Advanced Digestion Technology Blog

Monsal finalist for Company of the Year Award and Excellence in Science and Technology Award

Monsal are delighted to announce that we have been announced as a finalist for Nottingham Post 2013 “Company of the Year” award.

Monsal is now the UK’s leading company in the provision of sophisticated organic waste to energy plants that convert waste that may otherwise be landfilled into renewable gas and energy.

It has taken the company over 5 years to develop and commercialise the technology which is now being used by waste management companies all across the UK. “We have successfully attracted significant investment to get this technology to market, which runs into millions of pounds in the recent difficult economic times and we work very closely with local suppliers and service providers who are a key part of our operation” Managing Director Aidan Cumiskey said. The success of our company in this climate demonstrates the market potential for the technology. It’s good for the region and our supply chain that we can see sustained growth ahead in these uncertain times.”

Monsal have doubled the business turnover in the last few years and the target is to double the business again in the next 3 years. That will mean increased jobs, which are high quality engineering/technology based and also increased workload for the local manufacturing sector which Monsal have traditionally relied on.

Monsal have also been shortlisted for the Excellence in Science and Technology award for the development of the Monsal Biowaste process.

The UK produces approximately 15 million tonnes of organic waste per year in the form of food waste from homes, factories, shops and restaurants.  Currently a large proportion of this waste is sent to landfill where it produces greenhouse gases.  The Nottinghamshire based Monsal are the UK’s leading supplier of Advanced Anaerobic Digestion technology and have developed an innovative process for converting unavoidable food waste from food manufacturing and kitchen scraps into a renewable ‘biogas’ which is in turn converted to electricity, heat, ‘biomethane’ or vehicle fuel.  Employing high skilled engineers from the local area, Monsal has developed a class leading process that can receive heavily packaged food waste and produce exceptionally high levels of renewable energy and a sustainable natural fertiliser (digestate).

“We want to help promote the Nottinghamshire region as a centre of excellence for Green Energy. This includes tapping into the famous engineering pedigree of the region to provide capability for the “new” economies such as Green Energy. We are excited about the future, there are not many sectors that are growing at over 10% per annum and Notts based companies like Monsal can play a leading national and international role”.

2013 has been a pivotal year for Monsal with significant commercial opportunities in UK, Europe and Asia now appearing. The company signed their 5^th large project in February which will convert local food waste to energy and their 4^th, a state-of the-art project in Somerset for Viridor, will treat the food waste created by over 500,000 people or twice the size of Nottingham city putting renewable energy back into the grid.

Defra minister David Heath (r) said the Monsal plant was a “fantastic innovation”

Bristol’s first food waste recycling plant that will produce enough renewable energy to power around 3,000 homes has officially been opened today (3 December).

The plant operated by Wessex Water subsidiary GENeco will treat 40,000 tonnes food waste from homes, supermarkets and businesses across the south west – preventing it from going to landfill. Monsal, the UKs leading Advanced digestion business provided the technology solution and completed the installation in less than 12 months. It is a UK first and will see water companies expanding their expertise into food waste processing.

Based at Bristol sewage treatment works in Avonmouth, the plant can produce 10 GWh of energy a year from biogas generated through anaerobic digestion treatment – a process in which bugs break down biodegradable material to produce methane gas.

Today (3 December) the food waste plant was officially opened by Defra minister David Heath.

He said: “We see here the ideal balance between good business sense and environmental protection.  The GENeco plant is unique by being the first food waste anaerobic plant in Britain to be built in a sewage treatment works.  Water companies using their expertise in treating sewage can provide a significant boost to the expansion of waste food anaerobic digestion in this country.

“This could potentially create thousands of new jobs, generate significant amounts of renewable energy, while solving a major environmental issue in the disposal of waste food.”

Wessex Water has operated anaerobic digestion at Bristol sewage treatment works for many years and generates around 30 GWh of renewable energy from sewage sludge and produces 250,000 tonnes of high-nutrient fertiliser which is used by farmers instead of expensive in-organic fertilisers.

The amount of energy produced allows Bristol sewage treatment works – the largest in the south west – to be carbon neutral and self-sufficient from an energy perspective, which helps to drive down operating costs – benefiting Wessex Water customers.

The GENeco food waste investment will produce even more energy which can be fed in to the national grid. GENeco general manager Mohammed Saddiq said: “The opening of the food waste plant builds on the success and experience of using anaerobic digestion to treat sewage sludge and generate power.

“Through this investment we will produce significantly more renewable energy, while also providing a sustainable solution for dealing with food waste which traditionally goes to landfill.

