An Anaerobic Digestion Scene Setter and Summary of AD Opportunities

With an ever growing list of subscribers to this blog it is a continuing challenge to provide basic information on the development of biogas production for our latest subscribers.

That is why today I bring you a link to a web site page written by Dr Michael Gell, which in my view, although put up about a year ago, still provides a pretty fair picture of AD technology and market developments plus opportunities.

Here's the introduction to the article, and if you want more, the link is at the bottom of this post:

Supermarkets are trialling anaerobic digestion as a way to generate energy and minimise their waste, and soon the biological process could have a far wider reaching application

With a spate of announcements on anaerobic digestion (AD) – from supermarkets using the biological process to handle their organic waste to the building of a national AD biogas network - something seems to be exercising decision makers. Are those bacteria that digest food waste at last going to be harnessed to their full potential? Dr Michael Gell examines the potential for AD to kick-start the building of an integrated biowaste infrastructure and to become one of the star technologies feeding energy into a renewables supergrid.

Topics discussed are:

What is Anaerobic Digestion?
How does AD work?
AD as a production process
How widely is AD being used?
Recognising the potential for AD
Turning waste into useful products
What are the environmental benefits of AD?
Economic opportunities with AD
What is driving the surge in interest in AD?
Who are the key stakeholders for a national AD infrastructure?
Carbon footprints in the food waste chain
What are the supermarkets doing?
Is AD commercially feasible?
What are the prospects for a renewable gas network?
What innovations might we expect with AD technology?

Go to ClimateChangeCorp.com's AD Page.

Make Digestate from Source Segregated Biowastes Using PAS110 and it isn't a Waste Material

The new PAS110 protocol is good news for those Anaerobic Digestion Plant operators that utilize a solely green waste (eg source segregated garden waste) feed source because UK regulators have been confirming this month that within a set of specific criteria they will not apply formal waste regulatory controls to these digestates.

The suitable waste input list includes:

• Source segregated biowastes
• Biodegradable non-waste materials
• Allows for packaged biowaste.

(See Nina Sweet link below)

This is great news. It means that it is then much easier to use this material as for example a fertilizer, and spread it on land.

When any material is designated as a waste, it is not only the additional burden of the regulatory measures themselves which are essential for compliance with the Waste Regulations. It is also the cost of additional record keeping and monitoring, plus the Waste License fees, which are a big negative for potential users and sellers as well.

I imagine that it will especially help farmers who take in green waste from the local council and wish to produce biogas from it in on-farm digestors.

PAS110 is known as the Quality Protocol for Anaerobic Digestate and it was published in its final form January 2009. In the last few weeks it has received approval by the European Commission.

This reclassification of this type of digestate as a product and not a waste, will no doubt prompt a new generation of biogas digesters of the best kind, using green waste biomass rather than food crops.

The BSI PAS 110 safety standard is however, not entirely free of constraints and there are costs in the necessary monitoring required by the standard to assure the high quality of digestate produced from these biogas digesters.

More information is available at:

The WRAP Anaerobic Digestion PAS110 Guide download page

SEPA Waste regulation web site (Scotland)

AD Centre Wales PAS110 features Nina Sweet's document

Let's Recycle's Anaerobic Digestion page (scroll to the bottom)