Sunday, January 31, 2010

Manure to Become Megawatts in Newcastle University Project


A £1.85M project looking at techniques of converting farm waste products into electricity is to go ahead in the North East.

A state-of-the-art anaerobic digester which converts manure from pigs and cattle into green electricity is arranged for being installed at Cockle Park Farm by Newcastle College thanks to an £860,000 cash injection from regional improvement agency One North East.

The idea is one of assisting farms turn into far more sustainable businesses, the goal is to join with North East farmers, land managers and other associated organisations to find new means for making renewable electric from waste material.

Ths project is joint funded by the college and One North East through its Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), the anaerobic digester will form a portion on the new Centre for Renewable Energy from Land (CREEL) launched by Newcastle University.

The promoters of this project have put in a good deal of work which has gone into arranging this challenge up to this point, so they say that it is extremely thrilling to have at last received both funding and 3rd party permission for this project.

Anaerobic digestion presents enormous potential in terms of utilizing the methane from animal waste materials and converting it into renewable electric power which will be utilized to heat and supply energy to the buildings on the farm.

By working together using the agricultural business they hope to produce a new means of producing anaerobic digestion and viable technology for uptake by farms throughout the UK.

The residual digestate might be applied being a soil conditioner and a nutrient source and offers considerable probable for farmers to reduce their fertilizer budget. Read more here...