The in-vessel technology, known as the Rocket, has been developed by a Cheshire-based father and son team under the company name of Accelerated Compost. It is currently being used by 40 small scale community composting projects around the UK and the company is refining and evolving the equipment.
Accelerated Compost will submit a joint request with Liverpool for 1.5 million over three years to develop a larger version of the composter which could treat around 50,000 tonnes of waste each year. At present, the machine is available in three sizes, with the largest capable of composting around 300 tonnes a year.
For the last six months, Liverpool City council and community composting group Rotters have used Accelerated Composting's equipment to treat kitchen waste from 110 households in Liverpool. This is composted at the Rotters site in Garston where the kitchen waste is mixed with green waste and fed through drum.
The aerobic process takes to weeks with the waste travelling through the tunnel at 60 degrees centigrade for the first week before being lowered slightly for the last week. This, said Simon Webb director of Accelerated Compost, would produce a high quality and compost. He added that horticultural and agricultural markets were being looked into for the material.
If the Defra funding bid is successful, the council hopes to launch a kitchen waste kerbside collection scheme for15,000 of its 95,000 households.
Mr Webb said that the company was keen to work with Liverpool to achieve its goals: “We have had some serious interest from commercial companies, but it would be really nice to have success with a community project first.
“We will still want to work with Liverpool even if the bid is unsuccessful but without secure financial backing things wouldn't move as quickly,” he added.
The council's waste strategy manager, Alan Smith said he thought the partnership bid had “a good chance” of success.
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