Over the past few weeks I've been increasingly concerned about the potential Enviroparks development on Hirwaun Industrial Estate. I've now done detailed research work on the performance of the the plasma gasification element of the technology proposed and the results are very serious indeed.
So far we have had to rely on the company, Enviroparks, to provide information about the likely emissions from the plant. I have undertaken considerable research into these technologies and identified a pilot plant for many of these technologies – Plasco in Ottawa. Plasco was identified in early press reports of the Enviroparks development as a partner in the Hirwaun project, though there have been no recent reports of a link with Plasco.
In Ottawa, Plasco has built a demonstration plant to illustrate the potential of the technology. The relevant website address is www.zerowasterottawa.com.
We are therefore able to look to an international example and see how clean this technology really is and whether any problems have arisen. Plasco has also published on the website detailed engineering reports of emissions for every month of operation. This research work is based on those reports presented on the company website.
There are two major problems illustrated in the reports:
i) The emissions limits for the plant have been breached on a number of occasions. In all, 25 breaches of the emissions limits have been identified which had to be reported to the Ministry of the Environment in the past 12 months. (The date and nature of each breach is listed in the notes).
ii) Even though the emissions have been high and at times unacceptably high, the plant has failed dramatically to process large amounts of waste. Though having an apparent capacity to deal with 75 tonnes of waste a day, the average waste processed is nearer to 7 tonnes a day. The claims therefore of an ability to process 35,000 tonnes of waste a year have proved to be false. The plant will have processed only around 2,000 tonnes of waste during the past 12 months.
Not only is the proposed technology highly polluting but, worse, it appears not to work anywhere near the level necessary to be either commercially viable or to justify public support for such an experimental technology.
The point relating to emissions is illustrated below with reference to emissions of Nitrogen Oxide. The %age processed is the amount of waste as a %age of capacity.
12 Months of Emissions at the State of the Art Waste Plant in Canada
Month, Waste (Tonnes) Processed, Nitrogen Oxide (Flare), % of Capacity, % of Nitrogen Oxide Limit.
Feb-10 6.1 89.02 8% 81%
Jan-10 5.4 102.7 7% 93%
Dec-09 3.9 108.04 5% 98%
Nov-09 6 87.79 8% 80%
Oct-09 7.96 96.5 11% 88%
Sep-09 7.9 139.65 11% 127%
Aug-09 5.6 103.19 7% 94%
Jul-09 7.8 102.61 10% 93%
Jun-09 6.4 110.8 9% 101%
May-09 8.3 103.42 11% 94%
Apr-09 14.8 97.76 20% 89%
Mar-09 10.5 97.6 14% 89%
Feb-09 6.9 80.71 9% 73%
There is also a concern about the toxicity of the waste water from the Plasco plant. This was such an issue that a new wastewater facility had to be built and this became operational in late 2009. There are two ways to look at this. One is to say that a lesson has been learnt and that no problems will therefore arise. Another is to raise concerns about the modelling that failed to predict such problems. I favour the latter, though the supporters of the proposal may favour the former interpretation.
Based on the published evidence, there are very real and serious concerns about the pollution from the technologies proposed by Enviroparks. The international evidence is clear. Without further technological development, the proposed development in Hirwaun is an emperor with no clothes!
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