N+P's new Teeside Subcoal® plant will come on-stream in 3Q18
N+P is investing in a new Subcoal® facility, which is being constructed in Teesside, UK. Once erected, this will be one of the most modern alternative fuel producing facilities in the world, according to the company.
The input capacity of this new facility will be between 200-250,000tpa and will mainly consist of RDF streams with a high calorific value (CV). The output capacity is around 180-220,000t of high-quality alternative fuels, designated for both the domestic as well as the international market. N+P has now started to source and contract non-recyclable waste streams such as MRF rejects, industrial and plastic residues for the new Teesside facility, which will open in 3Q18.
As China has implemented an import ban of plastics, it is to be expected that current RDF streams will have higher CVs. With no value for the plastics, many recycling companies choose to not pick out more plastics from mixed wastes. "This could potentially pose a problem as many solutions for waste are designed to take a specific quality range," said N+P in a statement.
N+P is pushing companies to split both fractions to get the optimal waste solutions for each individual quality. "It is a well-known issue that high calorific streams tend to have less options available apart from landfill, whereas the lower calorific value streams are perfectly suited for many domestic and abroad located waste incineration plants," said the company.
Lower-grade materials, typically within a 8-12GJ/t range, are supplied within many of N+P’s long-term supply contracts, to users within the UK and Europe. There are also a number of options for materials which are in-between the standard RDF and SRF qualities, or mid-CV range (12-16GJ/t). For higher-quality materials, N+P typically has a number of solutions that enable the replacement of primary fossil fuels such as coal, in various applications all over the world.
To substitute solid fossil fuels in industrial processes, N+P is using its patented process called Subcoal® to convert the higher CV ranges to a high-quality fuel pellet.
