Keppel renews 5-year technical support agreement to maintain UK energy facility

Runcorn EfW processes close to 1 million tonnes of refuse derived fuel per year.

Keppel Corporation has won renewal for a five-year technical support agreement (TSA) for Runcorn Phase 1 and 2, two energy-from-waste (EfW) facilities in the UK.

Runcorn Phase 1 is owned by Ineos Runcorn (TPS) Holdings Ltd and Runcorn Phase 2 is owned by Viridor Energy Limited. They were designed and built by Keppel.

Combined, Runcorn EfW is one of the largest and most efficient EfW projects in the UK. The facility processes close to 1,000,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel per year. 

Post delivery in 2018, Keppel has provided performance enhancement reviews for the plant and five years of specialist technical support to the plant's operations & maintenance team. 

With the renewal of the TSA, Keppel will continue to provide support services for the facility under the TSA for another five years. 

The scope of the TSA covers assistance during major overhauls and data analysis on plant performance, amongst others, Keppel said.

Pre-FEED study
In addition, Keppel completed a Pre-FEED study on the energy recovery facility interface points for a proposed CC facility with the existing Runcorn EfW. 

This formed a part of an overall PreFEED study which supported Viridor’s funding application for the UK government’s industrial carbon capture (ICC) sequencing process, according to Keppel.

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In March 2023, the UK Government announced that the Runcorn EfW was shortlisted for the final stage in the UK government’s ICC sequencing process. 

The Runcorn EfW is part of the HyNet industrial carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) cluster, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions from industry, homes and transport and support economic growth in the North-West of England. 

HyNet is expected to enable the carbon dioxide captured at Runcorn EfW to be transported and permanently stored offshore in depleted gas fields in Liverpool Bay. 

The proposed CC facility is expected to capture 900,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually from the flue gases generated by the Runcorn EfW, which is equivalent to the carbon abatement of planting approximately 1.5 million trees annually, Keppel said.