Waste-treatment growth

New Earth Group, the British waste treatment and renewable energy company, has announced plans to raise a minimum of £15m in equity in exchange for a minority stake.

According to the group, cash raised will be used to accelerate the growth of its waste-treatment business and develop power plants that recover renewable energy from waste.

Bill Riddle, chairman of New Earth, said: ‘These funds will allow New Earth to accelerate the growth of its waste-treatment plants and to be at the forefront of recovering renewable energy from waste via gasification or pyrolysis on a commercial scale in the UK.’

New Earth Group comprises the waste treatment company New Earth Solutions Group and the renewable energy company New Earth Energy.

New Earth Solutions was established by Riddle in 2002 to help the UK meet its statutory and binding landfill diversion and recycling targets. The company has successfully developed low-impact, fully-enclosed facilities that utilise mechanical biological treatment and composting technology.

New Earth Solutions’ key technology is the Advanced Bio Stabilisation System. This temperature-controlled composting process uses air-handling equipment to prevent odour or emissions of bio-aerosols normally associated with traditional waste-treatment processes.

In addition to the treatment of biodegradable wastes, the technology captures other recyclables such as plastics, glass, ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

New Earth Energy was formed in May 2008 to exploit waste treatment and energy recovery. New Earth Energy is said to be in an advantageous position to deploy gasification and pyrolysis, both advanced thermal-conversion technologies.

Additionally, New Earth Energy is exploring the potential to use anaerobic-digestion (AD) technology to convert food and other organic wastes into renewable energy, either as electricity or as a transportable fuel.

The group now has three operational waste-treatment plants that provide 170,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of capacity, potentially increasing to 270,000tpa. Two of the plants are profitable and the third is expected to become profitable during the current year.