Welcome to the launch of the North East’s

first commercial food waste anaerobic

digestion facility

Agenda1000: Guest arrival and welcome refreshments

1045: Welcome - Janet Street-Porter

Emerald Biogas: The Overview – Antony Warren, Emerald Biogas

Defra – Jayne Winter, RDPE Area Manager (North East)

Emerald Biogas: The Solution - Adam Warren and Ian Bainbridge, Emerald Biogas

Key Note Speech – Janet Street-Porter

BBC Video

School Engagement – Esther Brown, Emerald Biogas

1230: Lunch

1330: Site tours

1400: Event closes

Emerald Biogas – The Overview

Antony Warren

The Business

• Formed in 2009

• Partnership between:

• John Warren ABP – Waste Management &

Recycling Business

• Agricore – Farming, Land & Resource Management

Business

John Warren ABP

• Family-owned and founded in 1946

• Three generations of waste management experience

• Services the entire agricultural sector

• Now offers a food waste collection service for Emerald

Biogas

Agricore

• New company derived from J&S Bainbridge

• Three key services:

• plasterboard waste management and recycling facility

producing gypsum

• agricultural services including contract farming and

land management

• supply and distribution of digestate from Emerald

Biogas

Why Anaerobic Digestion?

• Harnessing our proven combined knowledge and

experience

• Opportunity to address growing food waste crisis

• Transferring our skills to support the renewable energy

agenda

• Long term investment supporting the local economy

The Plant

• The £8m facility is the North East’s first commercial food

waste AD plant

• Our specific location will fully optimise the green energy

• Neighbouring businesses will utilise the heat generated

• Overall accessibility enables us to process waste from

• Northumberland to York

• Cumbria to Teesside

Phase 1

• Now fully operational, we will process 50,000 tonnes of

food waste annually

• We can collect and recycle waste from:

• food manufacturers

• restaurants & hotels

• leisure & retail outlets

• local authorities & civic amenities

Our Waste Streams

• Working with high-profile organisations such as:

• Greggs

• SK Chilled Foods

• Vale of Mowbray

• Greencore

• LIDL

• Marks and Spencers

• Various waste management companies such as Biffa, JB Recycling, Premier, Refood, Sita, Veolia

Looking Ahead

• Long-term plan to grow the business creating more

jobs

• Planning permission secured to quadruple the site

• Plans to diversify into the residential food waste

market

• Increase our activities with local authorities

Supporting Rural Communities

Defra and Emerald Biogas

Jayne Winter

Rural Development Programme

• Improving the environment £3.2bn

• Rural growth and communities £370m

• Farm competitiveness, forestry £290m

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The current 7 year Programme for England for 2007

to 2013 will have spent £3.8bn...

70% of England farmland under an agri-environment scheme

96% of SSSIs now in favourable or recovering condition

10,000ha of new woodland created

18,000 rural and farming jobs created or safeguarded

15,000 rural and farming businesses have been supported

The Food Waste Challenge

• 15m tonnes of food waste produced every year, half of

that from households

• Preventing food waste is the best option. Avoidable

food waste costs an average of £470 per household

• However, some food waste unavoidable and AD is the

best option we have for such waste.

• Every tonne of food waste sent to AD rather than

landfill saves the equivalent of about 500 kilogrammes

of CO2

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Why Anaerobic Digestion?

• Coalition commitment to promote “a huge increase in

the energy from waste produced from anaerobic

digestion”

• Government applies the waste hierarchy: prevention

and reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal

• Anaerobic digestion „generally the best option

available for dealing with separately collected food

waste‟

• Published the Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action

Plan in June 2011

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How is government supporting AD?

• AD Strategy and Action Plan addresses 8 priority areas:

– Improving our understanding of the AD baseline

– Building UK skills

– Building safe and secure markets for digestate

– Raising awareness of AD

– Building markets for biomethane and transport fuels

– AD in the rural community

– Finance

– Regulation

• Combination of research, investment and facilitation to help this

emerging market

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Progress and successes

• £10m loan fund administered by WRAP

• £3m of fund allocated for small-scale on farm AD

• Original estimate was that the industry could grow 3-5

times by 2020

• Since strategy was launched in 2011, the number of

plants has grown from 54 to more than 120, with

around a further 200 sites with planning permission

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How have we supported Emerald?

