Powerhouse Energy has awarded the rights to commercialise its waste plastic to hydrogen technology to Waste2tricity (WT2).
The UK companies signed the binding heads of terms for engineering services, following a recent agreement for a site lease in Cheshire, England, where a plant will be built.
Earlier in April W2T signed an agreement with Peel Environmental for a 124-year lease of a plot on the Protos energy hub site, in Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire.
Waste2Tricity chairman John Hall said: “Signing this agreement with Powerhouse Energy means this technology will soon be ready for a large-scale roll out to eliminate the bulk of ocean plastics and making hydrogen the go-to fuel for the future.”
W2T is the exclusive developer for Powerhouse Energy’s proprietary ‘distributes modular generation’ (DMG) technology in the UK and southeast Asia, including Japan and South Korea.
According to Powerhouse its DMG technology is one of the world’s first proven, modular, hydrogen from waste (HfW) processes.
The Powerhouse DMG technology can generate in excess of one tonne of road-fuel quality hydrogen, and more than 28 megawatt hours of exportable electricity a day. Due to its low levels of safe residues and small operating footprint, the technology is suitable for deployment at enterprise and community level.
The next stage of development will focus on adapting the technology to allow it to produce hydrogen for use in a distributed hydrogen network as well as synthetic gas production for generating electricity.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract is in negotiation and planning application for the development of the plant at Ellesmere Port is expected to be submitted in spring 2019.
Subject to planning approval the plant could be operational later this year.
Powerhouse Energy developed the DMG technology over several years at the University of Chester to convert unrecyclable plastic into high-grade hydrogen for use as a transport fuel and as a gas for generating power for export by private wire or to the grid.
W2T is fundraising for £1 million and is in discussions with large institutional investors to back its plans to expand across the UK for future projects initially, but with a view to global expansion.