Biogen favoured for third AD plant in Wales

The Tomorrows Valley Hub a partnership between Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil county borough councils and Newport City Council chose Biogen as the preferred recipient of the 15-year contract.

The plant is to be built next to the existing landfill site at Bryn Pica and will process food waste collected from homes and businesses in the Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport areas.

Enough renewable energy to power 2,000 homes on the grid is expected to be generated by the plant, and it will also produce a biofertiliser for local farmland.

The contract for the plant is expected to be finalised and signed early in the New Year.

Subject to planning permission, work on the plant will begin in mid-2013 and it is estimated to be operational and generating electricity by summer 2014.

Third Biogen plant in Wales

The Bryn Pica plant would be Biogens third anaerobic digestion facility in Wales. Construction has already begun on the firms 11,000 tonne AD plant near Caernarfon, while work is set to start in the New Year on a 22,000 tonne AD plant in Denbighshire.

Plans to develop an AD plant in Bryn Pica were first announced by Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf councils in September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), before the project went out to procurement in December 2008.

Biogen, which has offices in Bedfordshire and Shropshire, employs 60 staff and has been responsible for the design and construction of 16 AD plants in the UK to date.

The firm recently secured an investment of 24.4m from construction, services and property company Kier, allowing Biogen to invest in new AD plants nationally with the target of having a further nine fully operational plants by 2017.

Biogens chief executive, Richard Barker, said: This is fantastic news for South Wales and for Biogen. We are delighted that Tomorrows Valley has recognised our knowledge, skills and capability in the field of anaerobic digestion and we are excitedly looking forward to delivering this state of the art food waste AD plant for the community in this region of Wales.