ReFood officially opens Widnes AD facility

The 20 million plant was officially opened yesterday (June 18) in a special ceremony attended by local and industry stakeholders, as well as honorary chairman Norbert Rethmann, who unveiled a plaque and tipped the first bin.

The Cheshire facility will process commercial and domestic food waste collected by ReFood from local authorities and businesses within a 50 mile radius of Widnes, generating up to 180 million KWh of biomethane each year for the National Grid.

In addition, ReFood is offering a sanitised bin swap service to its customers, which sees a full bin exchanged for a clean one and ensures businesses can separate their food waste at source for recycling.

Investment

The plant represents the first gas-to-grid AD plant in the food recycling firms European portfolio of 11 plants, and part of parent company SARIAs 91 million investment across its UK operations (see letsrecycle.com story).

In January, construction work began to expand SARIAs flagship ReFood AD facility in Doncaster, which once completed will be able to accept up to 160,000 tonnes of food waste every year and generate a total capacity of 5MWh (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in November 2013, the firm secured planning permission for a similarly sized 160,000 tonnes-a-year capacity AD plant in Dagenham, which is due to begin operations in 2015 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Showcase

Andy Smith, chief executive of SARIA, said that as the first facility of its kind to be completed, the Widnes plant would showcase the capability of AD technology in the UK and Europe.

He said: Im delighted to add ReFood Widnes to our portfolio of food waste recycling technologies. As our first gas-to-grid AD plant it will operate as a showcase plant for both the ReFood brand and also the AD industry as a whole in both the UK and Europe. Food waste offers such important potential as a resource, that we must maximise this through the use of new innovative technologies.

Since our first ReFood plant opened in Doncaster in 2011, we have seen a positive uptake of a service that is simple and easy to use. AD lends itself perfectly to a localised model due to the transportation of both the food waste and the fertiliser by-product.

As the North West is an important hub for both food production and distribution, Widnes is the perfect location alongside our existing food chain by-product processing facilities.