26 July 2007

New Alternate Weekly Collection Scheme Guidance Favours AD

There has been nothing as contentious for a long while in the Waste Management scene as alternate weekly collection schemes (AWCS). So it is interesting to note the new guidance: Your Web Master.

WRAP have re-issued their guidance on alternate weekly collection schemes. Included within the revised guidance is a suggestion that to meet Landfill Directive requirements it will be necessary to deal with food waste. The best way to do this the guidance suggests is through a weekly collection of food waste and to process it either through composting or preferably through processes like Anaerobic Digestion. [Download the .pdf here. - Removed because the linked pdf is no longer available.]

19 July 2007

Biogas Production Conference: Biogas from Agricultural Biomass and Organic Residues

The International Biogas and Bioenergy Centre of Competence (IBBK) invites you to participate in the international conference "Progress in Biogas - Biogas production from agricultural biomass and organic residues" which takes place from September 19-21, 2007 at University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.

During three days the international conference will extensively discuss the topics production technologies and gas utilisation, country related political frameworks, chances and perspectives for rural areas as well as global epicentres of biogas production.

With presentations from well known international scientists and practitioners as well as with penal discussions, poster sessions, an exhibition and technical tours the international conference will show future developments in the field of biogas production and utilisation.

You will find further information regarding the program as well as a registration form attached to this mail. For more detailed information please visit our homepage: http://www.biogas-zentrum.de or download the comprehensive program brochure from http://www.biogas-zentrum.de/ibbk/downloads/int_IBBK_Biogas_konf_2007.pdf .

Book this month and take advantage of our early bird rates for bookings made before July 31, 2007!

Combined Anaerobic Digestion/In Vessel Composting Plant Announced for Northamptonshire

A newly established organics company has announced this week that it will be opening a composting facility in Northamptonshire next April which will combine anaerobic digestion and in-vessel composting.


The Bio Group, which formed this May as a joint venture between in-vessel specialists Cambridge Recycling Services (CRS), composting machinery providers Global Recycling Solutions as well as green waste and wood processors Material Change; has begun construction for a 30,000 tonne per annum facility in the village of Helmdon in the south of the county. (see letsrecycle.com story)


The "hybrid" system: Steve Sharratt, chief executive of the Bio Group, explained that having both technologies in one facility will allow the company to simultaneously treat source segregated food waste in the IVC and food waste in paper, cardboard or plastic packaging in the AD.


The building to be converted to the Waste Reception Building AD Process Building with the area for the IVC tunnels on the left.


The system will also mean that the solid digestate - one of the end products of the AD process which needs treating before it can be safely spread onto land- can be treated onsite in the IVC, then composted in windrows.


The Bio Group revealed it has "agreements in place to ensure the compost produced by both processes will be used to improve local farmland" and that it is looking at how the site can achieve the quality standard, PAS100 for the compost.


As for the energy produced by the AD process, Bio Group has confirmed that it will be used to power the site and that the surplus will be fed into the national grid. See more at Let's Recycle.

18 July 2007

Can Landfill Leachate be Treated by Anaerobic Digestion?

Just a short post today, which might be of interest to our visitors and subscribers:

The use of the Anaerobic Digestion process to treat landfill leachate is not very effective, and this can be readily deduced just by thinking about the processes which leachate undergoes within a landfill. The big problem would be the lack of significant reduction of ammoniacal nitrogen in the discharge.

However, the opposite does work. Leachate treatment plant aerobic reactors can be used very effectively to treat the liquid digestate, if that "product" ends up proving to be unsaleable locally. Indeed, on site aerobic digestate treatment might be essential in these circumstances if no sewage treatment works was available to accept tanker loads of liquid from an AD Plant.

Click here for more Leachate Treatment and Anaerobic Digestion information.

More about leachate treatment.

07 July 2007

US Farmers Look at Anaerobic Digesters as an Odor Solution

According to the Maryland Energy Administration many farmers are looking at anaerobic digesters as a solution to their odor problem.

Many of the odors associated with manure are intermediate compounds of the anaerobic process breaking down organics. An anaerobic digester confines odorous intermediate compounds to fermentation tanks and then breaks them down to less offensive ones. Digesters convert these offensive odors into methane and carbon dioxide, both of which are colorless and odorless. Animal manure is also a source of pathogenic organisms (E.coli, & Salmonella). Digesters have the potential to run at high temperatures, thus making them effective hygienization vehicles.

Anaerobic digesters convert organic matter into three usable products: biogas, fiber (used as a nutrient rich soil conditioner), and liquor (used as a slow release liquid fertilizer).

03 July 2007

Quality Protocol for Anaerobic Digestion to be Developed by UK Environment Agency

Great News: Although this item was sent out by LetsRecycle.com in June, we are sending this as soon as we became aware of it.


"The Environment Agency has confirmed its intention to develop a quality protocol for residues from the treatment of waste through anaerobic digestion.

The announcement yesterday also said five further materials - steel slag, incinerator bottom ash, uncontaminated topsoil, gypsum and paper mill ash – would have protocols developed.

The Agency wants to cut red tape for anaerobic digestion plants.
Once finalised, the protocols could mean the materials gain the status of "products", rather than being treated as "wastes", which means they are subject to the restrictive legal controls for managing, storing, transporting and using waste as a resource.

The move to produce a protocol for anaerobic digestion – the treatment of organic wastes by bacteria in controlled conditions – fits in with the government's new waste strategy, which seeks to encourage use of the technology (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Agency believes the new protocols – being developed under the second year of its Waste Protocols project – could save around £150 million a year by helping to increase the amount of material diverted from landfill."
Martin Brocklehurst, head of external programmes for the Environment Agency, said: "The Waste Protocols Project will look at the current risk posed by the five types of waste chosen today and wherever possible remove the need for companied to hold the permits and licenses that they need."

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