The facility – Biogen’s seventh – was opened by Lord Henry Plumb, former President of both the European Parliament and the National Farmers’ Union. The company also has AD plants in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Denbighshire, Caernarfon and Rhondda.
According to Biogen, its overall treatment capacity is now close to around 250,000 tonnes of food waste per year.
Feedstock for the Merevale plant is coming from household and commercial sources in the region – including Leicestershire county council, which has a five-year contract with the company for the treatment of food waste collected across the county (see letsrecycle.com story).
‘Milestone’
On the opening of the facility, Biogen chairman John Ibbett, said: “The unveiling of Merevale, our seventh AD plant, is a significant milestone in our ten year history. Biogen has been at the forefront of the food waste AD sector since its inception and continues to be regarded as one of, if not the lead player in the market. I am so grateful to the team of people who have made it all possible and it is a real credit to everyone who has been involved along the way.”
Andrew Chisem, director for Rolton Group, which worked on the construction of the facility, added: “It’s always great to see a project reach completion and it was such a pleasure to see the Merevale food waste AD plant declared officially open. Rolton Group has been working with Biogen on various projects since 2007 and our engineering teams thoroughly enjoyed using their expertise to help create this state-of-the-art AD plant. We’re delighted to have been a part of such an innovative project which will generate truly sustainable, low carbon energy – enough energy to power thousands of homes per year.”
Lord Plumb, said: “I was delighted to be invited to open the Biogen Plant which obviously is showing a clear success story. It’s fascinating to look back and think that six hundred men were digging coal from under the site of the plant where eight men are now producing energy from the products of waste which would otherwise have been going into landfill.”
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