Councils sign waste digestion contract

The North Wales Consortium of Denbighshire County Council, Conwy County Borough Council and Flintshire County Council has announced it has signed a 15-year contract with Biogen, the anaerobic digestion (AD) specialist, to treat the food waste the three councils’ collect.

Subject to planning permission, Biogen will construct and operate a new 22,500 tonnes per annum AD facility at Waen, St Asaph in early spring 2013. The facility expected to be fully operational by April 2014.

The contract has been approved by the Welsh Government which is committed to contributing towards the build costs and the annual operating costs over the 15-year contract.

The plant at the Waen will process the food waste to generate 8000 MWh/yr of renewable energy for the national grid, and produce a biofertiliser for local farmlands. The power generated from this plant will be sufficient to power 1,500 homes continually for one year.

This type of technology is a recognised solution to the UK Government’s stated objectives in complying with both EU landfill targets and de-carbonising the UK electricity market and the electricity generated will benefit from premium selling prices through the Feed-in Tariff scheme.

Chair of the project's management board, Cllr Mike Priestley, said: "We're delighted to have reached financial close with Biogen. The anaerobic digestion facility will be a vital piece in the jigsaw to enable us to increase our recycling rates and to divert more waste away from landfill than ever before."

Councillor David Smith, Denbighshire’s Cabinet Lead Member for Environment, said: “We are delighted to make this announcement. This new AD facility will be good for the environment, because it will generate electricity from the food waste that people have thrown away. BiogenGreenfinch have a proven track record in delivering AD facilities.”

Richard Barker, CEO of Biogen, said: "We are delighted to be moving ahead with this exciting and environmentally important project and look forward to becoming part of the community.”