One of the UK's leading waste-to-energy technology suppliers, Chinook Sciences, is celebrating this week after inking a £300m deal to build one of the world's largest energy-from-waste facilities in the United Arab Emirates.

 

The deal, which represents one of the largest clean tech export deals completed this year, was announced on Friday by Trade Minister Lord Livingstone. It will see Chinook Sciences' subsidiary, Chinook Energy, deploy its advanced gasification technology at a site in the Emirate of Sharjah as part of a deal with Middle East waste management company Bee'ah.

 

Gasification technologies convert municipal waste into energy and fuel and are widely credited with cutting greenhouse gas emissions and resulting in significantly lower levels of pollution than traditional incinerators.

 

The company said the Sharjah deal and other orders in the pipeline would allow it to create 200 new jobs over the next two years, while also securing a further 650 jobs. Around half of the jobs are expected to be in the vicinity of the company's East Midlands base in Nottingham.

 

The deal was hailed by the government as evidence of the success of its new UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) programme for supporting medium-sized businesses.