Stoke-on-Trent Sustainability Park

Stoke-on-Trent City Council have an existing Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) plant at Hanford which currently treats around 190,000 tonnes per annum of residual waste and is operated by a private Contractor. The facility is over 25 years old, with the civils infrastructure approximately 50 years old. The plant needs to be replaced by the end of the current contract in 2030/2032. In replacing this major piece of infrastructure, the council intend to take advantage of the opportunity to renew the site and its overall function. The site will form the hub of a state-of-the-art sustainability park. There will be a network of activity and infrastructure that will enable the city to reduce its carbon footprint and deliver sustainable energy in both the form of heat through a city wide District Heat Network (DHN), and electricity. The council plan to remove the existing Hanford on site ERF and Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) and replace these with a new, larger ERF than can process 240,000 - 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum, potentially along with an associated Material Recycling Facility (MRF). This MRF may be located on another site. The ERF will deliver Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) technology. The council, working with commercial partners intends to maximise revenue from the site and leverage this to fund the delivery of their broader policies associated with managing the impact of the council's operations on the climate, i.e. the Net Zero agenda