Energos is a company specialising in turning waste into energy. It is part of Ener.G Group, a UK company offering four services: converting waste into energy, generating electricity from landfill gases, combined heat and power systems and energy efficiency, audit and management.

 

Energos is at the cutting edge of environmental technology, with plans to export 'green' electricity from plants in the UK and abroad, and Birse Waste was recently brought in to help design a new waste-to-energy plant in Hafslund, Norway. The company was chosen because of the high calibre of its people - they understand us and know how to complement our existing engineering capability.

 

The company also has the advantage of already working in related industries, such as water. Currently the Birse team is developing a 3D computer model of the new Norway facility, in order to make the construction process faster and more efficient. The model will allow us to plan for the construction stage with greater accuracy, meaning less time on site and more efficiency in the use of materials.

 

Birse is also helping us to design our first major UK plant, at Irvine in Scotland. When that plant is fully operational in 2010, it will process 80,000 tonnes of waste material annually and continuously power 10,000 homes. The Irvine plant follows the construction of a demonstration plant built on the Isle of Wight, which recently received a major accolade in the British Renewable Energy Awards.

 

The Isle of Wight plant will generate 'green' electricity from 30,000 tonnes of residual waste currently being processed at the Island Waste Services (Biffa) resource recovery facility. This facility is helping the Isle of Wight in its bid to become an Eco Island.

 

We are already planning other UK and worldwide facilities to generate green power and may turn to Birse again in the future both for design and construction.

 

At all plants the patented technology works like this: residual waste is fed into the gasification chamber, where it is converted into a syngas. This syngas is then transferred to a secondary oxidation chamber where it is fully oxidised in a controlled environment that enables much tighter control than can be achieved in conventional energy from waste plants - resulting in extremely low emissions. The heat is recovered to produce steam and/or electricity.

 

Energos is positioning itself at the leading edge of this technology, which provides a winning formula to combat pollution and waste, and we are pleased to be partners with Birse in this venture.

 

My main contacts at Birse Waste are Mark Diggle, Business Director and Ken Craven, Design Manager who are extremely professional to deal with. They work closely with us, sharing ideas and experience to design and deliver exactly what is required.