This isn’t surprising given the major challenge that organic waste disposal represents for the food and drinks industry; producers, processors and retailers alike. The  annual waste arising from the UK’s food and drinks manufacturers is estimated at 5 million tonnes, with a further 2.2 million tonnes of by-products sent for animal feed.

The aim of the Anaerobic Digestion Zone at Foodex is to demonstrate the potential of generating energy from waste, and the applicability of AD to dairies, breweries, distilleries and food processing plants alike.  AD can be a reliable and profitable resource efficiency process with multifold benefits – cost savings on reduced waste disposal, utility and energy costs, the production of renewable energy (heat and electricity), an elimination of food waste to landfill and lower carbon emissions.  Yet there are several models, each with challenges, to accessing these benefits – security of feedstock, waste contract terms, capex requirements, losing core business focus, time, lack of expertise and experience  to name but a few.

The fact that Foodex is featuring AD for the first time feels like a tipping point. There were two AD plants in the UK in 2005; by 2011 there were 43 fed with food waste. It will be fascinating to hear the thoughts, questions and experiences of the food and drinks industry representatives at Foodex, which runs from 25-27 March at the NEC Birmingham.  We’re on stand D281 – come and see us to discuss how to leverage your pivotal role, as suppliers of feedstock, in accelerating the growth of AD.

The chair of the Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) Lord Redesdale cites three factors that will enable the industry to reach its potential:
1. confidence in the long-term security of financial subsidies
2. a coherent source segregated recycling policy
3. greater recognition of the role anaerobic digestion can play in supporting food security and farming best practice

Unlocking the potential of anaerobic digestion lies in security of feedstocks. It seems nothing but common sense that waste is treated by the technology that delivers the most benefit. And for organic waste, this is anaerobic digestion. The “no brainer” quality of anaerobic digestion is amplified by the multiple benefits on offer – the creation of sustainable energy, the reduction of waste to landfill, the contribution to economic growth and employment in areas such as construction, farming, waste collection, water treatment and transport – and a reduction in CO2 emissions, helping the UK meet its greenhouse emission targets.

The ADBA estimates that anaerobic digestion has the potential to help create 35,000 jobs and supply a fifth of the country’s domestic gas demands, helping to provide energy security. So, here’s to progress towards the three factors above – and coherent and sustained central and local government backing for anaerobic digestion!

Creating sustainable energy is an example of “upcycling” – a term used by the organisers – where “waste materials are converted into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value”. Entries were received from all over the world, including Bahrain, India, Kenya, United States, Denmark, Australia, South Africa and Sweden amongst others, and the top prize in our category was scooped by USA’s Ecologic Brands who make molded fibre bottles from recycled cardboard.

The 6th International Green Awards “green carpet” ceremony took place at the Natural History Museum, a venue fitting of the occasion! We were there to see the Best International Green Celebrity Award being won by the supermodel Gisele Bündchen (accepted by videolink); and the year’s overall Grand Prix Winner going to Unilever plc for their Sustainable Living Plan. The most moving part of the evening was the lifetime achievement award, given posthumously to Prof. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, for her lifelong commitment to environmental protection. The evening was full of excellent examples of companies with successful business models that are making a real difference to the environment. It will be interesting to see how far the bar can be pushed in 2012.

Full list of the International Green Awards 2011 winners is here: http://www.greenawards.com/winners

We’ve been chosen as one of three finalists in the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Awards, a category that champions achievement across the entire renewables sector, because we in the words of the judges “demonstrate exceptional work in this ever evolving sector” and have shown that InSource Energy is “integral to the successful diversification of future energy sources”.

This is the inaugural year of these awards – it is great to see renewable energy gaining public recognition as key to our low-carbon energy future, and that anaerobic digestion has such an important part to play. InSource Energy is proud to be at the vanguard of developing and providing future renewable energy infrastructure.

The winners are being announced on 10 November. Wish us luck. See the other categories here and here are some photos of the plant:

Jane Davidson being intervied by BBC Wales during her visit

This is the third in a series of plans which set out the waste reduction framework for Wales. Wales has a target to recycle 70% of waste by 2025 and achieve zero waste by 2050.

This plan addresses waste from businesses such as food manufacturers, shops and the service sector, which accounts for 40% of Wales’ commercial and industrial waste. Ms Davidson urged them to get involved in the consultation to help shape policy.

