LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Waste-to-energy gasification company Eqtec announced the signing of a collaboration framework agreement with the Germany-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company ewerGy on Monday.
The AIM-traded firm said the agreement covered the key terms of proposed cooperation, for the development of a portfolio of projects in Greece and the Balkan region.

On 3 March, the company announced that it had entered into a memorandum of understanding for the first gasification plant in Greece, under which it intended to provide its gasification technology to the plant as nominated subcontractor to ewerGy.

It said the purpose of the agreement was for Eqtec and ewerGy to "cooperate and collaborate" to develop projects together in the territory, and to promote and introduce to each other commercial opportunities.

The parties would focus their joint efforts to develop a selected project portfolio in the region, and to use Eqtec's 'Advanced Gasification Technology' in projects which would include electricity generation, heat supply and combined cooling heating and power (CCHP), as well as syngas to chemicals.

Eqtec said the intention was to focus on a portfolio approach in the territory, that would meet the strategic interests of both Eqtec and ewerGy.

EwerGy would act as an ongoing business developer for Eqtec in the territory and, in Greece specifically, it would also operate as the EPC contractor and operations and maintenance (O&M) partner.

Eqtec would provide engineering and technical design services, technology and project development support.

The parties had identified 11 potential projects in the pipeline, with two under development, of 0.5MWe and 1MWe, respectively, with the remaining projects under due diligence.

All of the projects had the required permitting, economic feasibility studies and secured biomass feedstock, supplied by the local communities, for proposed development.

The agreement would be valid for an initial 60-month period.

Eqtec said itself and ewerGy had "full confidence" in the potential of the agreement, adding that the company would update the market accordingly when the projects under review were progressed into a qualified contracted pipeline.

Any project that the parties decided to take forward and develop would be subject to a separate detailed contract, it added.

"Since January, we have been working with ewerGy and its local partner, ECO Hellas, on the development of the first advanced gasification plant in Greece, for which we recently announced a memorandum of understanding," said Eqtec chief executive officer David Palumbo.

"This collaboration has already been very productive, and the expertise, professionalism and local know-how of ewerGy and ECO Hellas have made clear to us the value of a wider collaboration with them.

"We are looking forward to opening up Greece and neighbouring countries for advanced gasification plants, and we are convinced ewerGy and ECO Hellas are the right partners to do so and have, already inside their network, access to an interesting prospective pipeline of projects."

Gerd Kromarck, chief executive officer of ewerGy, added that in the announcement of the memorandum of understanding for the first advanced gasification plant in Greece, the firm indicated that it was "very confident" that, together with Eqtec and ECO Hellas, it would set a "very high standard" in the market.

"As project developer and EPC contractor we will work closely together with Eqtec and ECO Hellas to execute as fast as possible our current projects pipeline.

"The opportunity is there: Greece and the Balkans can progress from a sub-standard waste management situation to a world class best practice in waste-to-energy."

At 0959 GMT, shares in Eqtec were down 16.25% at 0.17p.

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