Wastefront waste tyre recycling plant, Sunderland
Wastefront AS is offering an opportunity to invest around £120 million in the construction of a waste tyre recycling plant in Sunderland.
The waste tyre recycling plant in Sunderland will be the first industrial scale project of its kind in Europe, and one of the largest plants in the world processing waste tyres into fuels, scrap steel and recovered carbon black (rCB) which can be re-cycled into new products such as tyres. The facility is expected to enter commercial operation in the first half of 2025.
Wastefront AS is looking for equity and/or debt investors with mid to long investment horizons and there is a significant opportunity to participate in similar follow-on plant.
Location:
Sunderland
Investment type:
Capital investment - energy and infrastructure
Sector:
(Green finance and innovation, Energy from waste & recycling)
Project promoter:
Wastefront AS
Scale:
around £120 million
Planning status:
Planning application submitted
Time to Final Investment Decision (FID):
0-6 months
Sector and market opportunity
Wastefront AS combines proven technology and proprietary process knowledge to minimise the environmental impact of traditional tyre pyrolysis and optimise the recycling of waste tyres.
Its first full-scale plant in Sunderland will have an annual capacity to process 80,000 tonnes of waste tyres and convert it into commodities, including fuels and carbon black.
The facility is expected to enter commercial operation in first half of 2025 and annually produce about 16 kilotonnes (kt) of scrap steel, 23kt of recovered carbon black, and 34kt of recycled fuels.
There is a high global demand for the end products produced and Wastefront has an offtake agreement for all the liquid products with the global commodity trader Vitol.
There is also an abundance of available feedstock (end of life tyres) in the UK. The Sunderland project has a supply agreement in place with Gateway Resources, one of the largest waste traders in the world, for the full supply of feedstock.
Location
The plant benefits from its location in the Port of Sunderland, with direct access to loading and unloading facilities on site.
Research and expertise
Strong internal R&D focus and agreements in place with R&D partners for future projects. This includes an R&D project with the University of Newcastle for future value optimisation and new applications for the company’s products.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) highlights
A life cycle assessment performed by DNV GL showed that the plant will offset 1.8 megatonnes (mt) of CO2e throughout its lifetime. Fuels produced on site generate about 80% fewer emissions than comparable conventional fuels. A taxonomy alignment report performed by Rambøll shows that the revenue from the plant is 100% aligned to the EU taxonomy.
Promoters and partnerships
Wastefront AS is a Norwegian waste tyre recycling company. The opportunity is to invest in a UK subsidiary that will build the plant in Sunderland. It was founded in Norway in 2019 by its CSO and Director Christian Armand Hvamstad, CFO Vegard Bringsjord, and COO Inge Berge.
The company is led by CEO Vianney Vales, a former top executive from the Oil & Gas industry, who previously headed up biofuels companies and a project developer for sustainable energy projects.
The team behind the project have significant experience in the field of pyrolysis and sustainable energy projects.
In addition to the inhouse team, the company is working with industry leading partners and advisors.
These include Technip Energies for EPCm and commissioning, Devaltec for project development, DNV GL and Rambøll for technical and sustainability and DLA Piper for legal advice.
Wastefront AS has, worked closely with its offtaker (of fuels), Vitol, to ensure that the plant and its end products are optimised for the market.
Wastefront AS has received support from the Norwegian Government through Innovation Norway and has been awarded support for an R&D project through Eureka Eurostars.