“Dealing with food waste in the this way is better for the environment as it prevents greenhouse gases, by capturing methane which can be used to produce power.”

It is the first time a food waste plant has been located at a sewage treatment works in the UK.  The plant was built in less than a year by technology specialist, Monsal working closely with GENeco and EPC contractor Finning UK. Monsals Managing Director Aidan Cumiskey said “ The Bristol site is now one of the most energy efficient in the country using our key technologies to convert food waste to renewable energy. It is a great success story for our client GENeco.”

Wessex Water chairman Colin Skellett said: “Anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge is an important part of turning waste material into useful by-products.

“We are building anaerobic digestion plants at other sites in our region due to the environmental benefits they offer and because they help tackle the problem of growing electricity and waste disposal costs.

“GENeco provides the opportunity to extend this to food waste so that what we all produce – whether in the form of sewage or food – is being put to good use and helping to generate renewable energy.”

Bristol treatment works treats waste from around 1 million people living in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcgO5uvbe7M

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10,000 tonne DS Monsal Advanced Digestion Plant for Trowbridge

Monsal has been awarded the contract to supply its Advanced Digestion process, to Wessex Water via MWH Treatment for a new digestion project at Trowbridge.

Monsal will supply its Enzymic Hydrolysis technology for the treatment of sewage sludge at the Trowbridge site. The plant will process 10,000 Dry Tonnes of sludge per annum. A major part of the project also includes the construction of 2 new digesters on the site with a new CHP biogas to energy plant. The project will generate 1MWe from biogas when operational.

The use of Monsal technology on this site is the second large scale installation within Wessex Water. The major AD Supercentre at Avonmouth also uses the Monsal technology, where over 100 Tonnes per day or 40,000 Dry tonnes per annum are processed to produce 4MWe continuous electrical power output. The Avonmouth AD supercentre is one of the most efficient digestion energy projects in the UK. Today the Avonmouth site is self sufficient in power management resultant for the high biogas to energy yields of the Monsal system. The high level of performance over a number of years coupled with the high level of reliability led to the selection of the Monsal technology for the new digestion project at Trowbridge.

Construction has started at Trowbridge and the site will complete by December 2013.

The Monsal Advanced Digestion technology has been installed on 12 major sewage sludge AD sites and 4 major food waste AD sites in the UK. In addition Monsal have supplied technology to over 200 conventional digesters in the UK and overseas. Monsal supply proprietary equipment and technology to both these market sectors to allow for:

• Pre-treatment technology
• High rate digestion
• Biogas to power infrastructure
• Digestate management

Today Monsal is the Advanced Digestion technology supplier of choice for major AD infrastructure projects in the water and waste markets.

The Monsal team raised over £5200 for local charities

Hundreds of runners from businesses across Nottingham and the region have put their best foot forward to take part in the UK’s largest corporate relay race and take the total raised for charity soaring past the quarter of a million pound mark.

46 companies across the East Midlands took part in the tenth annual Cooper Parry Corporate Challenge to compete in its half-marathon relay event. The race, which is organised by business advisory firm Cooper Parry, raised over £25,000 for charity which means the event has now raised £270,000 since it began in 2003.

The overall winner of the 2012 event was Nottingham based Alexander Forbes who completed the relay in a time of 1:36:37.

Monsal who raised over £5,200, were the team who raised the most money for this year’s event charities, Treetops Hospice, Rainbows Children’s Hospice and NSPCC. We also managed very respectable times of 1:45:15 and 1:58:52 with our runners!

For more information, please click the link below:

MONSAL IS RECRUITING NOW

Monsal and ADBA explore the opportunity for creation of new bioenery plants across the UK and beyond. The feature below was recently published in Bioenergy Insight.

Please click the following links to view:

BioEnergy Insight Front Cover

Water meets waste article

Please see video link below:

Somerset food waste to provide energy for homes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFV-i9vN_EE

Somerset AD plant gets the Monsal treatment

Waste management company Viridor has begun construction on a state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion facility near Bridgwater in Somerset. The £10m project is being developed by Viridor where Monsal are providing the technology which will convert food waste into renewable energy via their Advanced Digestion process.

The plant will be Viridor’s first Food waste AD facility and will be located at its Walpole landfill site. The Somerset Waste Board agreed in September 2011 to develop the facility and the plant is expected to be operational by April 2013.

