Technology


    Plant design

    In the late 18th Century the engineer William Murdoch discovered the method of turning coal to coke and then to gas – thus inventing one of the main sources of heat, light, and power for the industrial revolution and beyond. Murdoch’s house in Redruth, Cornwall (where he worked for steam pioneer James Watt) was the first gas lit building in the world.

    Compact Power has revived Murdoch’s processes of pyrolysis and gasification, using waste and biomass rather than coal, to create a state of the art method for waste processing and renewable energy. The process meets the highest current environmental standards.

    Compact Power plants are designed as closed systems in which all materials are converted into simple gases and used to fuel conventional steam power cycle. Facilities can be designed for multiple waste streams and fuels.

    A Compact Power facility is made up of multiples of a standard plant module (MT2)
    based on the following components:

    Hopper and feed system

    Pyrolysis chamber with 2 pyrolysis tubes
    Each tube is designed to process up to 500kg of waste per hour. Materials are
    taken through the tube and heated to c.800ºC in the absence of oxygen.
    Hydrocarbons are converted to simple gases leaving residues of carbon char,
    inert grits and heavy metals.

    Gasifier
    Residues are reacted within a superheated steam box in the classic “water gas”
    reaction to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

    Thermal reactor
    Gases from pyrolysis and gasification are reacted with air at high temperature
    (more than 1250ºC for more than two seconds) to ensure destruction of pollutant
    gases and any particulate carry over.

    Steam boiler
    Exhaust gases are passed through a steam boiler.

    Power generation
    Steam turbine or steam reciprocating engine.

    Compact Power Holdings plc AGM – Media Release – 30xi06Compact Power Holdings plc, the the AIM listed waste and biomass to energy company, held its Annual General Meeting in Bristol today. All resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed. Following completion of the formal business of the meeting, the Chairman, Nic Cooper, made the following statement: ‘Trading at the existing Avonmouth plant continues to improve with unaudited revenues for the six months to 30 September 2006 up 28 per cent on the same period last year due to higher volumes and gate fees. PDF

    Compact Power wins €1.64 million European contract. – Press ReleaseBristol 29 November 2006 Compact Power Holdings plc (‘Compact Power’), the AIM listed waste and biomass to energy company, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a €1.64 million contract by Italcementi S.p.A. of Bergamo, Italy. The contract is to design, supply and install a Compact Power pyrolysis and gasification plant in Italcementi’s cement plant at Salerno in Southern Italy. The plant will produce a fuel gas generated from waste material which will be fed into the cement plant, replacing fossil fuels normally used in the process. PDF

    Royal Navy Contract – Press Release – 23xi06Bristol based AIM quoted energy from waste company is pleased to announce that an order has been received from QinetiQ for the design and supply of a waste processing plant to be installed in HMS Ocean the Royal Navy’s largest surface vessel. This order valued at £238,000 for Compact Power follows the successful construction and operation of a prototype for QinetiQ at their test facility at Haslar near Gosport. PDF

    Defra agrees to £5m funding for Bristol pyrolysis plant (14.11.06) – LetsRecycle.com – 14xi06A waste pyrolysis plant proposed for Bristol has at last received funding approval from Defra under the £30 million New Technologies Demonstrator Programme. Biomass-to-energy company Compact Power is to receive £5 million from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for the £20m plant, which should now be operational by the third quarter of 2008. PDF

    £5million funding awarded by Defra – Press Release – 14xi06Compact Power Holdings plc (“Compact Power”), the AIM listed waste and biomass to energy company, is pleased to announce that it has completed a £5 million funding deal with The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under their New Technologies Demonstrator Programme. This funding clears the way for Compact Power to finalise the financing for a major project at Avonmouth. This project will undertake a programme with Bristol City Council to evaluate Compact Power’s technology for the processing of municipal waste. PDF