Eco plant turns waste into power
Wednesday 9th July 2008, 2:29PM BST.
Biogen’s Yolanda and John Ibbett gave a presentation to States members yesterday on its anaerobic digestion system of dealing with food waste. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0603036)
LEFTOVER food could supply Guernsey with renewable green energy and help solve the island’s waste problem, deputies were told yesterday.
Representatives from Biogen (UK) Ltd were in the island yesterday to give a presentation on eco-technology anaerobic digestion (AD), a method that captures gas released from any biodegradable matter and turns it into electricity.
The company has a plant in Bedfordshire that takes 30,000 tonnes of food waste and 12,000 tonnes of pig slurry from which it produces 1.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,000 homes continually.
It is building a second plant in Northamptonshire to meet the demands of food manufacturers and retailers. Chairman John Ibbett said technology could take organic substances and turn it into electricity was good for the environment.
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Biogas digestion (composting in a bag) is a good way of getting rid of food waste and other compostables… maybe get energy from rotting seaweed too and 8m seems pretty cheap and may be a good short term solution. The way I see it is that the real problem is plastics and I reckon gasification technologies may well still come up with the goods plus a source of free deisel in with the bargain (the oil fields won’t last forever!). We then could start quarrying out our current tips and purifying what we’ve already dumped. As we run out of imported fuel, my (limited!)money is on a single public transport system (ideal for a small island such as this on which cars and roads are completely wasted, 1hr to cycle AROUND!) a monorail type thing which can be used for industry also and lots of people walking and cycling to get on the eco train, can’t wait.
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