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Submitted by Colin Wakefield

Dear Sir,

teeside
Teesside. Plant

I have attached a newspaper article, which has a potential impact on Barbados. Firstly I should explain my own interest in both Barbados and the content of the article. My family and I have been very lucky to visit the beautiful island of Barbados over a number of years.

I have worked my entire working life in the UK defence industry, but have been involved in local politics in my home town. On one of our holidays I met Major Sam Headley and had various political discussions and have kept in touch over recent years, Christmas cards etc. My own interest in politics grew from a major environmental issue, which has negatively impacted on my home town of Houghton-le-Spring in the North East of England, unfortunately all the residents concerns with the landfill have materialized, dreadful smells, vermin and our greatest fear, pollution of our drinking water aquifers, which has now happened.
Since 1997 I have lead the residents fight against this environmental disaster and we have had some success, but sadly could not stop the landfill going ahead and take no pleasure in saying ‘we told you so’. As an engineer I was keen to support proper waste disposal/treatment rather than just saying ‘not in our backyard’ and have become involved in promoting better waste treatment and disposal of the what we all produce.

During a holiday in Barbados about three years ago I began to wonder how Barbados planned to dispose of the islands waste stream in the future (sad I know). After a little research I found the proposed plasma gasification plant proposal was well underway.

Through Major Sam Headley, I made contact with Mr Bizzy Williams, who I have kept informed of progress (or not!) of two very large plasma gasification plants, some twenty miles from my home on Teesside. Plant 2 was suspended just before Christmas 2015 and yesterday it was announce that Air Products are planning to walk away from the development, I have attached the article from today’s Newcastle Journal.

See relevant Links:

I continue to work part time in the defence industry, however the company I work for has an environmental division, which has just completed a large autoclave waste treatment facility, which in my view should form part of a better waste solution, more suited to Barbados and given the impending failure of the Teesside plasma gasification plant, are you aware of any change to the to the planned plasma gasification plant in Barbados, which now appears to have become very political.

I would be grateful if you could provide an update on the state of play with the plasma gasification plant planned for Barbados.


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77 responses to “Plasma Gasification Update Required Minister Denis Lowe!”


  1. By all means target him, By our writings we have demonstrated zero respect for a public official who has shown himself to be corrupt and incompetent.

  2. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    As significant as the cards are stack against Cahill Cowan, there must be a similar stacking against the entire cabinet of ministers, particularly Low Lowe, who felt it prudent to operate less than stellar in the Cahill affair. There is no need to find any additional evidence to prove that the Stuart led government lies, lied and lying. What is important is that they know what beliefs they felt kept them strong in thinking they had mastered the rhetorical skill perfected by the Artful Dodger, must make them come to the reality that their shenanigans are one by one being revealed. Where Stuart may feel silence is a golden rule, this particular tactic simply is having opposite effect as most simply see it as an to avoid the verdict – as guilty as sin.

    At this stage, Claire Cowan does not have anything to lose. She should start chirping like a canary and expose the entire scam that enticed cabinet ministers to sign in secret, a document they felt did not warrant the approval, scrutiny or say of the people.

  3. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Redfactor..I am surprised Clair Cowan is not in prison, but it’s still early days, hope they pick up the idiot politicians and 2 yardfowls AC and Alvin when they get arrest warrants.


  4. What’s to stop Cowan singing like a canary about the ‘sweetheart’ deals she had to agree to in order for the Barbados goverment to back her? They treated her like a leper the minute it started to go pear shaped instead of backing her up or protecting her. She should get her own back by singing BU a little lullaby…. We are all very intersted to hear….

  5. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Well, she started to sing in her phone conversations with her fortune teller. I do not see any reason why she should not expose the a whole lot of them unless they pull significant funds from out the genie bottle to pay for her silence. Low Lowe has to find a way to cover his tracks.


  6. Patrick Hoyos takes a turn in Cahill, BU agree with his conclusion.

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/79914/black-white-air-products-failure-cahill-caper.


  7. Where are the JADA boys in all this???
    They were the guys who fronted all the crazy woman’s meetings with the government in the Hilton hotel??
    Could it be they are real Cahill energy Barbados?????
    Are they stink liar ,Lowe life and Boyce’s
    Handlers?????