She said: “It is important that the burden of reducing food and packaging waste does not rest solely with householders.

“The food manufacture, service and retail sectors together generate 40% of our industrial and commercial waste, while food waste has the largest ecological footprint; accounting for 30 % of the total ecological footprint for industrial and commercial waste.”

The plan proposes a reduction of waste of 1.2% annually through businesses encouraging their suppliers to use less packaging, use recyclable materials and treating food waste through anaerobic digestion (AD).

The Welsh government wants to develop AD as the primary method of dealing with food waste. Wales put £34 million into the development of food waste collection between 2009 and 2011 and 80% of homes now benefit from this service.

Justin Strutt talks Jane Davidson through the SCADA control system

a)      Biogas from AD is eligible for RHI at 6.5p/kWh (th) if it is grid-injected, or burnt in either a boiler or other heat-producing equipment, or in a CHP engine.

b)      Biomethane grid injection is eligible for 6.5p/kWh (th) with no upper limit on installation size.

c)       BUT biogas combustion is ONLY eligible currently if the installation capacity is less than 200kW (th).

d)      Any heat used in the biogas production unit (heat supplied to the digester and pasteuriser if applicable) must be deducted from the output of the biogas combustion plant and only the net output will receive support.

e)      Importing heat from elsewhere to heat the digester and then exporting the gross heat output of the biogas combustion is specifically mentioned and any such import is also deductible from qualifying output.

f)       Use of biogas in a CHP engine receiving ROCs or FITs does not prevent claiming RHI on the residual heat output of the CHP unit, BUT receipt of any other form of state aid will disqualify an installation from claiming RHI.

It is unclear exactly how the 200kW (th) output limit would be applied in the case of an AD-biogas-fuelled CHP. It could be on the fuel inlet capacity, on the heat output capacity of the CHP engine, or (best case) on the net heat output capacity of the engine less the digester heating duty. This point could usefully be clarified and we have refered this to ADBA for comment.

Government is still thinking about what RHI it may decide to offer for biogas combustion (whether CHP or otherwise) with capacity above 200kW (th) so there is still some hope that this will become available in future ……… we will just have to wait a little longer.

In conclusion the level of RHI sems to have been set to give a parity with the subsidies for electrical generation, giving developers and operators an option to select how they best want to use their biogas.

The digester has been filled with the first biomass seed and final fix is underway to allow the introduction of food waste in February.

The plastic recycling plant installation has been set back to the end of February to allow on site trialling of the de-packaging plant.

The operational date of end of March 2010 is still on target.

• Power has been made available to the site.

• Electrical fix in the technical building is largely complete.

• The impermeable membrane has now been fixed to all sides of the bunded area. Work on drainage and topsoil is outstanding, this will be completed in March.

• All above ground pipework is now complete.

• All below ground pipework is complete; pressure testing on the pumping mains has been successfully completed.

• The reactor and balancing tanks have been insulated.

• Cabling to the hot water pipework and pasteurisers is now complete and work has started on insulation.

• The CHP engine has been installed and work is complete to the local control panel. Connecting gas pipework remains outstanding. The chimney and cooling fans have also been installed and the electrical fix to the coolers is complete.

• Work has started on installation of the hot water pipework, including heat exchangers and manifold outside the CHP enclosure.

• The depackaging plant has been delivered and installed, however the plastics washing and drying plant will be delivered in February once depack trials can be completed on site.

• The digester has been filled with seed biomass which is currently being heated using a temporary boiler. Once a seed temperature of 35 Deg C has been reached, food will be introduced to the digester. This is expected mid February.

• Civil works outside the technical building are now complete.

The Environmental Permit is now in place, and the Industrial Trade Effluent Discharge Permit has been received.

Application to DEFRA for operation of an ABP plant has been made. Approval is expected mid February.

Anticipated Commencement Date is on programme for March 31st 2011.

Appologies for the sound quality but if you can stick with it it is well worth watching.

Project Status Summary

Anaerobic Digestion Technology

• CHP has been delivered.

• Work has started on the hot water pipework, heat exchangers and manifold.

• Pasteuriser pumps now completed.

Mechanical & Electrical

• Membrane has been completed to make the bund watertight.

• Feedstock tanks are complete and scaffolding removed.

• All below ground pipework is now complete.

• Concrete has been poured to the bases for the chimney, coolers and flare stack.

