Fuels producer touts energy market as plastic scrap solution

Nieuw Bergen, Netherland-based N+P Recycling B.V., a producer of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF) and a product called Subcoal, indicates it is “pushing companies” to continue to harvest plastic scrap from commingled streams as a way to supply these energy-from-waste markets.

N+P has announced it is investing in a new Subcoal facility being built in Teesside, United Kingdom. “Once erected, this will be one of the most modern alternative fuel producing facilities in the world. The yearly input capacity will be between 200,000 to 250,000 tons, mainly high-calorific-value-type RDF streams. The output capacity is around 180,000 to 220,000 tons of high-quality alternative fuels, designated for both the domestic as well as the international market,” states the company. N+P also indicates it has started to source and contract non-recyclable waste streams such as MRF (material recovery facility) rejects, industrial residues and plastic residues for the new Teesside facility, which is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2018.

“It is a well-known issue that high-calorific streams tend to have [fewer] options available apart from landfill, whereas the lower calorific value (CV) streams are perfectly suited for many domestic- and abroad-located waste incineration plants,” states the company in a news release.

The N+P statement continues, “With the recent messages in the news regarding the China 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.”

Materials in the 8-to-12 gigajoule (GJ) per ton range are supplied by “many of N+P’s long-term supply contracts to users in the U.K. and within Europe,” the company indicates. “There are also a number of possibilities for materials in the 12-16 GJ per ton” range, according to N+P. “For higher quality materials, N+P typically has a number of solutions all focused on the replacement of primary fossil fuels such as coal, in various applications all over the world,” the company’s news release further states.

N+P describes the Subcoal process as one that converts materials with higher CV ranges to a high-quality fuel pellet. These pellets offer significant value to its end users, as typically the pellets hold more than 80 percent of the energy compared to coal. The fuel pellets have proven themselves at a number of different applications, including cement, lime, steel and power plants, according to N+P.

The production capacity of the new Subcoal facility in the U.K. could equate to the substitution of approximately 160,000 tons of coal, preventing significant CO₂ emissions, according to the firm.