A consortium led by Advanced Plasma Power, the Swindon-based waste-to-energy and advanced fuels technology innovator, has secured £11m in Government funding to help build the first of a new generation of biofuels plants in the town.
The South Marston plant will take residual waste – the UK’s largest sustainable source of biomass – and convert it into compressed biomethane, using a pioneering technology developed by Advanced Plasma Power’s (APP) called Gasplasma. 
When fully operational it will produce enough fuel for 75 heavy goods vehicles, equivalent to all the buses operating in Swindon.
Biomethane can be used interchangeably with natural gas in heavy goods vehicles and is significantly less carbon-intensive and less polluting than diesel. It has the potential to cut transport carbon emissions by up to 96%.
APP and its partners National Grid, clean energy firm Progressive Energy, and CNG Services, a company which provides gas for use in vehicles, received the funding as under a Department for Transport (DfT) programme to develop and commercialise technologies needed to decarbonise the transport sector.
Construction of the plant will start next year and the consortium has already found local customers for the product and suppliers for the feedstock.
The post-recycling residual waste will be provided by a local source, and the gas produced will be used by haulage company Howard Tenens, which has a major base in Swindon, and CNG Services.
The use of gas as a transport fuel is growing. Retailer John Lewis already uses it for some heavy goods vehicles, while some bus services operated in Reading and Sunderland also run on the fuel.
The consortium has been working together for more than five years on a project to produce a renewable natural gas made from waste that can be pumped into the UK’s gas pipeline network which provides an excellent means of distributing the fuel to where it is needed.
Transport minister Andrew Jones announced news of the grant as part of £25m awarded to winners of the Government’s Advanced Biofuels Demonstration Competition.
APP chief executive Rolf Stein said: “APP is delighted to have been selected in this competition by the DfT. It recognises our position at the very forefront of environmental and technical innovation in the UK.
“The grant also highlights the important role our technology can play in producing clean biofuels from waste on a local basis, so as to help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from both the waste management as well as transport sectors without the requirement to give over large swathes of land to growing energy crops. From an economic, environmental and social perspective it presents a real triple win.
“Our state-of-the-art process can unlock the enormous value of residual waste as a resource and provides a cost-effective means of converting such waste to fuels such as bio-methane. Our expectation is that this plant will lead the way to a new generation of ultimate recycling facilities both in the UK and around the world.”
Transport minister Andrew Jones said: “This is a great example of our commitment to innovative transport technology and supporting jobs and growth.
“Biofuels have an important role to play in keeping Britain moving forward in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. This £25m is not only a vital investment in technology that will help secure a greener future but will also support the creation of thousands of jobs.
“Advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the equivalent fossil fuel. Swindon’s successful bid shows how the Government is investing in transport and making better, clean journeys.”
The plant would boost Swindon’s ambition to become a UK centre of excellence for alternative fuels. The town wants to become a testbed for a wide range of initiatives spanning the use of hydrogen to power fork-lift trucks in the town’s warehouses and commercial vehicles on its roads to small-scale renewable energy production for local business and homes.
Two years ago Forward Swindon, the town’s inward investment and economic regeneration agency, formed the Swindon Hydrogen Group with a number of public organisations, including Swindon Council, and private firms such as car giant Honda, which manufactures cars and engines in the town, and Johnson Matthey, which is pioneering production of fuel cells at its Swindon plant.
