Gasification: much misunderstood - thoughts on industry discussions around failure by James Spreull

Following the recent publication of Luke Walsh’s article “Hoddesdon to shut as another waste gasification plant fails” as part of ENDS Waste & Bioenergy, our Project Manager & Process Designer, James Spreull, shares his thoughts, not only on the article itself, but on the way the industry discusses the concept of ‘failure’ -

“The ENDS Waste and Bioenergy article on the Hoddesdon Waste Gasification Plant underperformance is, of course, interesting. However, as an Engineer, what I really want to know is:

• What aspects of the process worked?

• what aspects didn’t work?

• And, most importantly, why?

The most fundamental unanswered question for Engineers when reading articles such as that in ENDs about struggling, failing, or underperforming projects is the simple question:

Why?

To quote Henry Ford:

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

We all know that a key part of the idea “more intelligently” requires a good engineering understanding followed by good project management; along with process engineering know-how.

So, with this quote in mind, the article should serve as a reminder that good project management and process engineering involvement, particularly in the early stages of projects, is critical to success.

Unfortunately, my experience as an engineer on many projects is that when process difficulties arise, or expectations are not met, it is the technology itself that gets the brunt of the blame.

The expression “throwing baby out with the bathwater” seems to fit here in terms of recent reports with Gasification projects. However, I have no doubt that a more detailed and open engineering analysis would show a very different picture.

To meet the power generation challenges facing us, and improve the delivery of EfW projects in the UK, we should think more like Henry Ford - and avoid Peter Cook’s humorous and less successful alternative “I have learned from my mistakes, and I can repeat them exactly”.”

As James so clearly points out, Project Management and pre-construction support are invaluable assets to large scale energy projects such as that in Hoddesdon; to ensure the project not only runs smoothly, but any challenges and potential stumbling blocks are identified & remedied as early in the process as possible.

The pre-construction phase is a phase of project management & construction support that, here at PWCL, we specialise in; this is arguably one of - if not the - most valuable phase of any large scale industrial project, simply due to the fact that more detailed analysis of process designs can significantly reduce investor risks - risks realised as the Hoddesdon waste gasification plant prepares to close.