UK moves forward with renewable energy pledge

Anaerobic digestion is a hot topic in the United Kingdom these days when it comes to waste management. The Coalition government is forging ahead with its highly publicized plans to provide more anaerobic digestors to generate heat and electricity from organic waste.

According to an article in today’s BusinessGreen.com, ministers met with representatives across the industry to identify any barriers to the sustainable technology.

As reporter James Murray noted:

“The technology is fueled using biomass such as animal manure, sewage or food waste, which is digested by enzymes working in the absence of oxygen to produce methane. The methane is captured and can be burned off onsite to produce electricity and heat, converted into biofuel, or upgraded to biomethane which can be fed into the national gas grid. The resulting waste material can also be used as fertilizer.”

Anaerobic digestion is well suited to farms and businesses that produce large amounts of organic and food waste. As the article mentions, it also has the power to reduce the amount of organic waste going to landfills and can cut greenhouse emissions.

Roundtable discussions will tackle everything from the financial benefits and viability of using anaerobic digestion to ways the government can harness the power of biogas produced through this energy conversion technology.

If you were in attendance, what questions or concerns would you have? What would you most want to know about the addition of this technology on a much broader scale?

Supermarket soon to be powered by food, too

We expect to find food in a supermarket, but one large UK supermarket will begin to power it’s distribution center using food waste, too. TESCO’s Widnes location aims to use solely renewable energy starting this summer, according to the blog Anaerobic Digestion News.

The company joined forces with Stobart Group and recycling experts PDM Group to transform 230,000 tons of food waste into heat and electricity that will be used at the facililty, which serves northwest England.

Anaerobic Digestion News quotes Juliette Bishop, TESCO’s corporate affairs manager, on the move:

“This venture is an ideal example of how sustainability is at the very core of the TESCO business and it’s great that we can demonstrate that our food waste is directly providing power back into our operations, helping us to reduce waste going to landfill and our carbon footprint.”

Do you know of any examples of a biomass-to-energy system closer to home? How do you help reduce your carbon footprint?

Construction begins on UK’s largest AD plant

 

The United Kingdom may have already earned trendsetter status for its efforts in sustainabilty and food waste management. As construction begins on what will be the largest anaerobic digestion plant so far in the region, experts say many more AD plants in the UK will follow suit.

The Selby Renewable Energy Park, designed by Austrian firm Entec Biogas, will have the capability to transform more food waste into renewable energy than any other plant in the region. Thanks to partial funding from the UK Waste and Resource Action Programme, the plant will use state-of-the-art technology to treat food waste from supermarkets, restaurants, and waste management companies for processing.

According to an article in FoodProductionDaily.com, Entec Biogas CEO Bernhard Schultz was quoted as saying: “After having successfully realised AD plants for food waste in Japan and Germany, we are very happy to set up a milestone in the UK market with the largest AD plant for food waste. We see high potential for these types of plants during the next few years in the UK market. In general, these types of biogas plants for food waste are trendsetting for the whole European market.”

The article details primary sources of food waste in the UK and notes that the Selby facility will allow the government to divert “as much food as possible away from landfill sites.” While saving space in landfills, the organic waste can instead be transformed into renewable energy for the region.