A mobile anaerobic digestion rig will be tested on a range of industrial effluents at a variety of food and drink manufacturing premises in Britain over the next few months.
The mobile Clearfleau rig will first be moved to the site of an unnamed Somerset cheese maker for trials on whey during January and February before moving on to another site.
Clearfleau director Richard Gueterbock said: “During 2010 Clearfleau is planning to undertake further on-site trials with a range of industrial effluents. These will include dairy products, effluent from food and drink processing plus brewery and distillery waste.”
The rig was used last year to prove the technology prior to installation of permanent anaerobic digester equipment at the BV Dairy near Shaftesbury in North Dorset.
The trials at BV Dairy reduced chemical oxygen demand (a measure of polluting potency of the effluent) from an input level of 30,000mg/l to about 300mg/l. This significant load reduction will help to reduce costs on industrial sites where effluent is discharged to sewer or hauled off-site for disposal.
Construction of the plant is said to be well under way. Work started on site in November 2009 and the base for the digester tank was installed before Christmas. The on-site facility, which produces biogas from liquid effluent, will enable BV Dairy to utilise energy (renewable power and surplus heat) produced from liquid waste. The biogas will replace energy derived from fossil fuel and, in so doing, reduce the site’s carbon footprint.
As well as reducing treatment costs, BV Dairy will receive payments for the renewable electricity and from 2011 will benefit from the ‘renewable heat incentive’ for surplus heat used on site.