Scotland Invests in Anaerobic Digestion

Three new anaerobic digestion facilities are to open in Scotland in 2010 to reduce the amount of waste that currently goes to Landfill.  The move will provide food manufacturers in Scotland with an alternative to landfill for the disposal of their waste.

The three sites will be run by Scottish Water Waste Services and are located in Deerdykes, Renfrewshire and Ayreshire.  The Deerdykes facility will run in a continuous process and is designed to handle 30,000t/year of 'category three' food waste.

The process will generate biogas, which will be burned to generate electricity and heat or cleaned as a vehicle fuel.  A liquid digestate will also be produced, which is planned to be used as a liquid fertiliser in the summer months and to be dewatered to produce a solid cake fertiliser in the winter.  Some of the heat produced will go back into the process.

Landfill costs are currently priced at £40/t (plus a gate fee of £25) and will increase by £8/t every year until 2013, which makes it appealing to find an alternative method of waste disposal.  It is also necessary for companies to be seen to have a corporate social responsibility.