Chris Laurie, chief executive of 9.99 percent Energy Developments shareholder Orion New Zealand Ltd, has been appointed acting chief executive.

Energy Developments also announced plans to try and find partners for its Solid Waste and Energy Recycling Facility (SWERF) in an attempt to move the project forward.

Late last month the company said a vital element of SWERF, the char gasifier, was damaged and testing of the process delayed at its Whytes Gully plant in New South Wales state.

"The company has now prioritised bringing the Whytes Gully SWERF plant to commercialisation without the secondary char gasification unit which has been the primary cause of the recent development delays," the company said in a statement last week.

"Expenditure on other SWERF development and marketing activities will be strictly limited until this has occurred."

SWERF recovers resources such as metals, glass and rigid plastics from the waste stream and then treats the remaining material using gasification. This produces syngas which is used to power spark ignition engines which generate electricity.

The char gasifier is used in the final stage of the gasification process.