18 March 2009

Plan for West Yorkshire £45m Waste-to-Biofuel Plant

Plans to develop a £45 million waste-to-ethanol facility in West Yorkshire have been unveiled by Leeds-based waste management company, Mytum and Selby.

The company has teamed up biomass-to-ethanol technology provider AqueGen to develop the Maltings Organic Treatment Plant at South Milford, with the eventual aim of converting 400,000 tonnes of waste as biomass into at least 100 million litres of the biofuel ethanol a year.

Operating through a subsidiary, The Maltings Organics Treatment Company, which it has set up in a joint venture with AqueGen, Mytum & Selby said that it hopes to have the plant up-and-running by 2011.

The company was granted a certificate of lawful use to allow it to treat waste on the site of a former brewery in March 2008 and says that, when built, the biomass-to-ethanol plant would be the first of its kind in the UK.

Mr Carrie said: "Our planning permission on site makes the plant the only one of its kind in the UK and enables us to handle huge quantities of food waste, ABP and liquids.

"Initially this will provide compost for agricultural and horticultural use and on completion the plant will convert the bulk of the biomass to the biofuel ethanol.

"This new initiative means we will be the first biomass to ethanol plant in the UK utilising biomass recovered from waste sources. The facility will meet increasing demand for environmentally-friendly fuel across the country,"
he added.
Composting

Speaking to letsrecycle.com on March 12, Mr Carrie explained that Mytum & Selby has just invested £500,000 in the site to allow it to develop a 25,000 tonne-a-year capacity in-vessel composting (IVC) plant , which it hoped to have operational by October 2009.

Phase two of The Maltings project, which the company hopes to complete by the end of 2010, would see the IVC facility's capacity increased to 75,000 tonnes-a-year, involving a total investment of around £1 million from the parent company. More.

04 March 2009

National Grid Report Pushes for Anaerobic Digestion and Gasification for Biomethane into UK Gas Grid

National Grid presents biogas report to UK government

(First posted 02/02/2009)
Half Britain's homes could be heated by renewable gas, says National Grid in a report it has presented to the UK Government.

The report looks at how all the biodegradable waste streams such as sewage, food and wood could be turned into biogas and injected into the gas distribution system.

Biogas is produced by two main processes. Anaerobic digestion which turns wet waste such as sewage and animal manure into biomethane and gasification which is better suited to drier wastes and energy crops. Biomethane is already being produced and injected into the gas grids in Europe.

It is estimated that biogas would be a similar price to other renewable energy sources. However because the country already has an extensive gas grid, there would be little need for disruptive infrastructure development or any major inconvenience to consumers in their homes or streets.

The report concludes that there are no insurmountable technical difficulties to delivering biogas. The main hurdle will be about getting the right commercial incentives in place so waste can be turned into biomethane for gas grid injection rather than electricity. This needs to be allied with a comprehensive waste management policy.

A copy of the report can be found in the Publications section of the National Grid web site.

Steve - This is one BIG and welcome turnaround! for the UK gas suppliers to, for the first time, welcome biomethane from Anaerobic Digestion Plants into the natural gas distribution system

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