An "experimental" facility for handling waste which cannot be recycled will be built near to Wells.

PyroCore Ltd, which is based in Portishead, has been granted permission to create a pyrolysis site near the existing mill on Haybridge Lane.

Waste which cannot be recycled will be processed on site over a 12-month period, allowing the company to test its technology and demonstrate it to potential clients.

Interested parties will then have the opportunity to install this technology on their own sites once the year-long trial is completed.

Pyrolysis entails the "thermal degradation" of waste, heating materials to very high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment.

This process causes the materials – such as non-recyclable plastic – to chemically decompose and reduce in size by up to 95 per cent.

Whatever material is left over in the form of char can be transported off-site and disposed of safely.

Somerset County Council's regulation committee approved the plans when it met in Taunton yesterday (November 7).

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Planning officer Stephen Boundy said up to 50 tonnes of waste would be processed on-site during its 12 months of operation, with the technology being capable of handling 250kg of waste per hour.

The site will only be active for one day a month, operating for a 16-hour period and processing four tonnes of waste on each occasion.

Mr Boundy said in his report: "Approximately five per cent of the weight of the input (2.5 tonnes per annum) of char will be produced, and this will be disposed of at a suitably permitted waste management site.

"Pyrolysis produces a gas (known as syngas) that is burnt to produce the heat to maintain the pyrolysis process and to provide usable energy."

PyroCore stated in August that the site would be used to demonstrate its technology to potential clients in Somerset, with a view to businesses being able to install the necessary apparatus in-house and generate their own energy in the process.

A spokesman said: "This is transformative technology. We're not here to replace recycling but to be used for things that can't currently be recycled.

"After comprehensive training, someone within a private company can use the unit and waste can be processed in-house. This will help eliminate the pollution of trucks going to and from sites and landfill."

Mr Boundy added the pyrolysis work would have "no direct impact" on the paper mill's operation.

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