DONG Energy invests in bio plant in the UK

DONG Energy has decided to build, finance and operate the world's first plant for handling unsorted household waste without prior treatment, by means of enzymes.

The ground-breaking technology, REnescience, has been developed by DONG Energy and tested at a demonstration plant in Copenhagen since 2009. The new plant, the first commercial full-scale plant, will be built in Northwich near Manchester and will ensure that a larger part of UK waste will be recycled and converted into biogas.

Thomas Dalsgaard, Executive Vice President, DONG Energy, said:

"The decision to build the first plant is a very important step in our roll-out of the REnescience biotechnology. This is an entirely new way of treating household waste where we very effectively can ensure that we get as many resources as possible from our waste."

The plant will have an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes of waste, corresponding to the waste from almost 110,000 households. The waste will be supplied by the UK waste management company FCC Environment, which already collects household waste in the region.

The design and planning of the plant in Northwich have been completed, and the majority of the supply and installation contracts have been concluded. DONG Energy expects construction work to begin at the end of February 2016, and that the plant will be commissioned in early 2017.

The REnescience plant in Northwich will be able to receive unsorted household waste, which – through enzyme treatment – will be converted into, among other things, a considerable amount of biogas as well as recyclable plastics and metals. The biogas is converted to green power via gas engines.