New biogas plant scheduled for Wiltshire

Biogas plant developer Malaby Biogas is to begin commissioning an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in the second quarter of 2012, which will be the first plant of its kind in Wiltshire, UK.

The Bore Hill Farm Biodigester at Warminster will use commercial food waste, abattoir waste, spoiled non-woody crops and animal slurry to produce the gas.

By the third quarter of next year, the plant is expected to take about 20,000 tonnes of food waste from nearby landfills each year, generating about 500kW of electricity to the national grid and supplying energy to nine businesses due to be built on the site in 2013.

The project, which is expected to cost about £5 million (€5.83 million), will also produce 15,000 tonnes of digestate, which can be used as agricultural fertiliser as an alternative to chemical fertilisers.

‘There is growing pressure on businesses in the food sector to dispose of their waste in a far more responsible and efficient manner than simply sending it to landfill. For such companies, the Bore Hill Farm Biodigester offers an option which is both environmentally and financially attractive,’ says Malaby Biogas director Thomas Minter.

Because the organic waste is being transferred to an AD plant, no landfill tax is charged, saving £64 per tonne.

‘With our AD facility there are less waste transport miles. Having waste sorted at source reduces processing and transportation which reduces the carbon footprint of disposal. Reduction in all parts of the waste processing allows the overall cost of waste disposal for the producer to be drastically reduced,’ adds Toby Minter, who runs Malaby Biogas with his brother Thomas.