Developer Peel L&P Environmental is pressing ahead with plans to build the first phase of its innovative plastic recycling park in Cheshire.
The firm has completed the front end engineering design for what will become UK’s first waste plastic to hydrogen facility. Costing around £20m to build, the Protos Park plant, near Thornton Science Park, will transform the way plastic is dealt with regionally and will act as a blueprint for future projects to be rolled out nationally. Peel plans to develop 11 facilities across the UK in the next few years and has the option of exclusive rights to the Powerhouse Energy technology in the UK leading to over 70 facilities in total. The plastic to hydrogen facility is the first part of the ‘Plastic Park’ planned at Protos, which will revolutionise the way that plastic waste is currently handled. Envisaged to be one of many Plastic Parks, it will offer a solution for the 4.9m tonnes of plastic waste generated each year, preventing it ending up in landfill, exported overseas or in the ocean. The industrial plant will use pioneering DMG – Distributed Modular Generation – technology developed by Powerhouse Energy Group. Richard Barker, Director at Peel L&P Environmental said: “This FEED phase is an important step forward in delivering this innovative technology at Protos. “Working with Powerhouse Energy we’re creating a blueprint for this UK first plastic-to-hydrogen facility, with plans to roll out over 70 more across the UK. “With hydrogen increasingly being seen as an important part of our journey to net-zero the time is now.” Peel L&P Environmental is engaging with supply chain partners to support the project with construction expected to start later this year. The company is also in the process of applying for an Environmental Permit for the facility.