Bio-SNG - CNG Services

BIO-SNG FEASIBILITY STUDY – ESTABLISHMENT OF A REGIONAL PROJECTGiven the right support package, a demonstration project at 50MWth (75-100,000 te pa of feedstock)could be feasible, but the economies of scale mean that the level of support necessary is substantial. Thecombination of technical and commercial attributes, in addition to the current renewables incentiveregimes make a project configured to produce electricity a potentially more attractive platform. Thedevelopment of this commercial foundation could allow the demonstration of a slip stream of Bio-SNG atmore moderate additional cost.Alternatively the demonstration of Bio-SNG production could be predicated on an existing or alreadyproposed syngas platform. In the Teesside region there are a number of such projects or proposals,including the Ineos Bio facility, the proposed Air Products waste gasification scheme, or even the EstonGrange IGCC which is anticipated to utilise a biogenic fraction in the feedstock stream. This approachwould not necessarily demonstrate the preferred gasification system. However, it would demonstrate thedownstream gas processing, methanation, and gas polishing process components, provide tangibleevidence of Bio-SNG production to grid quality specification and establish the protocols and precedent forBio-SNG injection into the grid. This, combined with demonstration of the appropriate and provengasification system for syngas production elsewhere, could provide an incremental pathway towards alarge scale project, subject to the comments made in the previous section.The chemical and processing industrial heritage in the North East, its natural gas and servicesinfrastructure, its transport links and its track record of innovation make it an attractive region to locatesuch a project, particularly given the syngas projects already slated.With regards to potential new project sites, a high level screening exercise was carried out focused onprimary attributes (access to a deep water port, rail head &/or road access, gas connection NTS, or ifsufficient capacity LTS, electrical grid connection, commodities, water, cooling etc and desirable attributessources of rich hydrocarbons to boost gas quality, oxygen supplies, syngas main to valorise intermediate,& potential to link into CCS networks for carbon dioxide disposal). In Teesside, potential areas consideredwere Seaton Port, Seal Sands, Clarence Port, Billingham Reach, Norton Bottoms, South Bank, Corus,and Sembcorp. Many of these sites were generally suitable for either scale of facility, with good accessto intermediate pressure gas grid (17-40bar) with sufficient capacity. Probably the most favoured siteswould be Clarence Port and South Bank. Both these areas are part of re-development plans, and givenan appetite to progress, the commercial feasibility of project on these sites could be investigated in moredetail.Potentially one of the issues in locating the project in Teesside is feedstock supply. With regard to purebiomass, Teesside and the North East already has over 300,000te already in use (Wilton10 and co-firingat Lynemouth) with over 2 million tonnes per annum required for projects slated for development in thearea (MGT, Gaia Power and BEI). With regard to waste, SITA‟s Haverton incinerator already processes390,000te pa of waste with a recent contract award and expansion plan for a further 190,000 te pa. SITAand Sembcorp have also announced a planned Wilton 11 (400,000 te pa of household and commercial12