  8. @Redfactor101

    Connecting all the dots it has been obvious for a long time that Tempro, Bjerkam et al have been the movers behind Cahill Barbados Ltd.

    On 10 April 2016 at 20:37, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >

  9. Smooth Road to the EDGE Avatar
    Smooth Road to the EDGE

    In this Cahill scam Tempro, Maloney and Bjerkhamn were all fronts for the big power hitter in Barbados. This was put together by a big DLP power hitter, one who was made by the DLP and who is big enough to call shots with the DLP, Stuart, Sinckler, Boyce, Kellman and Lashley.
    Tempo would used-to to have call the power hitter Daddy once upon a time when he was but a boy.


  10. I would not be at all surprised to wake up one morning and find the infrastructure from the condemned Teeside plant on a ship at the Bridgetown port, waiting to be offloaded. This would not be the first time that the government has paid out good money for scrap, like the supposed Smart Meters which the BWA was lemoned off with, or equipment at QEH .


  11. @Colonel Buggy April 10, 2016 at 10:30 PM #
    I would not be at all surprised to wake up one morning and find the infrastructure from the condemned Teeside plant on a ship at the Bridgetown port, waiting to be offloaded.

    My concerns exactly for dying men are ruthless. Need I say more when dealing with $700 million or more.

  12. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    Kammie Holder

    That might just be the incentive needed to start the massive protest. However, Colonel Buggy is right, the way how these Pirates of the Caribbean Island of Barbados has operated,you can expect them to make another attempt to get the money. I am more convince ever than I was before that Cahill was more of a money deal than a desire to solve our waste problems through the creation of energy. There is no way in the world that for all that these idiots were planning to put Barbados in that they were not planning to get out all that they needed to make their lives comfortable, either in Barbados or some part of the world, where the aftermath of their fool hearty decision would not have the type of impact on them like it would for the rest of bajans. This Waste to Energy it done yet, not by long shot.


  13. Not only is Cahill done,it is buried. A reminder what caused Tees side to fail.

    Reasons for TV1 failure revealed

    6 April 2016 by Gareth Simkins & Luke Walsh , Be the First to Comment

    UK: Union official claims system was unstable, alleges serious flaws in the technology employed
    The TV1 site under construction. Image: Google, Infoterra Ltd and Bluesky
    The TV1 site under construction. Image: Google, Infoterra Ltd and Bluesky

    A union official has explained the reason he believes Air Products pulled out of the development of two high profile energy-from-waste plants in northern England.

    The plasma gasification system installed in Air Products Tees Valley 1 (TV1) facility eroded the gasifier walls through the combined action of heat and acids, according to GMB construction officer, Phil Whitehurst.

    Whitehurst, told ENDS that tests had been “blowing big holes” in the ceramic lining of the gasifier stack. He alleged that the technology employed by Air Products had been flawed from the start.

    According to Whitehurst, parts were taken from TV2, TV1’s sister plant, in order to try to fix TV1, but to no avail.

    Construction work was halted indefinitely on TV2 last November when an unspecified issue was discovered during the commissioning of TV1.

    Air Products has remained tight-lipped about the reason it scrapped development of TV1 earlier this week.

    A spokesman for Air Products said: “I am unable to go into specifics on the technology, but as we have said, we will continue to work to optimise the cash value of our investments.”

    AlterNRG, owner of Westinghouse Plasma who supplied the gasification system, was also contacted for a comment.


  14. @david
    Not trying to defend the gasifer but the union rep is misleading people
    1. It’s corrosion not erosion
    2 this gasifer is inches thick and is brick lined so I don’t know how this guy can say the gasifer is eroded/corroded?? Other than all the brick lining fell off.

    I’m not aware that they fired up the TV1 gasifier in anger as yet so not sure anyone is in a position to evaluate the operation.
    I believe it the integration of the whole system is the main issue.
    I also believe the brick lining of the gasifer and the massive exit duct is a major issue.


  15. Thanks Redfactor101. Bottomline is that the technology – especially given the scale – failed.

    Isn’t it in the sector’s interest to be transparent in what transpired at Tees Valley?


