Best AD Anaerobic Dihestion Project Award for WELTEC Biogas in UK

WELTEC BIOPOWER's expertise has won their client Fernbrook Bio the 2012 UK AD & Biogas Associations (ADBA) industry award for "Best Biogas Project". Their anaerobic digestion facility which produces a 1.5 MW output impressed the judges with its efficient  in operation and innovations within its design. From this fact and the reputation of ADBA, we can reasonably assume that it is the top example of the best in waste utilisation AD plant technology currently available.

The plant is siutated near Kettering, Northamptonshire and it is supplying about 3,000 households with power. To do that it processes approximately 30,000 tonnes per annum of biowaste and food waste and converting it into electricity. For this purpose, WELTEC had equipped the biogas plant for the operator to include food unpacking, separation and pasteurisation systems.

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"Fernbrook Bio" is very happy about the award. Following the award ceremony, Director Shaun Cherry commented: "We have been cooperating with WELTEC BIOPOWER for almost four years, and we are pleased with this partnership, which has now won due and deserved recognition in the form of the 'Best AD Project' award. WELTEC has truly deserved this award because it offers, not only top-edge premium plants, but also efficient service." ADBA's decision to award Fernbrook Bio with the title also included the operators' community work through visits to and from local schools and systematic publicity activities.

Another biogas plant of WELTEC BIOPOWER also made it onto the shortlist of nominations: the 1.3 MW "Lower Reule Bioenergy" installation in Gnossall, Staffordshire, which also processes food waste. This biogas plant's electricity is also supplied to approx 2,600 homes. The operator uses the heat generated from the plant to heat their farm buildings and to dry the digestate, which is spread out over agricultural areas as a fertiliser. Lower Reule Bioenergy was nominated in the "Best integration of AD into a farming business" and "Best AD Project" categories.

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South African biogas digester wins award - ESI Africa

This biogas plant design seems to neatly bridge a gap between the full sized farm systems and a small domestic AD system in a large drum. All credit to the designer for getting this far and challenging those that must have told him it would never take-off for him. Take a read of this article, from which we have included an excerpt below: 

25 June 2012 - Two South African developed biogas digesters earned their inventor second place in the SA Cleantech Competition. AGAMA Biogas was recognised for the innovation and the quality of its BiogasPro and SmartTop prefabricated biogas digesters. The first small digester to achieve certification from the South African Pipeline Gas Association, the BiogasPro is a patented system that is engineered, designed and manufactured in South Africa.

The unit has a total capacity of 6,000 litres and can produce a nominal amount of 1.9 m3 of biogas every day, which is equivalent to four hours burning time on a single gas plate, 0.8 kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or 3.5 kWh continuous electrical output.

The biogas is captured and stored within the upper part of the digester itself, which has a gas storage capacity of 0.95 m3, and relies on hydraulic pressure to produce gas pressure at 7.0 kPa when fully primed.

AGAMA Biogas’s Greg Austin says the use of biogas in the rural environment is increasingly becoming acknowledged by municipal officials as a viable and useful option. The company has installed a number of systems in rural and urban areas with municipal planning approval, including numerous brick dome digesters. It has been designing and implementing biogas systems for even longer, with the first digester in rural KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) still operating perfectly after five years, without any maintenance needs or problems.

He says the benefits of the BiogasPro range are many. “These biogas digesters are prefabricated from linear, low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) using a roto-moulding manufacturing technique which makes them ideal for a wide range of applications and situations. They are exceptionally robust, quick to install and convenient to use. Being pre-engineered, they also circumvent the complex brickwork required to build a digester from scratch.  

“Installations can be performed by certified drainage and gas technicians, who are accredited by AGAMA Biogas. Alternatively there is a DIY option where customers install the digesters themselves from comprehensive manuals supplied with the digesters.

“To produce the maximum possible amount of biogas, the BiogasPro should be fed with up to 40 kg of mixed organic raw material daily. It therefore presents a cost effective solution to many waste management problems, and it has a range of applications, from sewage waste water treatment to co-digestion of different substrates including food waste, manures, grasses and garden wastes.

The BiogasPro also garnered the attention of The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design's Green Good Design Award 2011 and was selected as an award winner for making a positive contribution in the area of more sustainable design and environment.

The award-winning SmartTop was developed partly as a job creation initiative. A smaller unit than the BiogasPro, it comprises just the working parts and the gas storage tank. Functionality is unimpeded.

As the base has to be built, this creates an additional task, and another job. It can also accommodate people who have more waste than the BiogasPro can handle, as the base can be built up to double the size to double the amount of waste and water that can be put into the system. However, the gas storage capacity remains the same, so gas needs to be constantly tapped off to reap the benefits of the greater capacity.

Being smaller, the Smart Top is also cheaper to ship overseas or to isolated areas where truck access may be limited.

“We anticipate that with an increasing number of reference projects our biogas systems will become more mainstream,” Austin concludes.

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Anaerobic Digesters in Environmental award for walking area - GO Outdoors

Those who like to go walking in parts of Cumbria other than the Lake District may be interested to learn that an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) has gained a green award.

(Our video is not directly rerlated but provides viewers with an idea of what the Arnside and Silverdale area is like.)

Arnside and Silverdale AONB has won an award for its project to convert farm waste into useful fuels such as biogas and fertiliser, using anaerobic digesters, the Westmorland Gazette reports.

It will also see greenhouse gases combined with calcium from milk to create limestone, which will be placed in old quarries.

The scheme impressed a panel including adventurer Ben Fogle and former footballer Gary Neville.

David Askew, an officer at the AONB, said: "The whole team are delighted and surprised to have been successful."

Those heading for the Arnside and Silverdale AONB can enjoy areas of limestone scenery, as well as wildlife such as red squirrels.

Located just south of the Lake District, it covers 75 sq km and also includes coastal habitat.

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