How the Cairo plant will work  Waste is fed into the compactor before being heated to 1,200C. The process uses less oxygen than normal incineration, burning some of the waste and setting off a series of reactions. The main products are synthetic gas, which can be used to power turbines, plus salt, zinc and various minerals  Mohamed Tawfick sat in his north London living room, watching the television anxiously. Cameras panned round the crowds in Cairo's Tahrir Square before Egypt's vicepresident delivered the news everyone had been waiting for: Hosni Mubarak, the country's discredited ruler, would step down and let the army take control.  Four months later, Tawfick is due to meet the interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf, as one of the first British-based businessmen trying to tap into the opportunities thrown up by Egypt's revolution.  Tawfick's company, Global Renewable Environmental Energy, hopes to build an ?880m plant in Cairo that will convert household waste into energy. He plans to use a funding model based on the Private Finance Initiative. a 35-year deal to process rubbish and supply gas to the government would be securitised by a regional bank.  "It's one of the first contracts of its kind," Tawfick said. "Egypt has a problem with waste, because it buries most of it and it's harmful for the environment.  This is a green business, there's no corruption and it's straightforward."  Tawfick has a colourful past.  The 58-year-old trained as a lawyer in Cairo and made his money in quarrying before moving to Britain in the late 1970s. He built a buy-to-let property portfolio, but was arrested and convicted of conspiracy to steal by Middlesex Guildhall crown court in 1996. The appeal court later quashed his conviction and Tawfick won a landmark payout for an unfair trial from the Home Office in 2000.  Global Renewable Environmental Energy struck a provisional agreement to build the waste processing plant with Egypt's previous government, and kept the idea alive as the spring uprising swept a new administration into power. Tawfick is often described by colleagues as being well-connected, with a talent for lobbying politicians.  The potential deal comes at a time when Egypt is eager to show it is open to overseas business.  William Hague, the foreign secretary, and David Cameron have both visited Cairo since the overthrow of Mubarak to discuss ways of ushering the country into the international community.  Philip Turner of EC Harris, one of the consultants advising Tawfick on the project, said: "Egypt is looking to invest in waste management and energy infrastructure and has a growing desire to get this done. The new government seems even more keen to go ahead than the last one."  Tawfick plans to build the plant on a 130-acre site in a suburb of Cairo called Qulubiya.  Waste in Egypt tends to be thoroughly sifted, with any metals being taken out and reused.  Tawfick's unit would receive the kind of household and clinical refuse that is otherwise sent to landfill.  The process Tawfick aims to use is known as gasification. Waste is fed into the plant on a giant conveyor belt and compacted bef