ReFood's £20m AD plant complete

Construction work on ReFood's new £20 million (€25 million) anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Widnes, UK has been completed by building and civil engineering contractor Britcon. The project has now been officially handed over.

The plant is the largest gas-to-grid AD facility in the UK and the second plant for the ReFood brand in the UK. It will recycle some 90,000 tonnes of commercial and domestic food waste and will generate up to 17MWh of biogas which will be transported directly to the national gas grid to provide enough power for 8,000 homes.

Britcon was appointed to deliver the project in following successful completion of ReFood's first AD plant in Doncaster, for which it was also recently appointed to deliver a £1.85 million extension.

Britcon was principal contractor for the entire project where over 1,000 international workers were employed over an intensive 18 month build programme. The project brief included earthworks, piling operations and structural works comprising multiple high rise, post tensioned, circular, reinforced digester tanks, receiving tanks and gas storage tanks. A de-packaging building with a deep basement, numerous process structures, extensive external works all on a live site with difficult ground conditions were also part of the contract together with a carbon neutral high spec office complex.

The move to gas-to-grid is a new development for ReFood, and the first gas-to-grid AD plant in the company's European portfolio of 11 plants, which together provide enough power for 46,000 homes.