Turning waste back into valuable resources has to be good for our environment and so it is encouraging that a lot of academic and commercial organisations are now developing ways of achieving this aim.
In 2011, Recycling Technologies Ltd was formed as a spin out from the University of Warwick. Now with the help of Birmingham University it is forging ahead with its Combined Heat and Power [CHP] plant fuelled by Mixed Plastic Waste [MPW]. But bringing such novel concepts to fruition involves risk which is not always easy to finance. The company is therefore delighted to have recently overcome this very significant financial hurdle on the road to building the first machine, called the WarwickFBRTM.
Recovering the energy from MPW is not a new concept, but the plant for doing this is typically large scale and expensive. Due to this scale, getting material to them requires undesirable trucking and then distributing the large quantities of waste heat they produce is often problematic. The Recycling Technologies plant will enable MPW to be consumed on much smaller sites with 1 ton per hour of MPW producing up to 3MWe output and a similar quantity of thermal energy. The financial return on the much smaller investment makes the plant more financially attractive than more traditional mass burning facilities and the reduced transport and improved waste heat recovery options provide environmental benefits too.
Turning such concept into a commercial success requires considerable technological perseverance from a motivated, multi-disciplined team, which requires a significant level of funding. Securing such funding is however where the circular argument can start; significant funding is averse to perceived risk, but risk is always present when it has never been done before. Discovering the requirements of different types of investors and gearing the proposition to the right type was the key.
Established Venture Capital firms like to invest significant sums of money where the technology has been largely proven; we neither needed such levels of funding nor could show the risk profile they desired. The governments grant schemes are good, but it is difficult to build a business plan on the assumption that an application will be successful. We found that the business angel community, buoyed by the governments excellent Enterprise Initiative Scheme [EIS], does a good job in filling this early stage investment gap.
Their benefit is they not only provide cash but also the advice and experience which can make the difference between success and failure. Whilst they understand the potential rewards of investing in novel technology, they also understand that the associated risk must be mitigated. Being able to demonstrate that there is a market for our product, and that the team were up to the technological and financial tasks ahead was critical to our bid being successful and instrumental in approaching the Wroxall Investor Group [WIG].
Peter Jones OBE, one of the UK’s leading waste management experts, joined the team as an advisor giving the company a clear high-level perspective of market trends.
Peter Jones OBE, one of the UK’s leading waste management experts, joining the team as an advisor and the support of a forward thinking customer settled the market question. The technical capability of the team, given its relationships with the Universities was understood, but its credibility with the business angel community was helped significantly by David Ashcroft and Martin Lusby, both members at WIG, joining the team.
With the backing of the WIG, we can now expand the team to accelerate the journey to installing the first WarwickFBRTM but also put in place the infrastructure we need to attract other potential customers. With 2,500,000t of MPW heading to landfill each year in the UK alone, enough energy to supply the domestic electricity demand of Wales, we hope that the financial return that the plant can provide will result in many of them being installed so making a really positive environmental impact.