Capacity

Viridor’s Somerset AD facility will be located at the firm’s Walpole landfill site (pictured)

The facility- which will cost around £10 million – will have the capacity to process up to 30,000 tonnes of food waste per year, 20,000 tonnes of which will be provided by the Somerset Waste Partnership, which includes all six of Somerset’s councils. The remaining 10,000 tonnes of capacity will be used to process waste from restaurants, supermarkets, catering firms, pubs, shops and other businesses in the local area.

The plant will also produce over one megawatt of power, enough to supply more than 1,700 homes.

Patrick Murray, Viridor’s regional manager, said: “This is a fantastic development for Somerset that will help divert even more waste from landfill and increase recycling rates.

Working with Somerset Waste Partnership we will process 20,000 tonnes of food waste collected from residents across the county. The remaining capacity will be filled from food waste we collect from local businesses.”

“The plant will also provide some excellent employment opportunities with 20 jobs during the construction phase and six full-time positions when the plant starts operating in April 2013.” 

Benefits

Viridor committed to build the anaerobic digestion (AD) facility under part of its long-term contract to manage Somerset’s waste, which began in 2006 and runs until March 31 2022

Somerset Waste Board chairman Councillor Derek Yeomans said: “Somerset residents are working hard with us maximise the weekly food collections and keep this valuable resource out of landfill. The next step, working with our partner Viridor, is to create clean, green renewable power right here in Somerset for the local grid.”

“The new AD facility will also save taxpayers around £1 million over the next five years so it’s a genuine win on both environmental and economic grounds. We’d like to encourage all residents to use the scheme if they are not already, as the more we can process, the bigger the benefits.”

Technology

Monsal , the UKs leading biogas to energy specialist, will provide the technology platform. Monsals Managing Director Aidan Cumiskey said “We are delighted to be working with Viridor on their first food waste recycling and energy plant.  This project will be state-of-the-art using the latest innovations to convert food waste to energy and will build on the considerable track record we now have in the UK”

The plant is the 4th Advanced Digestion plant Monsal will construct in the UK for treatment of Food waste based on its class leading Advanced Digestion system.

Monsal Managing Director Aidan Cumiskey said “Our track record now speaks for itself in the UK with established operational plants at Deerdykes and Westry and construction of two additional advanced facilities now underway.”

“ Viridor is a major player in the sector and the fact that they have chosen our technology for their first food waste plant speaks volumes about the confidence they have in our offering to deal with multiple waste streams. We have worked hard to develop a solution and supply chain that can service this new Cleantech market. In particular we are taking a lead position in the treatment of food waste.”

Introduction

A state of the art food waste processing facility that will have the capacity to receive up to 40,000 tonnes of food waste per year is now under construction at the Bristol Sewage Treatment works in Avonmouth.

GENeco’s food waste anaerobic digestion treatment facility will transform solid and liquid food waste into renewable energy and nutrient rich fertiliser. At full capacity the plant will be capable of supplying the energy needs for around 3,000 homes.

This exciting new development will be the first large scale food waste treatment facility in the Bristol and surrounding area. It will offer supermarkets, local authorities, food manufacturing organisations, hospitals universities, catering establishments and waste management companies a cost effective and sustainable solution for treating their packaged and unpackaged food and catering waste.

The plant will begin accepting food waste deliveries from autumn 2012.

Mohammed Saddiq, GENeco’s General Manager, said “Since the creation of GENeco we have been working very hard to respond to our customer’s needs for a local solution that offers a cost effective, robust and sustainable alternative to landfill. Our parent company Wessex Water has been digesting sewage sludge for over 40 years and this plant builds on the group’s considerable wealth of expertise in harnessing renewable energy through anaerobic digestion. It follows in the footsteps of the launch last year of our incredibly successful Bio-Bug “poo-powered” car; which attracted international interest in our use of anaerobic digestion as a means of delivering renewable energy and transport solutions.”

Construction

A contract has now been placed with Finning for delivery of the food waste plant with construction starting on site in earnest in December 2011. Plant design and process engineering technology will be provided by Monsal with Civil Engineering provided by Damar.

The GENeco food waste plant is based on the Monsal plant design in Deerdykes Scotland which is one of only two plants in the UK to have successfully obtained the PAS 110 certification for the digestate end product. This certification serves as a quality hallmark for the fertiliser produced at the end of the process and offers farmers independent reassurance that the digestate has been converted from a waste into a soil conditioning product.

GENeco engineers spent a considerable amount of time evaluating technology solutions on offer across Europe. The Monsal solution was chosen for its robust design and successful proven operation in the UK on a diverse range of feedstock. Monsal has a longstanding track record of producing anaerobic digestion solutions in the UK and has recently completed the construction of an advanced acid phase enzymic hydrolysis digestion plant for sewage sludge at Bristol Sewage Treatment Works. The process optimises the conditions for sewage sludge digestion in two separate vessels; thereby optimising gas production and making it one of the most efficient digesters in the country.

