Suffolk-based composting firm Greenview Environmental has announced plans for a £4.5 million organic waste treatment facility in Corby which will use both in-vessel composting and anaerobic digestion technology.

The company, based in Stanton, is to begin building the "organic waste refinery" this Christmas following successful trials in Stanton and expects it to be up-and-running by April 2009. The planned 40,000 capacity plant will take in organic green and food waste from domestic local collections and also commercial and industrial waste.

John Jardine, chief executive of Greenview Environmental

Philip Alcoe, waste procurement director at Greenview Environmental said it would be a "multiple waste stream facility" and revealed that it would be able to accept a wider range of waste than single AD and IVC plants.

John Jardine, chief executive of Greenview Environmental explained why he decided to mix the two technologies. He said: "Anaerobic digestion is a natural process - the secret is creating and maintaining the right conditions.

"I have incorporated the simplicity of this concept into the design of a combined aerobic and anaerobic organic waste refinery that overcomes many of the issues that have been holding back acceptance of this technology," he added.

As letsrecycle.com reported last week, some composters have been slow to develop anaerobic digestion facilities (see letsrecycle.com story), but Mr Jardine explained he was embracing it to complement to his established IVC business.

The £4.5 million facility will first treat waste using IVC technology, which includes Mistral aeration technology and conforms to EU standards, then transfer around 15,000 tonnes of that waste to the anaerobic digester where it will create digestate and produce biogas.

During this IVC process, waste is pulverised to 12 mm to increase the surface area and air is forced through the decomposing matter in an enclosed space. The waste rapidly heats to 70°C and this process kills harmful microbes.

The material is then moved to maturation bays where it produces high quality compost. At this point a proportion (adding up to 15,000 tonnes per year) of the waste is selected for the anaerobic digester. This method enables Greenview Environmental to select and create a consistent feedstock for its AD section of the process.

Mr Jardine explained: "Our system uses source sorted material and then grades it. A carefully regulated parallel system means that oversize particles are mixed with fine ones, and wet material mixed with dry to create a consistent feed material.

"By creating a feed material with particles of less than 12mm there is a large surface area available for microbial action and this promotes fast anaerobic digestion which is a challenge for other systems," he added.

Greenview hope the new AD section of the facility will generate between 1MW and 3MW of electricity, which will then be used to power the facility with any excess being pumped into the national grid.