Lightning Protection

Completed an assessment of the lightning protection requirement for the reactor and residue tanks.

Construction Programme

Despite recent adverse weather conditions the project remains on timetable.

All outsanding construction work is expected to be completed during February.

Commissioning

Commissioning of the digester is now underway. First biogas generation is expected during February and the first electrical output during March.

Heat Exchanger and Pasteurisation Equipment

The heightened awareness of the need to reduce carbon emissions and generate renewable energy has increased interest in exploiting the fuel value of those food wastes as an alternative means of managing food waste disposal.

Suitable technologies (notably anaerobic digestion) have been around for many years, and Government incentives in the form of sticks (landfill tax, for example) and carrots (renewable energy subsidies) make adopting such technologies increasingly economically attractive.

But there’s a catch. A moment’s thought will reveal that the vast majority of food wastes are generated in domestic kitchens or in small commercial operations such as restaurants, food stores and snack bars. Even larger organisations such as supermarkets and fast-food chains, who may generate substantial amounts of food waste overall, do so at many locations across the country which each generate only small amounts.

Plants to convert food wastes into energy are costly, and need to be of a certain size to be viable. You can’t have one on every street corner, so all those small volumes of waste need to be collected and transported to a central plant located somewhere within economic transport range. Before anyone will take the risk of building a plant, therefore, it is essential to be confident that sufficient wastes can be secured, at the right cost, to provide the fuel for the plant and the income to pay for it. This is not easy and largely explains why so few projects serving the commercial or industrial food waste sector have got off the ground.

The food processing industry is uniquely placed to profit from this situation – especially the operators of the larger processing sites where substantial volumes of food wastes are available in one location. Why? Simple – if your site has enough food wastes of its own, then you have a guaranteed baseload of fuel for a conversion plant. You don’t have to ferret around tying up hundreds of deals with small waste sources to fill a plant. You can simply build your plant using AD or another suitable technology, process your waste, generate power, and use it to drive your process in an efficient closed-loop treatment process. You gain a number of benefits besides the obvious one of generating renewable energy; you reduce transport of waste off site, you avoid off-site disposal costs, and you can proudly explain to customers and consumers alike how you are reducing your carbon emissions and building a more sustainable business.

Of course it is not quite that simple. Building a conversion plant makes sense only if it is right to do so technically and economically. Few manufacturers would wish, or can afford, to build a plant on “green credentials” alone – it needs to make sense from the perspective of the bottom line as well. This means that it is necessary to carefully analyse the available waste feeds, the costs (or indeed revenues) of current disposal options, the potential income from generated energy, the design and technical performance of the proposed plant, and the capital and operating costs of the conversion plant. Going through this process of exploration, design and development costs money, takes time, and demands expertise.

Some food manufacturers are happy to do this for themselves, perhaps with the help of consultants, and indeed a number of such projects are under way – for example there are several in the distillery sector which is particularly suited to this approach. In many cases, though, companies are  unwilling to divert precious resources into non-core areas, are under cost constraints or do not wish to invest their own capital into waste handling activities, or simply do not wish to be distracted from their core missions.

Which is where InSource Energy comes in.  We are an independent developer of waste-to-energy projects, specialising in on-site, closed loop projects for the food processing sector, We offer a complete package – we will develop the initial concept at our risk and at no cost to the client until we can demonstrate that there really is a viable project for a given site. We are not tied to any technology and can offer the best fit from all the available technologies for the unique needs of a given client. Once we have demonstrated a viable project, we can fund the planning, construction and operation of the plant in return for a long term agreement with the client to process waste and purchase energy. We always aim to deliver a solution which provides the client with a tangible bottom-line benefit by sharing the project returns with the client, as well as the non-financial benefits associated with the adoption of sustainable technology.

Even if you think your site is too small to sustain such an approach. This may not be the case. Some wastes which are currently sold (for example for animal feeds) and represent an income may be more valuable if converted to energy than the income received. In other cases, it may be possible to supplement the wastes available on a given site by importing wastes from other food factories nearby, or it may make sense to purchase supplementary fuels such as grass silage or maize to increase the energy output of a unit.

One thing is for certain – all food manufacturers should be thinking about the scope for benefiting from using their food wastes for energy generation.  Even if it is not for you, you need to understand why not so that you can explain this to your shareholders and customers when they ask why you are not doing it!