Agraferm completes commissioning phase for £5m AD plant
24 May 2012
Bury St Edmunds, UK - Material Change and its Symonds Farm JV AD partner have completed the commissioning phase of a new 1.4MW AD plant. The £5-million plant has been build at Symonds Farm, Risby, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and was supported by DEFRA through a farm diversification grant.
The plant has been constructed using Agraferm Technology AG’s technology, which was selected for its compact design, flexibility and the efficient degradation of organic substrates. The design is said to provide a high dry solid load and biogas yield, while the compactness also leads to lower operating costs and less internal energy consumption.
Agraferm’s technology, which is used in the top five AD plants in Germany, employs a modular system that offers a rapid, single-stage mesophillic fermentation process, and can generate electricity, heat and gas to grid. The Symonds Farm site is Agraferm’s second commissioned plant in the UK with two further plants under construction.
Material Change, which already operates eight compost facilities in the UK, said it sees the new AD plant as an enhancement to its portfolio. The company has experience in grant and planning applications for AD projects and in the government incentives for green energy and heat production.
The company offers long-term contract with farms to supply maize and farm waste as feedstock and corresponding agreements to apply the nutrient rich digestate back to the adjoining farm land.
