Dreams of hot water piped direct to homes thanks to a cutting-edge treatment process could be on hold for years and may never happen.

Chief executive of the Blackpool-based company said the Fleetwood site – next to the current Jameson Road sewage works – was one of around 30 they were looking at in different parts of the country.

And the current construction of a waste recycling plant at Thornton could be one of the key factors counting against Biogen moving north to Fleetwood.

Chris Reeve said: “We are not even sure we will ever build in Fleetwood. It’s pretty much down the list.

“Lancashire County Council has already agreed a deal with Global Renewables (at Thornton). They have already done something so we are looking at places which don’t have an arrangement.”

The Biogen plant mooted for Fleetwood could cost around £40m and would employ approximately 25 people. The process it uses, pioneered and widely used in Norway, involves enclosed heat treatment of non-recyclable waste. That produces a gas which is burnt to provide energy for the national grid.

Typical

A typical plant produces up to 10 megawatts – enough to provide energy for 15,000 homes.

Mr Reeve said: “In Norway they are situated centrally because they provide heat for homes.”

He said there should be no concerns for Fleetwood people about pollution if the plant was ever built.

The port has suffered with foul smells coming from the Jameson Road facility for more than a decade.

He explained: “Emissions are, on average, less than 10 per cent of EU permitted levels. It’s very clean and this isn’t new technology. These plants have been operating in Scandinavia for the last decade.

“In other parts of the country the reaction has been very, very positive.

“It has been welcomed because of an obligation to get out of landfill and the public has to be realistic about how we are going to get rid of waste if we can’t bury it in the ground.”