Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Milton Keynes AD Plant and Others Coming On Line Show New Strength in AD for Energy & WWTW Sludge Digestion

At Anaerobic-Digestion.Com we like to bring you information on all types of AD Plants, and we are pleased to be able to report that sewage works sludge AD Plant technology is advancing rapidly.

The technology is now being developed significantly in many WWTW sludge treatment projects, as the abridged Water & Waste Treatment October Edition article here on our web site describes.

Anglian Water has a new biosolids and energy plant at a Milton Keynes WWTW which treats sludge from the plant and provides energy, as well as sludge treatment, which we understand has set new standards for anaerobic digestion technology, and uses thermal hydrolysis as the pre-treatment stage. Cambi technology is the technology being used at the £16M sludge treatment centre.

See more at the W&WT web site here.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

FoE Report May Provide Waste Data Which Assists in Designing AD Plants

FoE has Published Residual Waste Research Which Estimates Future Waste Composition:

Friends of the Earth have published a report looking at what materials are likely to be left in residual household waste after extensive recycling has taken place. This attempts to predict how waste will change as the UK adopts much improved recycling practices, as required by EU Regulations.

The report identified 14 significant residual wastes/material types from a 'hypothetical' capture rate scenario and 26 from a 'practical' capture rate scenario.

The results will help develop policies to remove the materials from the waste stream. This data may be useful in designing the Anaerobic Digestion Plants of the future. More...

Monday, October 15, 2007

AD and Renewables Investors Alert: UK is Lobbying to Weaken 20% Target at Secret European Meeting

Oct 13 2007 THIS IS AN ALERT FROM FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

Environmental groups are calling upon the UK government to stand by its recent commitments on renewable energy and to support a framework that will not undermine Europe's progress on clean energy.

In a meeting organised by the President of the European Commission Jose Barroso last week (Friday 12th October 2007), senior level civil servants and European Commission staff were to discuss whether to weaken a European proposals to fight climate change.

In March of this year, Tony Blair signed up to a European target to source 20% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. In August, a leaked memo revealed that the UK government, despite its rhetoric on climate change, was lobbying to water down the targets.

The concern is that their lobbying has been all too successful and that at the meeting agreements will be made to weaken the 20% target, particularly by moving towards a system of "mandatory trading" of renewable energy certificates between countries. Imposing this policy on all of Europe would bring an end to alternative approaches which have proved highly successful in countries such as Spain and Germany in bringing forward large scale renewables.

Friends of the Earth EWNI and WWF-UK have produced a rebuttal to the UK position.

Friends of the Earth and WWF-UK believe that the binding renewable energy target agreed by all Member States, including the UK, in March sets an ambitious but realistic benchmark against which the adequacy of domestic policies must now be measured. The two organisations are calling on the UK government to bring forward new and truly effective policies which will ensure delivery of the UK's fair share of the 20% target, rather than seeking to weaken the target.

More at FoE's web site here.

PLEASE COMMENT ON OUR BLOG OR EMAIL ME FROM OUR CONTACT PAGE. WE EXPECT THAT MANY WILL HAVE STRONG VIEWS ABOUT THIS!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Do You Agree With Cardiff University's Assessment of the Potential AD Renewables Contribution?

Cardiff Univerity's Waste Research spin-off has a page which is vying with Anaerobic-Digestion.com for its place in the first page of the Google SERPS results. Sometimes our site is just above them and on other days it is a listing or two below.

The page to which Google sends us to at Wasteresearch contains in my view really quite a negative and disencouraging analysis of the potential of Anaerobic Digestion to become a significant player in the renewable energy scene.

Here is the paragraph to which I refer:-

An analysis can be conducted for anaerobic digestion in a similar manner to the previously used technique to estimate the potential of generating electricity by using all the UK's available waste. There is about 90Mt of waste produced in the UK each year. 62% of this waste stream is said to be biodegradable (DETR, Limiting Landfill, 1999). This biodegradable waste will produce about 150m3/tonne of biogas at 60% methane concentration (Warmer Information Sheet, 1998). Using a 70% process efficiency, 70% load factor, and the known 37GJ/tonne energy content for methane, an estimate can be produced. After accounting for the 20-40% of energy needed to maintain the digestion is accounted for, anaerobic digestion could provide the UK with about 1.4GW. This represents about 1.9% of the UK's installed capacity.


It is really good to see people carrying out a reality check on Anaerobic Digestion, but I wonder if this data does not underestimate the amount of waste produced in the UK currently if all industrial and commercial waste is included? I also suspect that the compounding of percentages is excessively reducing power output.

There is no mention of combined heat and power (CHP) use, which when included in projects, ups the efficiency greatly.

There is also no comment here on the benefits of AD in providing local power close where it is consumed, meaning vastly reduced distribution losses in the power grid, or potentially from the products of AD when markets are found.

I believe that HAASE for example produce an RDF from the dried residual fibrous material (Luebeck Plant), and I am sure that factors like this are begining to alter the picture painted by Wasteresearch, as AD technology advances

So, if as I suspect we have some regular readers of this blog who are knowledgeable about such things, here is your challenge to email us at info@anaerobic-digestion.com with your comments in a form in which we can publish them, or use the blog commenting system, and stand up for AD!