FCC reports progress on its Millerhill Recycling and Energy Recovery Centre

Pictured above, from left: John Blair, director, resources (Midlothian);
Dan Murphy, head of municipal treatment (FCC); Cllr Russell Imrie (Midlothian);
Cllr Karen Doran (Edinburgh); Andy Williams, waste and cleansing manager (Edinburgh);
Andy Smith, project director (FCC); Richard Keane, site manager (HZI).

FCC Environment (U.K.), the U.K. division of the Spain-based FCC Group, says that in the 15 months since ground was broken in Millerhill, Scotland, construction of its energy-from-waste and recycling plant has progressed quickly.

Environment leaders from the city of Edinburgh and Midlothian Councils, which are the areas the plant will serve, visited the site in mid-January 2018 to see the progress. 

The Millerhill Recycling and Energy Recovery Centre (RERC) is being developed by FCC Environment (UK), which signed a 25-year contract to deliver and operate the £142 million ($196 million) plant in October 2016. FCC Environment (UK) has contracted the lead engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) role to a joint venture formed by FCC Medio Ambiente SA and Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), which is headquartered in Switzerland.

The build, which is scheduled to take 30 months, is on a brownfield site that is now barely recognizable as the former Millerhill Marshalling Yard, FCC says. The main building has now reached its full height, with the first part of the roof structure having been installed at the end of December. Over the last six months, a vast amount of specialized equipment has been delivered and installed in the facility, the company says.

The plant is set to enter full operation in 2019 and will treat 135,000 metric tons of household residual waste and a further 20,000 metric tons of commercial waste annually, FCC says. It will generate sufficient electricity to satisfy the energy demands of up to approximately 32,000 households. 

Construction will continue through the rest of 2018 and the two councils are expected to start delivering waste to the facility at the end of the year to allow the important commissioning and testing phase to get underway, according to the company.

A separate facility, which takes all food waste collected by the partner councils, is already in operation on the neighboring site to the RERC. These new facilities to treat food and nonrecyclable waste, creating renewable energy in the process, will help both authorities contribute to the national recycling target of 70 percent by 2025 and the national landfill diversion target of 95 percent by 2025, FCC says.

More information on the project is available at www.fccenvironment.co.uk/edinburgh-mid-lothian-efw.html.