WORK has started on the construction of the world’s largest plasma gasification plant with its development signalling the dawning of a new era in the UK’s Energy from Waste sector. The £300m plant in Teesside, North East England, is being built by US industrial gases outfit Air Products using the latest plasma gasification technology developed by AlterNRG Westinghouse. The 50MW, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant will convert domestic and commercial waste into a syngas, which can generate steam for electricity, or for producing chemicals or liquid fuels. The current technology deployed by the UK’s limited number of EfW plants is mass burn incineration which turns the waste into steam to power turbines. Emissions from these plants have led to concerns over the environment and health. Air Products has subsequently unveiled plans for a second plasma gasification EfW plant, next to the first one, and the two plants between them have the potential to recycle the rubbish from ...