Aidan Cumiskey, Monsal Managing Director said “ We have worked with Wessex Water to optimise the digestion plant on site which now reliably delivers about 4 MWe from Biogas using our Advanced Digestion solution. The additional food waste digestion infrastructure that we will deliver is now going to expand the site capabilities for treatment of commercial food waste. This is a major innovation for the water industry and represents a glimpse of the future with water utilities taking a more prominent role in food waste recycling, building on their track record of renewable energy generation. “

The combination of Advanced Anaerobic Digestion (AAD) for sewage sludge and food waste digestion solutions at these super AD centres represents a clear business synergy and optimal use of infrastructure. We expect other water companies now to adopt this approach and create significant non-regulated business growth. Monsal will play a lead role in implementing this in the UK.”

Julian Okoye, GENeco’s Business development Manager, said “We are really excited about the construction of our food waste treatment facility. Our Avonmouth site is an excellent location for our customers with easy access from Bristol as well as the M4 and M5 motorway network. The site has a longstanding track record of offering competitive treatment services for commercial liquid organic waste to some of the best customer service standards in the industry. We have seen significant interest in the GENeco food waste development from across the South West region and even into Wales.”

For further details on the Avonmouth Food Waste Treatment Plant please visit:

GENeco: www.geneco.uk.com or contact GENeco at 01225 524 560

Monsal: www.Monsal.co.uk or contact Monsal at 01623 412125

De-packaging Food Waste in the UK

Anaerobic Digestion plants being built in the UK to treat food waste are all facing the same key challenge when it comes to dealing with the waste. The levels of packaging are proving to be far higher than those seen in other parts of Europe; in fact the levels can be up to 20% by weight of plastic, card, glass and cans. Similar food waste in Germany for example has packaging contamination of around 5-10%.

Supermarket waste generally contains the most packaging contamination; this is due to a number of factors. Firstly, food manufacturers are competing for shelf space and therefore making their product more attractive to the eye than competitors, this often results in higher levels of packaging. If you consider the packaging on some well known brands where there is a tin foil tray inside a plastic try inside a cellophane wrapper inside a card box. Secondly, most supermarkets backhaul out of date food waste back to distribution centres, this involves placing the out of date stock into as many as three plastic bags in some cases.

The reality at some waste producer sites is segregated waste streams  quite often end up contaminated with items such a stones, batteries, concrete blocks and other general waste; as experienced at  a Monsal built anaerobic digestion facility in Cumbernauld, Scotland.

When the food waste is delivered to an anaerobic digestion plant it requires some form of mechanical treatment to remove the packaging and other contamination prior to the anaerobic digestion process. The de-packaging equipment is one of the most important components of an anaerobic digestion facility; an insufficient facility will lead to downstream issues within the anaerobic digestion process. Most food waste de-packaging systems have been developed in Europe to deal with lower levels of packaging contamination, and this has led to issues at some UK anaerobic digestion plants. The high levels of packaging can cause de-packaging equipment to have blockages and for screens to be blinded leading to downtime of the equipment, as well as carryover of the packaging into digesters and even into the final digestate product  which will affect the operator obtaining the PAS110 accreditation.

Despite all these issues in dealing with the UK’s contaminated food waste, Monsal has installed its fully automated state of the art separation technology at a 30,000 tonne anaerobic digestion food waste plant in Cumbernauld, Scotland within the last 12 months. The separation technology can achieve high levels of organic removal where conventional waste processing plants with manual or semi-automatic screening/sorting can only achieve low separation of organic components.

The plant now successfully deals with over 20 different waste streams from supermarkets and food processors, of which some can contain as much as 20% packaging by weight. The plant in fact has been able to treat all waste delivered to the site, as the Monsal separation equipment has the capacity to process the most difficult of contaminated food wastes.

In an ideal world food waste would be de-packaged at source and arrive at anaerobic digestion facilities with no contamination; however in reality this is unlikely to ever happen so the UK needs to adopt more advanced separation technology in order to deal with higher levels of contamination in UK food waste.

Due the success of the advanced separation technology at the Cumbernauld plant, Monsal is now in receipt of further orders which are currently in design and construction.

Written by: Shaun Flynn, Monsal Ltd

Article featured in LAWR April issue:

http://content.yudu.com/A1rw9k/LawrApril2011/