A former waste pre-treatment site in Northwich, Cheshire, is to be converted into a dedicated biomethane production facility after planners voted unanimously to approve the scheme.
Cheshire West and Chester Council's planning committee gave its backing to the project on 6 October. The application was submitted by Northwich Biogas, a subsidiary of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which acquired the Lostock Gralam site from Orsted in 2025.
The facility will process 177,000 tonnes of industrial organic and food waste per year, including food production effluents, wash waters, fat trap waste and other organic liquids. The resulting biomethane will be supplied to the national gas grid, with the developer saying output will be sufficient to heat more than 10,000 homes annually. The plant will employ up to 25 staff.
The project involves a full refurbishment of the existing site to phase out its municipal solid waste pre-treatment operation. New infrastructure will include a digester tank, biomethane upgrading units and carbon capture technology. The developer says the plant will also capture 28,100 tonnes of biogenic CO2 per year, supplying sustainable CO2 to the food, beverage and manufacturing sectors.
Feedstock will arrive by road, with a cap of 96 heavy goods vehicle movements per day. Odour was the principal concern raised during the planning consultation, with objections from several parish councils and Northwich Town Council. Officers told the committee that mitigation measures would be put in place around odour and air quality, and that technical assessments had been carried out to set limits.
