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Severn Trent start work on new £20m food waste to biomethane plant in UK

Severn Trent Water Ltd, a subsidiary of Severn Trent plc one of the largest of the 10 regulated water and sewerage companies in England and Wales has announced that work has come underway at its Derby Sewage Treatment Works in Spondon, Derby for a new food waste treatment facility with biomethane grid injection.

Work has begun on a new food waste to biomethane to grid plant at the Derby Sewage Treatment Works in Spondon, Derby, UK. The plant will be the third food waste plant for Seven Trent (photo courtesy Severn Trent Water). Work has begun on a new food waste to biomethane to grid plant at the Derby Sewage Treatment Works in Spondon, Derby, UK. The plant will be the third food waste plant for Seven Trent (photo courtesy Severn Trent Water).

According to a statement, work has commenced at the existing wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to add a facility that will turn around 50 000 tonnes of food waste per annum into biomethane that will be injected into the gas distribution network.

Engineering firm Jones Celtic BioEnergy has been awarded the contract to build the new anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, that will be similar in design to the company’s existing food waste plant in Coleshill and another which is nearing completion in Roundhill near Stourbridge.

We’re really excited to see work underway on what will be our third food waste site. The plant will take waste food from local businesses and waste management companies in the Derby area and process it to produce biomethane which is a gas suitable for injection into the local gas network and which can then be used in homes and businesses across the area, said Peter Ravenscroft, Project Manager at Severn Trent.

The company, which serves eight million people across the Midlands and mid-Wales, has invested heavily in renewable energy in recent years and is now developing this expertise to generate clean power.

The process also makes sure that the food waste doesn’t end up going to landfill and any packaging that we remove at the plant will be sent for recycling. We’ve got more than 60 years of experience of turning sewage into clean energy, and we’re now putting that to good use in our food waste plants, said Ravenscroft

The estimated GBP 20 million investment in the food waste plant will use innovative technology that replicates the process of a human body, by digesting food to turn it into biogas that can be used in homes and businesses in the Derby area. The biogas is ‘washed’ at high pressure, compressed to the same pressure as natural gas and is then ‘tested’ for quality and odorized. Testing also includes a review of the energy composition of the biomethane before injection into the gas supply network.

We currently generate the equivalent of more than a third of the energy we use through renewable sources, and we’re aiming to increase that to 50 percent by 2020. If everything goes to plan we expect the new food waste plant in Spondon to be in use by the middle of 2018 and it will have a big impact on helping us reach that ambitious target, said Ravenscroft.

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