£100m bio fuel plant for West Berkshire to be decided by the Government

The Government has stepped in on whether to allow West Berkshire Council to decide whether the first hi-tech waste recycling plant in the country producing aviation fuel can go ahead in Theale.

The scheme could be a £100m investment in the district, and is said to set new sustainability standards for treating waste in the UK in a flagship scheme announced for West Berkshire.

The site, at Theale Quarry, aims to use a process called pyrolysis – the chemical decomposition of organic material with heat in the absence of oxygen.

But the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has called the application in, so it can decide instead of the council.

No reason has been given.

“No one thinks of waste treatment as sexy or fun, but when it comes to carbon removal I am really rather proud there is a site being considered here in West Berkshire,” said Vicky Poole (Lib Dem, Burghfield and Mortimer) at Wednesday’s eastern area planning committee, which was in favour of the scheme.

The facility proposes to turn residual waste into usable products, including bio-naphtha for use in sustainable available fuel, hydrogen and solid carbon.

There is no burning or combustion and therefore there are no emissions.

The process proposed for this site is protected by patent.

It results in a controllable process and produces a high-quality fuel gas, bio-naptha, and the proposed facility will be the first full-scale commercial operation of its type in the country.

The feedstock for the process will come from non-recyclable, non-hazardous residual waste that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated.

The planned development consists of two large single-storey industrial buildings, with two two-storey buildings for staff welfare.

The proposed facility will take residual waste, as shredded waste flock, from local waste sources, to produce a source of fuel and solid carbon.

The applicant says this will help to reduce the environmental impacts associated with landfilling and incineration, as well as reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

The process also has the capacity to achieve highly significant levels of carbon capture with the whole process calculated to be overall carbon negative. and can play an important part in meeting the council’s climate change targets, as well as supporting the UK’s aims to be carbon net zero by 2050.

The applicant says the creation of bio-naphtha as a product of the process also helps to support the decarbonisation of the aviation sector as it can be used to produce sustainable aviation fuel.

The development is expected to provide jobs for approximately 36 people, working a three-shift system.