Air Products Slates Waste-To-Energy Unit

Air Products & Chemicals has received permission from U.K. government authorities to build a waste-to-energy facility in Billingham, England. The facility will divert 300,000 metric tons per year of household and commercial waste from landfills and use it to produce 49 MW of electricity, enough to power 50,000 homes. Air Products says the gasification facility is the first of a number of such units it plans to develop in the U.K. over the next few years. The firm previously had a 50% interest in a U.S.-based waste-to-energy business, American Ref-Fuel, but sold it in 1997.