News

Powerhouse Energy Enters Loan Agreement To Progress Development Of Protos Plastics to Hydrogen Park

By May 14, 2021 3   min read  (589 words)

May 14, 2021 |

Fuel cells works, hydrogen, powerhouse, energy, plastic, fuel cells

Loan facility will protect the delivery schedule for Protos

Powerhouse Energy Group plc (AIM: PHE), the sustainable hydrogen company pioneering hydrogen production from waste plastic, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to enter into a loan agreement to provide up to £3.8 million to Protos Plastics to Hydrogen No. 1 Limited, the Peel NRE Special Purpose Vehicle (the “SPV”).

The loan is to progress the development of the first ‘plastic park’ at the Protos plant, in the North West of England. This will be the first commercial application of Powerhouse’s waste plastic to hydrogen technology, which it is expected will be licensed to the Peel NRE SPV. Peel NRE is a group company of the Peel Group.

Powerhouse Energy Group’s unique Distributed Modular Generation (DMG®) technology provides a solution to non-recyclable plastic and produces a clean fuel that can help improve air quality by replacing diesel with hydrogen as a transport fuel. The technology aims to be used at a local level providing a closed loop solution within the community for non-recyclable plastic waste, cleaning up oceans and helping to accelerate the clean energy transition to reach the target of net zero emissions by 2030.

Under the agreement Powerhouse has agreed to provide a loan facility of up to £3.8 million. This facility is for the specific purpose of securing long lead time items and project design services in respect of the Protos project, prior to securing long-term debt funding arrangements by Peel NRE.

The loan follows the sanctioning of the project by the Powerhouse Board and it will supplement the existing Peel NRE investment. The project will use the proceeds of the loan to commit to procurement of the long lead items including the Thermal Conversion Chamber, the syn gas process module, the compression and power generation modules. The procurement packages have followed the Peel commercial review of the facility and the design has been refined to optimise the supply, mix and use of waste material feedstocks for the site in addition to the provision of options for hydrogen export.

Completion of the Protos plan remains the Company’s top priority. The Board believes the provision of this loan will protect the project development schedule and facilitate the finalisation of the SPV agreements.

Tim Yeo, Executive Chairman, said:

“Powerhouse is now putting its money where its mouth is. The joint Peel NRE/Powerhouse technical delivery team have done a fantastic job in aligning the chosen suppliers to meet the specification for DMG.

“We are confident that this loan facility has the great benefit of protecting the delivery schedule for Protos. The plant is modular and the majority of our project fabrication activities are covered in these contracts.”

Myles Kitcher, Non-Executive Director of Powerhouse and director of Peel NRE, said:

“I would like to congratulate the team in aligning the design to meet our operational needs. The commitment made by Powerhouse supports the Peel NRE expenditure and will cover the project planned budget commitments with protections until all financial agreements are in place. Significant progress has been made across all aspects of the project since the beginning of the year, including site preparation, and we anticipate full construction to commence over the coming months.”

The news comes after the announcement that Powerhouse has agreed to sign non-binding Heads of Terms with Hydrogen Utopia International (“HUI”) with a view to granting an exclusive non-transferable licence for the application of its DMG® technology in Greece and Hungary.

Read the most up to date Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Industry news at FuelCellsWorks

FuelCellsWorks

Author FuelCellsWorks

More posts by FuelCellsWorks
error: Alert: Content is protected !!