LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Gasification technology company Eqtec announced on Friday that its subsidiary Haverton WTV and Scott Bros Enterprises have signed a call option and exclusivity agreement for the purchase of the land on which the proposed up-to-25 MWe Billingham waste gasification and power plant at Haverton Hill, Billingham would be built.
The AIM-traded firm said the project at Billingham was part of a portfolio of projects currently under review by a European owner-operator of waste-to-energy infrastructure, which was expecting, assuming completion of a final credit review and requisite documentation, to provide the financing required for the construction phases, and to commercially operate the plants and the project.

Assuming the requisite financing was provided, Eqtec said it expected to act as the co-developer on the project, providing the design and core advance gasification technology and retain a portion of the operations and maintenance contract.

Conversations with potential engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies were ongoing, with the documentation required for tendering the EPC contract for the first phase of the project currently being produced

Once full commercial EPC offers were reviewed and negotiated to contract, a final decision would be reached over the funding structure for the project, on which Eqtec would then update shareholders.

"We are pleased to have signed this call option and exclusivity agreement to acquire the project site after completing our due diligence, making good progress on financing discussions and shortlisting EPC companies for the project," said chief executive officer David Palumbo.

"We estimate that, with the application of Eqtec's advanced gasification technology, the project would convert 200,000 tonnes per year of non-recyclable everyday household and commercial waste otherwise destined for landfill or incineration.

"In this way, Eqtec expects to be able to significantly improve both the economics and the environmental impact of this plant and many traditional waste-to-energy facilities, bringing employment to the local area and economic and environmental benefits to both the local community and large industrial energy users, whilst delivering attractive returns to our shareholders."

At 1127 GMT, shares in Eqtec were up 5.17% at 1.22p.

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