  16. @david
    Absolutely
    TV 1 had no leadership and all the contractors including the union labour just milked the project for all its worth.air products were totally hands off and paid the price.
    Tv2 airproducts too the lead on it but didn’t have the leadership skills in project delivery and again failure insued .
    Scale up wasn’t though through and balance of plant was poorly integrated

    And this kooky woman thinks she’s better at this than the big EPC contractors
    It really laughable


  17. Redfactor101 April 11, 2016 at 9:45 AM #

    “And this kooky woman thinks she’s better at this than the big EPC contractors
    It really laughable”

    And that this government believed that she’s better at this than the big EPC contractors is really tragic


  18. Bushie is still of the mind that this thing was NEVER intended to be built in Barbados.
    All government wanted was to be seen to be doing something high-tech and large-scale to deal with waste….and all the inside players wanted was to do some milking until 2018 or so.

    The sooner we recognize this kind of scam the sooner we will become MUCH more suspicious of all these fancy announcement coming from politicians (and some businessmen) in Barbados.

    …Launch a $100M project
    …Borrow (or take from the Treasury) and spend $5M in consultancies, plans, studies, site visits
    …20% of that seed money is directed to a shell company in Panama /Gurnsey/ BVI
    …Elections come / Retirement comes / technology changes/ ….or like Four Seasons/Pierhead/New Hospital etc the ‘project’ just dies..
    …You have $1M in your shell company.
    …Barbados just wasted $5M, as well as precious time and efforts when PRODUCTIVE projects could have been executed.

    Sam Lords is probably next after the Sugar Factory shiite implodes…


  19. The Bridgetown Redevelopment project comes to mind.


  20. @Due Diligence
    Clare Cowen is a rent-a-dummy director, trust me on this. In BVI, Panama, Turks, USVI and Channel Islands these idiots come cheaply, very cheaply. Didn’t you notice she was always drunk and could not talk any details about the project?

    CAHILL was a scam planned right here in Barbados by some very bright people and will the full assistance of the political operatives.


  21. @ Small Dwarf
    CAHILL was a scam planned right here in Barbados by some very bright people and will the full assistance of the political operatives.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    They are not all that bright…
    How much brains are needed to scam a bunch of bowls of brass?
    Is the esteemed NON-leper ‘bright’?
    Is Mark Maloney ‘Bright’?
    Bright shiite…

    The precious few ‘bright’ among us have retreated to North America and Europe or they just sit quietly in Barbados doing petty jobs….and wasting time making money…


  22. Where is the attorney general in all this crap?????
    Even the simple act of suspending the shell company Cahill Energy Barbados pending investigation would be a line in the sand???
    “No Barbadian company no contract!!!”

  23. Smooth Road to the EDGE Avatar
    Smooth Road to the EDGE

    Bush Tea
    The non-leper and MM have a lot in common. MM like Bjerkhamn and Tempro were pawns in this thing buddy. You know how much money it takes to keep a sunken marina afloat and also how much to costs to raise real estate project which have become ‘under water’ and where the main investor in rotting under ground?


  24. @Redfactor101

    All of Barbados is waiting for the AG to report to the Lower House about the status of Mia Mottley’s LEC. Perhaps he will use the visible opportunity to deliver on this overdue promise. Then again the AG is is a DLP politician and this trumps all other obligations to be honest and to uphold the tenets of that underpin integrity.


  25. Sunshine Kaidi group the new Chinese owner of Alter NRG are quoted as saying that the failure of TV 1&2 plants to complete are a blip on there radar and await the new owners of the waste to energy plants to be announced to access the real impact on an already buoyant order book.


  26. Why didn’t the plasma gasification plant work as proposed in Teeside? In my opinion feedstock was not of the correct quality for the plasma gasification process, the waste would have needed to go through a pre-processing stage to ensure that the moisture content of the finished prepared fuel (RDF) was in the 12-15% range otherwise too much moisture would lead to tarring of the internals of the furnace.

    The preparation of feedstock on plant of this type is one of the most important factors to consider.


  27. The bottomline – it does not matter how you twist it – the science is too young with a plant of the proposed scale to construct on a tiny island Barbados. Those who participated in this scam from our government must be held to account.

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