Olleco, the renewable energy division of Ireland-headed ABP Food Group has announced that it has completed construction of a 2 500 m3 anaerobic digestion (AD) unit at its used cooking oil (UCO) based biodiesel plant in Liverpool, UK. The AD plant will treat effluent from the UCO processing along with some external food waste to produce biogas to be used in a 499 kW combined heat and power plant (CHP) to replace fossil energy use at the biodiesel plant.
According to a statement, the AD plant was seeded with sewage sludge in December and successfully generated its first kWh of green electricity on December 19. This was a major milestone for the project as it was vital for Olleco to generate electricity before December 22 to ensure that it received the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) incentive – a government programme designated to provide incentives for renewable technology.
The plan now is to follow a gradual feeding programme to allow the bacteria to acclimatise to the feedstock consisting of effluent from UCO processing and external food waste. The blended waste is fed to the 2 500 m3 digester and has a 45-day retention time. Maximum load is expected to be 50-60 m3 feedstock per day.
