Granville Ecopark Ltd, an award-winning enhanced anaerobic digestion (AD) facility based in Northern Ireland, has become the first AD plant in the UK to achieve certification under the recently launched AD Certification Scheme (ADCS), an industry-led initiative that recognises good operational, environmental, and health and safety performance at AD plants.
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The new scheme was launched just six weeks ago at the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association’s ADBA National Conference 2017 following a successful pilot earlier in the year involving three different AD plants. The ADCS has been developed in collaboration with a range of industry stakeholders including regulators, insurers, investors, and operators and is managed by ADBA.
To have the first plant certified under the ADCS just six weeks after the scheme was launched is hugely encouraging and shows the support within the AD industry for raising its performance across the board and recognising good practice in running plants. ADBA will continue to speak to AD operators about the many benefits of the ADCS both for operators themselves and for the wider industry, including increased support from politicians, regulators, insurers, and investors, said Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive ADBA.
Granville Ecopark is the largest AD facility in Ireland taking only food waste as a resource and has the capacity to export 4.8 MWe of renewable electricity onto Northern Ireland’s local grid.
A recent expansion now allows the plant to clean up excess biogas into biomethane, which is being transported all over Northern Ireland to power combined heat and power (CHP) engines and create renewable heat and electricity for its customers.
We are delighted to be the first UK AD plant certified under this new scheme. It gives us the confidence that we are attaining the highest standards within the industry and will drive us forward to remain at the top. We hope that others will now follow in our footsteps and apply for certification to help boost their environmental credentials and further highlight how important the AD industry is for the future of renewable energy throughout the UK, said David McKee, Technical Director at Granville Ecopark.
In September 2017 Granville Ecopark also became the first AD plant to obtain a Prosperity Agreement with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency whereby the two parties have pledged to work together to develop innovative solutions to maximise energy production and work with the community to deliver environmental initiatives.
Amidst this success, Granville Ecopark has also been recognized as a Market Development leader with a prestigious award from Sustainable Ireland for its work in food waste and the circular economy.
We’re delighted to announce Granville Ecopark as the first AD plant to be certified under the ADCS. Aardvark was proud to be appointed as the first and currently only certification body for the scheme, which we see as vital to assuring performance and raising standards in what is such an important industry. It was great to receive Granville Ecopark’s application so soon after the ADCS was launched at the ADBA National Conference 2017 back in December, and this will hopefully be the first of many applications. We look forward to working with many more AD plants who are looking to demonstrate that they are meeting high operational, environmental, and health and safety standards, said Nick Johnn, Director at Aardvark Certification Limited, the ADCS’s official certification body
