Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) has reached an agreement with a joint venture formed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and FCC Environment Group for the funding, ownership, construction and operation of a new energy-from-waste plant (EFW) at TCE’s Lostock manufacturing site in Cheshire, while at the same time allowing TCE to remain a key long-term participant in the project.

The agreement includes a £480 million investment at the site, and will contribute to the UK Government’s strategy to reduce landfill and the export of waste.

The Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant will recover energy from residual waste left over after re-usable and recyclable material has been removed.

Since 2010, TCE (www.tatachemicalseurope.com) has been developing the EFW project to make use of the organisation’s existing industrial land at the site (made available after the closure of the coal-fired power station in 2000).

Alongside the creation of hundreds of new jobs in the area and bringing in a long-term tenant for the land, the new plant will be able to supply steam to TCE’s manufacturing operations.

The construction of the EFW will also deliver tens of millions of pounds of improvements to TCE’s operations and, under a contract for up to 35 years, TCE will supply the EFW plant with its Briskarb sodium bicarbonate product (used for flue gas treatment).

The long-term supply of significant volumes of Briskarb, in conjunction with the investment in the infrastructure at the site, will underpin TCE’s future operations at Lostock.