology provides waste disposal that reduces greenhouse gases, generates clean energy and recycles material, helping mitigate climate change.
Pre-sorted waste combusted in an EfW facility does not generate the greenhouse gas methane, as it would in landfill.
Metals once destined for landfill are recovered and recycled, with further recovery from ash processing, instead of being thrown away.
The electricity and heat generated offsets greenhouse gases that would have come from coal and natural gas facilities, making EfW the only form of power production that truly reduces emissions.
Energy produced via EfW is reliable baseload power, meaning it’s generated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This allows not only the sale of electricity to the grid but the delivery of heat in the form of steam and/or hot water to homes, public buildings and business facilities.
Waste generated from EfW has important uses in agriculture and construction.
EfW facilities can also provide:
- Measurable contributions towards The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.
- A major boost in the UK’s long-term energy security through low-cost production and a reduction in the extraction and use of fossil fuels for generating power.
- Local job creation and supply chain opportunities in the construction and operational phases.
- Operational facilities that provide significant tax revenues for local authorities through business rates.
About Earls Gate Energy Centre
The Earls Gate Energy Centre (EGEC) is an Energy-from-Waste Facility (EfW), jointly owned by Brockwell Energy, Covanta and Green Investment Group, in Grangemouth, Scotland.
The EfW at Earls Gate will be a fully integrated heat and power facility that will provide all the energy needs of CalaChem Ltd in its production of fine chemicals.
The EfW retains sufficient capacity to produce additional electricity, steam and/or hot water for businesses, industry and residential purposes.
It can process up to 216,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial pre-sorted waste every year, export more than 33MW of heat to CalaChem for industrial use and produce more than 22MW of electricity.
Benefits of Earls Gate Energy Centre
- Measurable contributions towards The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.
- Recovery of up to 54,000 tonnes of recyclable materials comprising:
- 48,000 tonnes per annum of mineral aggregates
- 3,000 tonnes of ferrous metals
- 3,000 tonnes of non-ferrous precious metals
- Low-cost energy production and displacement of fossil fuels.
- Production of 77% of electricity from renewable biogenic materials.
- Treatment of 216,000 tonnes of municipal and other waste every year.
- Diversion of 210,000 tonnes of waste from landfill every year, reducing the impacts of pollution, odour emissions, and soil and water contamination.
- Raised awareness of and improvement in climate change mitigation through renewable energy.