Tuesday 26 July 2011

Local AD plant recycling food waste

4Recycling Ltd, part of the 4R Group, has recently been awarded a three year contract by Biffa Waste Services to recycle digestate from a new state-of-the-art 120,000 tonne per annum capacity Anaerobic Digestion facility recently opened at Poplars, near Cannock in Staffordshire.


The contract will require them to source local farmland around Shropshire and Staffordshire to spread the compost like output on and arrange haulage. This is absolutely intergral to making sure that food waste collected from businesses and households around the West Midlands area gets recycled.


Mike Holt, Managing Director of the 4R Group, comments: "We are really pleased to be supporting Biffa on this important contract. Our team of Soil Scientists and Operational staff have decades of experience in developing recycling outlets for organic materials, delivering huge carbon savings by substituting out fossil-derived fertilizers in agriculture or bringing brownfield land back into productive use.


He added "4R Group technicians are continually working with clients to develop value added fertiliser replacements which are then marketed through the 4R Products business. This is an essential activity given the Government's focus on delivering a zero waste economy – developing markets for these products will be a key test for the Coalition.”


Production of digestate from the Poplars contract to PAS 110 standard is likely to commence in mid to late 2011 and 4Recycling Ltd will provide a complete technical, transport and recycling service for both solids and liquids working with local contractors and landowners to provide a continuous service for the plant.

Carbon-14 approval for EfW

Gasification, pyrolysis, incinerators and other energy-from-waste facilities using CHP are set to find it easier to claim ROCs after a simpler way of establishing the renewable content of the energy they produce was approved by Ofgem.

Up until now, very few operators of facilities which convert mixed waste streams into electricity have been able to qualify for Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROCs) support because it is difficult to determine how much of the energy is renewable. This has involved testing samples of the waste in laboratories to determine its biodegradable fraction in a process known as ‘dissolution'


Because of the difficulty of this approach, one of the only companies to successfully claim ROCs for an energy-from-waste plant to date has been Energos for its Isle of Wight gasification facility, which starting receiving ROCs in late 2010.

However, now the energy regulator has said that it is "prepared to consider Fuel Measurement and Sampling procedures that propose to use the carbon-14 technique”. This technique, which is similar to carbon dating, allows operators to test the emissions from their installations rather than the waste itself to determine the renewable content of the energy produced.

Recently living material contains a much higher proportion of carbon-14 isotopes so, by measuring the ratio of fossil carbon-12 to the amount of carbon-14, the proportion of the energy which is renewable can be determined.

The move comes after an independent report commissioned by Ofgem and another commissioned by members of the Renewable Energy Association found that results from using the technique "would be at least as accurate as the existing sampling methods used”.Ofgem stressed that, as always,all sampling proposals will be considered and agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Richard Bellingham, manager of renewables: biomass, waste and co-firing at Ofgem, said: "We see the potential for the carbon-14 technique as a positive step in terms of recognising a new method for generators to consider when setting about making an application for accreditation to us”.


Tony Grimshaw, technical director of Energos, sits on the sub-group of the Renewable Energy Association, which has been lobbying Ofgem to accept the carbon-14 technique. He explained that there were advantages in being able to sample flue gas over solid waste and that the move by Ofgem was welcome.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Bowbrook Allotments Open Day 2012

Bowbrook Allotment Community

Mytton Oak Road,  Shrewsbury,  Shropshire,  SY3 5BT


Opening dates and times:Sun 15 July (1-5)
Admission:Combined adm £3, chd free
Facilities:

Refreshments:Tea
Contact:n/a
Postcode:SY3 5BT

Location:½m from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. 
From A5 Shrewsbury bypass take B4386 following signs for hospital. Allotments situated ½m along B4386. (Mytton Oak Rd) on R
click here for a map
Website:www.bowbrookallotments.co.uk
Description:The 4-acre site which opened in Spring 2009 has 68 productive plots displaying wide-ranging cultivation methods. Organic techniques incl companion planting and attracting natural predators are encouraged. Green spaces throughout the site are designed to attract wildlife and encourage community involvement. Nest boxes, bat boxes and insect shelters abound. The site features an interest trail, 2 orchards, picnic area, wild flowers, wildlife areas and ‘Gardens of the Seasons’. Local environmental groups and schools welcomed. The community has a website(see above) and regular newsletters for members. Children enjoy the trail, willow den and tunnel, turf maze and sensory garden. The site boasts a compost toilet and information hut. Surplus produce is delivered weekly to the local hospice
Displays by Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shropshire Masters Composters, Shropshire Hardy Plant Society. Children's quiz sheets

In the press:Featured in Shropshire Life magazine, Natural England Big Wildlife Garden Gold Award, RHS "Its your Neighbourhood" Level 5 (outstanding)