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This will not be the first time pyrolysis has been used for waste disposal. The process is currently utilised at much higher temperatures to reduce the quantity of waste to be disposed and generate vapours that can be burned or used to raise steam for power generation. However, the idea of running it as a fast pyrolysis process for making liquid rather than gases is, said Bridgewater, relatively new..

Energy experts at Aston University have joined forces with UK waste company Biffa to investigate a new method of recovering energy from landfill sites.

Biffa, which operates over 30 of the UK's landfill sites, currently uses gas from these sites to power engines that generate electricity. However, tighter regulations, along with the changing nature of the waste that ends up in these sites, have driven Biffa to investigate more efficient methods of recovering energy from landfill.

The company has therefore teamed up with Aston's Bio-Energy Research Group (BERG) to investigate the potential of pyrolysis, a process that heats organic waste to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen and converts it into gaseous or liquid fuel.

Prof Tony Bridgewater, who heads up the Aston group, said the technique has a distinct advantage over existing methods. 'If you turn waste into a liquid then in principle you can run the engines on liquids. The great beauty is that it can be stored and transported which you can't do with a gas — you can't just close a valve on a landfill site.'

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