Digestate deal agreed for UKs largest AD plant

The deal, which is worth 450,000, will see 4Recycling handle around 50,000 tonnes of digestate each year.

Leeds-based 4Recycling specialises in developing new fertiliser replacement products from materials such as digestate and paper crumble. While the company does not currently handle any other AD digestate from plants processing food waste, it does handle around 36,000 tonnes a year of digestate produced from sewage sludge.

A spokesman for Biffa explained: 4Recycling already has agreements with farmers throughout the UK to use PAS 110 material as crop fertiliser which is why Biffa has outsourced this part of the process.

The Cannock plant, which opened last month (see letsrecycle.com story), is the UKs largest anaerobic digestion facility meaning that it will produce more digestate that any other plant of its kind, for which it needs reliable end markets. Production of digestate from the Poplars contract to PAS 110 standard is likely to commence later in the year.

4R managing director, Mike Holt, told letsrecycle.com that his company would be looking at the material, assessing its suitability to be recycled, assess what application rates it needed and work with Biffa to enhance its quality. The company will also be responsible for transporting it to be spread on nearby farmland in Staffordshire or for use in brownfield restoration.

At the moment no material has been produced so until then we do not know details such as how much land we will need for spreading, he explained. Hopefully we can achieve a material we can sell as a fertiliser replacement.

He added: 4R Group technicians are continually working with clients to develop value added fertiliser replacements which are then marketed through the 4R Products business. This is an essential activity given the governments focus on delivering a zero waste economy developing markets for these products will be a key test for the coalition.

Pleased

John Casey, director of engineering and quality at Biffa, said that he was very pleased to be working with 4Recycling at Poplars.

He said: We are very pleased to be working with 4Recycling at our AD plant in Staffordshire. 4Recycling will manage all the digestate arising from the Poplars AD facility on our behalf. They will be responsible for sourcing, agreeing and monitoring deals made with local farmers and form a vital part in Biffa gaining the PAS 110 standard for the digestate.