PDM to begin 6 million Doncaster AD expansion

The work is due to start on the plant in January 2014 and is expected to take six months to complete. The 12 million Doncaster facility was originally opened in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story) and was developed by PDM in partnership with German company SARIA Bio-industries under the ReFood brand.

The company said the investment will make the ReFood Doncaster plant the largest food waste AD facility in the UK until PDMs planned Dagenham plant comes online (see letsrecycle.com story).

Planning consent for the plants expansion has been secured meaning it will be able to accept up to 160,000 tonnes of food waste from the area every year. The plant will generate electricity through combined heat and power (CHP) and will have a total capacity of 5MWh, which will be fed into the national grid. A liquid fertiliser, known as digestate, will also be produced by the AD process and will be used by farmers in the local area to grow new crops.

Delighted

Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, part of the PDM Group, said: We are delighted to have received planning consent for this plant. The increased capacity gained will help us to ensure that more food waste can be transformed into renewable energy and valuable nutrients to go back onto the land.

Since the launch of Vision 2020: UK roadmap to zero food waste to landfill we have seen a clear desire from the local government, hospitality sector and retail to prevent food waste to landfill.

He added: As a company we are striving to have the necessary infrastructure in place in order to achieve zero food waste to landfill by the end of the decade. Food waste is a valuable asset and as a company we are committed to delivering the most advanced solutions for dealing with food waste and maximising its value as a resource.

The food recycler and manufacturer revealed earlier this year that it would spend 91 million on food waste recycling in the UK before the end of 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story). As part of this, ReFood is also investing 20 million in a new facility in Widnes which is due to become operational in spring 2014 as well as 30 million in a state of the art plant in Dagenham, due to open at the start of 2015. Both Widnes and Dagenham will operate a gas-to-grid system.