It was 2004 when the innovative Greenfinch biogas company designed and subsequently built and operated a government-funded plant, opened to process source-separated kitchen waste from council household collections in South Shropshire.At the time, nobody was sure that dedicated AD plants for food waste alone, could be made to run reliably for long periods.
But there was a pressing need to develop new waste technologies. This need sprang from increasing public awareness that the amount of the nation's food being binned and disposed to landfill was unacceptable. It was as a result of this that the Ludlow Digester was conceived.
It was a success, and in a few short years research papers were published showing successful data for the plant.
Food waste which had been rising for many years had become a major problem to dispose of as we describe in the section that follows:
UK Food Waste a National Scandal
Many people see food waste as scandalous when so many people go hungry.
That's without even considering the waste of resources.
Plus, it doesn't even need to be said that food wastage creates enormous unnecessary environmental damage! We are producing so much food that never gets eaten.
At that time, over 62% of all waste was being sent to landfills (Defra Report – Advanced Biological Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste, 2007).
Food waste adds greatly to the strength of the dirty water (leachate) in any landfill. This in turn raises the danger to groundwater around landfills if the landfill ever leaks.
That has not changed, but thankfully much more waste is recycled or incinerated, and only about 20% is landfilled currently. Nevertheless, food waste recycling in England is a long way behind rates achieved in Scotland and Wales and has been described as a scandal.
In the autumn of 2018, the UK government published a new 10-year waste strategy. That states that the government will require all local authorities in England to collect and treat food waste from all households in England. At the time of writing, almost a year later, no further progress has been made to implement this policy.
Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Plant History Demonstrator Project
Back in the years before 2006, studies by consultant Aspinwall & Company, as advisers to Defra, revealed that anaerobic digestion, with its output of biogas, was the best option for the treatment of inedible food.
Aspinwall had reported in general that:
- Biogas production using anaerobic digestion (AD) enables the full nutrient cycle
- AD should thus be recognised as the preferred method of food waste recycling
- In addition to renewable energy production, AD provides another valuable product, digestate, which can replace mineral fertilisers as an organic fertiliser.
- The nutrients included in the AD feedstock (food waste and other biodegradable waste,
agricultural residues etc.) are not lost during the digestion process - Nutrients are thus conserved in the remaining digestate
- Spreading digestate on agricultural land brings nutrients back to the soil, enhances the production of food crops, and consequently raises food security.
This was accepted by the Labour government of the time, and it was decided that in order to move UK waste management practice forward, the government would provide grants for several demonstration projects.
One of those was for a demonstration food waste anaerobic digestion plant to be built and commissioned, and the resulting data to be published.
Viability of Dedicated Food Waste AD First Proven by the Defra Waste Treatment Demonstrator Project
The Defra Demonstration Projects were tendered and Biocycle (successor company is “Biogen”) won the design-build and operate contract, which was built on a site in Ludlow, Shropshire.
When work started, there was doubt whether AD plants fed solely on food waste were viable, as several attempts had failed.
Thankfully, groundbreaking research at Southampton University showed that food waste digestion was possible; all that was needed was for the operator to add small amounts of trace compounds, which are lacking in food.
Ludlow Digester: a Success
The Ludlow Biocycle Digester was a successful biogas plant, although lessons were learned from operating problems. One such lesson was the need for efficient grit removal from the digester even for food waste.
Closure Despite Good Biogas Production from Ludlow Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Plant
The closure of the plant in 2012, should be seen as having much more to do with local authority cutbacks due to austerity measures put in place by the Conservative government elected in 2010, than any other factor.
Food waste digestion was and still remains expensive. Shropshire County Council was charged a gate fee by Biocycle and had the additional expense of:
- food waste collection from households and
- transport to Ludlow.
It was not surprising that it was closed.
Our original closure article follows:
Original Article: Published in September 2012
UK's First Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Plant as a Defra Demonstrator Project to be Shut
Sadly, Shropshire Council and Biogen have announced the closure of the Biocycle food waste anaerobic food digestion (biogas) plant in Ludlow.
Back as far as 2010, the council was looking at stopping household food waste collections in the area as a reaction to the need to cut finances, although this isn't stated to be a reason for the plant's closure.
The information available in press reports makes it clear that after what is described as a really successful six years of operating as the UK's first demonstrator food waste anaerobic digestion plant it will now be closed.<
The decision has been made to wind down plant operations in September, with the full closure of the plant by the end of 2012.
It would certainly seem that while it was by all accounts a technical success, the site was definitely too small to be economically viable, and local CHP use of the waste heat had not been implemented, which would have added to revenue, plus the site is fully used and presumably not suitable for expansion.
The 5,000 tonnes per annum plant, was built in 2005 as a non-commercial operation at a time when many in the UK questioned the viability of such plants for household waste and was set up with financing from DEFRA and Advantage West Midlands.
Biocycle currently services a few contracts outside Shropshire, but reportedly there are now other AD plants that can process this waste.
Take a look at the following article for more information:
UK's first demonstrator food waste anaerobic digestion plant closed…
“Shrewsbury UK Shropshire Council and Biogen have jointly agreed to cease operation of the Biocycle anaerobic digestion AD plant at Coder Road, Ludlow.”
via [www.Recyclingportal.eu – Link no longer available]
Ludlow Food Waste History and the Present
By raising local awareness and using local expertise in food waste anaerobic digestion, a locally funded community digester was built that lives on and continues the history of biogas production in the small Shropshire market town of Ludlow.
This plant is an innovative plug-flow type biogas plant. So, it is fair to record that UK food waste anaerobic digestion history continues to be made in Ludlow.
The Community Food Waste AD Plant (BMAD), a combined venture of biogas expert Michael Chesshire, Lutra Ltd, and the University of Southampton lives on.
Ludlow Waste Demonstration Plant Details
The facility in Ludlow, Shropshire was a Defra “New Technologies Demonstrator” plant.
The following design information is provided from the Defra Report, Advanced Biological Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste, 2007, Page 15:
“[The Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Plant] was designed to treat 5,000 tonnes per year of source-separated garden and kitchen waste.
The input waste undergoes two shredding and wetting stages before being placed into a feedstock buffer tank. This feeds the AD tank, which uses the wet mesophilic (37ºC) single stage CSTR Anaerobic Digestion process in a fully-mixed tank.
The AD process is continuous, with a batch pasteurisation process (70ºC for one hour) at the end to meet ABPR requirements.
The digested material is then separated into digestate (>0.5mm) for use as a soil conditioner and liquor to be used as a biofertiliser.
The biogas produced fuels a combined heat and power (CHP) unit to produce renewable electricity for the grid and process heat available for district and local heat needs.
When operating at full capacity, the net electricity production is estimated to be 1.5 million kWh and a net heat output of 2.2 million kWh.”
[Post first published on August 26, 2019. Updated February 2023.]
Very good. Do people really want the chore of putting their food waste into a container when they can chuck it on a heap (compost heap) in the garden. No they don’t.
Way cool! Recent history of a good attempt to be more careful to look after our environment. Couldn’t this plant be re-opened for food waste?
Garden waste (cellulose) is not suitable for anaerobic digestors. It is broken down aerobically by various fungi. There was possibly more garden waste than food stuff fed to the plant so the system would have produced very little gas.