PowerHouse’s Board has confirmed it has entered into a conditional agreement for the acquisition of Waste2Tricity Limited.
The PowerHouse Energy Group plc (PHE) DMG technology, with Waste2Tricity Limited (Waste2Tricity) as a development partner, will provide a solution to unrecyclable plastics whilst creating hydrogen – a fuel that is now widely considered vital in getting to net zero emissions and in creating a green economic recovery post-COVID-19.
The acquisition follows a period where Waste2Tricity, PowerHouse Energy and Peel L&P Environmental Limited (Peel) were collaborating to develop 11 waste plastic to hydrogen facilities across the UK.
Myles Kitcher, Managing Director of Peel, has already been appointed to the board of PHE as a non-executive director. Waste2Tricity Managing Director, John Hall, and current Deputy Chairman, Howard White, will become consultants to PHE on completion of the acquisition.
These ‘Plastic Parks’ will revolutionise the way that plastic waste is currently handled. The parks could provide a complete solution for the 4.9 million tonnes of plastic waste generated in the UK each year, preventing it ending up in landfill, exported overseas or in the ocean.
Planning permission has been approved for the first facility at Peel’s 54 hectares ‘Protos’ site near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
The newly combined PHE group will see each site generate £500,000 per annum in licence fees.
Using a ‘UK first’ advanced thermal treatment technology the network of facilities could transform the way waste plastics are dealt with nationally.
The pioneering DMG® (Distributed Modular Gasification) technology has been developed by PowerHouse Energy at the University of Chester’s Thornton Energy Park and produces a local source of hydrogen from unrecyclable plastics. This clean and low-cost hydrogen could be used to power buses and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs), before being rolled out to hydrogen cars, helping to reduce air pollution and improve air quality on our roads.
Helping to tackle another significant environmental problem, the technology also provides a solution to plastics that cannot be reused or recycled and that would otherwise end up in a landfill. With almost 1.2 million tonnes of waste plastics going to landfill every year, local authorities across the country are looking for alternative treatment technologies.
Waste2Tricity Chairman, Tim Yeo, will be appointed to the board at PHE as a non-executive director. Mr Yeo has a wide experience in government, serving in the Environment and Health Departments, and subsequently as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in the Shadow Cabinet.
Tim Yeo, Chairman of Waste2Tricity said: “This acquisition by PowerHouse Energy signals a new dawn for the fuel of the future, bringing together a range of expertise which will help to make hydrogen fuel a reality. We welcome Peel’s recognition of the potential of this technology and I look forward to serving on the board and seeing the ‘Plastic Parks’ provide a solution to waste plastic in the UK.”
