Food waste to power Marks and Spencer ready meals factory
Thursday 23 April 2009
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| Marks and Spencer has praised the RF Brookes project and is encouraging its other suppliers to look into anaerobic digestion facilities as well, as part of its "Plan A" environmental campaign |
One of the makers of Marks & Spencers ready meals is to use its own food waste to power its factory in Newport, South Wales.
RF Brookes, part of Premier Foods plc, has
been awarded £500,000 by the Welsh Assembly government towards its own £5 million anaerobic digestion plant at its Rogerstone site.
The facility is expected to be in operation by the end of next year, turning the company's waste material into biogas, which would be used to generate heat and electricity.
It is expected to produce about 10% of the factory's power, reducing carbon emissions by about 8,500 tonnes a year.
Announcing the funding award yesterday, Welsh Assembly environment minister Jane Davidson said: "This project will be a wonderful example of turning food waste into clean, renewable energy."
The new Rogerstone anaerobic digestion facility will be built and operated by Premier Renewable Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of on-site waste-to-energy developer InSource Energy. It is expected to use around 10,000 tonnes of food waste each year as a feedstock.
A spokeswoman for the Assembly government told New Energy Focus that the facility would generate 300kW of electrical power, along with 400kW of hot water for use in the factory.
Confidence
InSource, a joint venture between the government's Carbon Trust and power utility Scottish and Southern Energy, said the level of venture capital now being made available for food waste energy projects should give confidence to other investors.
The government's Waste and Resources Action Programme, which administers the fund supporting the RF Brookes project, said further funding was available for other anaerobic digestion plants, with the next call for applications expected in July 2009.
We expect this to be the first of several plants to be established.
Peter Webster, WRAP's Cymru market development manager, said: "We expect this to be the first of several plants to be established, and we have recently launched another programme of funding which will hopefully carry the initiative forward to 2014."
M&S
RF Brookes said it has a target to stop sending waste to landfill by 2015, and that the new AD plant would help towards the aim.
The company is a major supplier to Marks and Spencer, along with other retailers, and M&S said it is encouraging all its suppliers to consider digestion technology to convert food waste to renewable energy.
The technology involves organic waste being liquidised and then broken down by bacteria, which produce energy-rich bio-methane and an organic residue that can be used as an agricultural fertiliser.
Richard Gillies, a director at the retailer, said: "Using anaerobic digestion to generate renewable electricity is one of the commitments M&S made as part of our Plan A - our 100-point eco-plan.
"We encourage all our suppliers to consider environmentally efficient initiatives like anaerobic digestion - that's why we're very supportive of RF Brookes' project, and we wish them every success with the site."
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