It has high hopes the £750,000 fee deal for client Enviroparks will lead to a contract to build the £170m facility to process a mix of municipal, commercial and industrial into a fuel from which electricity will be generated.

Local planning authority Rhondda Cynon Taf Council has given planning permission for a waste plant on the site, with a view to it being operational in the 2014-15 timeframe.

Mark Huddart, Costain business development director for waste, said: “This is the first pure waste and energy consultancy contract for our waste sector, in line with our ‘3 Cs’ strategy – Consultation, Construction and Care.

“Our client has recognised and valued the skills that we can bring to his team to help convert this major scheme into reality. We beat off some formidable competition to win the contract.”

Huddart added: “While assisting Enviroparks to develop the scheme on paper, we could also build the facility and then be involved in its care and maintenance for the foreseeable future.”

Enviroparks and Costain are proposing an environmentally advanced plant that would use gasification of waste-derived fuel as the main process.

This waste cooking process creates a gas mixture called syngas, which can then be used to power a conventional steam generator, or, after cleaning, power a gas turbine, gas engines or be fed into the national grid.

The proposed plant would accept up to 240,000 tonnes of waste annually to be converted to a fuel which produces around 20MW of electricity to the grid – enough to power the equivalent of 20,000 homes.

Since the electricity generated from the waste by this technology is from non-fossil fuel it attracts ‘renewable obligation’ funding via OFGEM, which adds to its attraction.

The next phase will be completion of the design, logistics and planning necessary to finalise the project funding, before then moving into engineering, procurement and construction.

Enviroparks hopes to roll out the plant technology elsewhere in the UK.