Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced this week that five
anaerobic digestion projects across the country will share
£10m in grants under Defra's Anaerobic Digestion
Programme. The grants are made to help with the cost of
construction and will be administered by the Waste and Resources
Action Programme (WRAP).
The grants are made as part of wider plans announced this [last]
week to tackle food and packaging waste - last year the UK produced
20 million tonnes of food waste and 10.7 million tonnes of
packaging waste.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) breaks down organic matter such as food
waste and animal manure to produce biogas, diverting waste from
landfill and producing a renewable energy source for power and in
some cases heat and transport.
Defra considered that the successful applicants each demonstrated
cutting edge technology, which will help highlight the benefits of
AD to a wide range of industries. For example, one of the
successful bidders, Biocycle South Shropshire, will use its share
of the grant to improve its existing AD plant by installing a new
technology which breaks down cell structures prior to digestion,
increasing gas yields by up to 15%. The other successful bidders
were:
- Blackmore Vale Dairies;
- GWE Biogas Ltd;
- Staples Vegetables;
- United Utilities and National Grid
DMH Stallard is currently providing legal and planning advice to a
large dairy farm in Cornwall on its application to install an
anaerobic digester at its 1000 acre farm.
Some in the industry might question why there is an apparent
preference on the part of Government to fund AD projects whilst the
rolling out of other technology such as gasification is held up for
lack of finance.
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