• £850,000 of loan funding through the WRAP

administered scheme, with further loans agreed in

principle

• £1.9m of Rural Development Programme for England

funding (part EU and part Defra).

• Benefits:

– Reduction in food waste

– Additional jobs in rural areas – at least 8 roles

– Centre of expertise in emerging technology in the

North East

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New Rural Development Programme

The new Programme is a major opportunity to invest in

the rural economy and environment

• Improve the environment;

• Promote strong rural economic growth; and

• Increase the productivity and efficiency of farming and

forestry businesses

... building on the successes of the current Programme

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Support for rural business in the future

Local Enterprise Partnerships will spend RDPE money

alongside other EU funding

Guidance to LEPs set out four types of activities that

can be funded with RDPE:

1. Building knowledge and skills in rural areas;

2. Funding new and developing micro, small and

medium sized rural business;

3. Funding small scale renewable and broadband

Investments in rural areas; and

4. Support for tourism activities in rural areas

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Emerald Biogas – The Solution

Adam Warren

A Growing Concern

Every year:

• 15m tonnes of food waste is sent to landfill

• £6.9bn of food waste is produced by the UK’s grocery

& food manufacturing sector

• £15bn of food is thrown away by UK households

• Our region generates over 800,000 tonnes of food

waste

What Can We Do?

Traditional disposal methods:

• Food waste is not segregated = larger waste volumes for

the collector

• Collection charges are based on weight = very high

• Waste is typically taken to landfill, a MRF or an

incinerator

• No opportunity to convert waste into a valuable

commodity

What Is The Alternative?

Food waste collection:

• Segregating food waste = reduced weight and reduced

cost

• Collection frequency can also be reduced, again

reducing cost

• Opportunity to transform the waste into a valuable

commodity and new product

Our Offer

• Our all-encompassing service:

• begins with the initial waste collection

• the recycling of the food waste

• the supply of energy to the national grid

• and ends with the supply of digestate

• Most importantly we can save money and help you

meet environmental targets

How Does Our Plant Work?

• The facility effectively recycles food waste and any

associated packaging

• We can process card and plastics from:

• supermarkets

• fast food outlets

• businesses

• schools

The AD Process

• It removes all traces of plastic, glass and metal

• The waste is added to the buffer tank

• Pasteurisation takes place

• The waste is then added to the digestion tank

The AD Process

• AD then occurs – a natural biological process

• Millions of bacteria ‘feed’ on the waste

• A methane-rich biogas is produced and converted into

energy

• Finally, the digestate is added to the post digester tank

Emerald Biogas – The Products

Ian Bainbridge

Location, Location, Location

• Newton Aycliffe = ideal platform for efficient use and

distribution of our products

Why?

• Existing high quality road and industrial infrastructure

• Surrounded by local farmland

Our Products

The AD process creates valuable new commodities

• Biogas – methane and CO2 = renewable energy:

• electricity generation

• heat production

• Digestate = nitrogen rich fertiliser

The Biogas

• Our biogas is burned using CHP technology

• It produces 1.56MW electricity per hour

• Supplied to the National Grid

• Enough energy to power 2,000 homes

• Excess heat will be used by businesses at Aycliffe

Business Park

The Digestate

• A valuable biofertiliser derived from the waste

treatment process

• High in nutrients, readily absorbed by crops, it

comprises Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash

• We will supply 50,000 tonnes to landowners within a

10 mile radius

Supply & Demand

Emerald Biogas can fulfill all aspects of this ‘journey’

• Food waste collection managed by JW ABP

• Recycling and new product generation managed by

Emerald Biogas

• Distribution of digestate managed by Agricore

Our vision is to ensure the plant contributes to a

sustainable, circular economy

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