Waste management company 800 Super opened its new $130 million integrated energy and resource recovery facility in Tuas South yesterday.
The company, which delisted from the Singapore Exchange's Catalist board this year with help from private equity, also said it will soon enter the animal feed processing business and provide heating services for third-party ISO tank containers, which are used for transporting hazardous and non-hazardous liquids.
"We are constantly seeking opportunities to strengthen our value proposition to customers," said executive chairman Lee Koh Yong, whose family controls 800 Super. "Both new businesses will be housed here in this integrated facility and powered by both the electricity generated from our biomass plant and steam produced by our sludge incinerators."
The integrated facility, about the size of three football fields, houses a biomass energy plant, a sludge treatment facility and an industrial laundry. It uses the energy by-product of one activity to generate energy for the next.
For example, the biomass energy plant generates two million kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, or the amount of energy needed to power about 5,000 four-room Housing Board flats. Part of this electricity will be channelled to power the sludge treatment plant.
The group is making "final preparations" to launch its animal feed processing business in the first quarter of next year, Mr Lee said at the opening ceremony.
This business involves converting wet spent grains such as malt and soya beans into animal feed ingredients. Steam from the sludge incinerators will be used to heat-dry and sterilise the grains.
800 Super wants to double its processing capacity from an initial 240 tonnes of spent grains a day to 480 tonnes a day by the end of next year.
The firm has also started trials to provide heating services for third-party ISO tank containers. The heating uses steam energy generated from the company's incinerators. This will also provide cost savings as the company will not have to rely on conventional fuels, Mr Lee said.
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