Green Light for Green Gas . . .
Businesses across Greater Manchester could soon see their food waste fuelling vehicles and creating heat by sending their scraps to a state of the art green technology business in Stockport. Planning has been approved for the Fairfield Bio anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Bredbury that will create a green energy from food leftovers, cutting carbon emissions and stopping tonnes of waste food ending up in landfill.
The site will process commercial food waste through a natural process that produces a bio gas to generate heat and electricity. Some of the bio gas could be purified and used to fuel vehicles. In the next few years Stockport could well be running its waste collection vehicles on gas made from food waste. The innovative design process involves the waste food being macerated, heat treated and then pumped into tanks where anaerobic bacteria get to work breaking down the food. The bio gas is then released, captured and stored before being used as a fuel for a combined heat and power generator or purified for use in vehicles. High quality solid and liquid fertiliser will be used on local farmland to displace fossil fuel based fertilisers.
The environmentally friendly business is a joint venture between local firm Fairfield AD Ltd. and the national renewable energy business Bio Group Ltd.
Fairfield AD Ltd is a Manchester based social enterprise incorporated to introduce a commercial AD facility to generate local social and environmental benefits. Emma Smith and Chris Walsh, from Fairfield Materials Management (Greater Manchester’s leading in-vessel composting business based on New Smithfield Market), established the business to utilise the experience gained from setting up and operating the Fairfield composting plant.
Chris Walsh stated ‘We’re really excited about this project and we are looking forward to working with our suppliers to reduce the amount of food waste that goes to landfill unnecessarily”
The Bio Group Ltd is the UK’s largest specialist organic waste business. Bio Group have a strong environmental policy; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a profitable, diverse network of facilities, turning organic waste into renewable energy, whilst at the same time creating organic soils for application to land as part of the battle against desertification. Bio’s key technology is the unique hybrid AD/IVC plant, with a negative carbon footprint, producing electricity and soils.
Steve Sharratt, Chief Executive of Bio Group says ‘It’s fantastic to have planning permission approval, the Stockport site will be a first in the Northwest and will feature a number of innovative low carbon processes all of which will make for a lower carbon footprint and put the project at the forefront of the battle against climate change . Bio Group is committed to the introduction of sustainable waste solutions that bring real benefits to the local communities”
Fairfield Bio plan to break ground in Spring 2009 and accept the first food waste through the gate in November 2009.
