J Prior1, C E Brade2, Dr D C Pike3
1 Summerleaze Ltd., UK
2 Monsal, UK
3 Green Land Reclamation Ltd., UK
The paper outlines the development of a pilot scale anaerobic digestion facility designed to treat various organic waste materials, including biological municipal waste. The plant is currently in construction on an existing landfill site at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, UK and due to complete in March 2005. The paper provides the background to the project including an extensive European wide technology survey leading to the selection of Monsal as technology partner. The plant is designed to produce a stable and pathogen free product complying with EU legislation for Category 3 waste and allow the generation of electricity in conformity with the Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC’S) scheme.
The design of the plant is described in detail including the advanced treatment stages, which allow a fully pasteurised and stable product to be produced. The plant has been designed to allow a wide variety of wastes to be tested and to thereby assist in optimising the treatment of particular waste streams. To meet this requirement the plant incorporates a series of process modules, which can be operated under different conditions thus permitting a range of process flowsheets to be assembled with the minimum of effort. The operational flowsheets can incorporate mesophilic, thermophilic, thermal pasteurisation, aerobic and anaerobic and acidogenic stages. The plant is partially funded by the South West England Environmental Trust (SWEET) and Green Land Reclamation has been instrumental in the development of the project and the testing programmes and are in addition project managers for the contract.
KEYWORDS Acidogenesis, aerobic, anaerobic, BMW, category three, mesophilic, digestion, organic wastes pasteurisation, ROC, thermophilic.
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