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Regulations Covering Anaerobic Digestion
When a digester is accepting feedstocks from third parties and/or moving digestate off site, regulations concerning environmental protection, health and safety and waste handling must be met.
- Environmental Permitting Programme (integrating the previous Waste Management Licences and Pollution Prevention Control)
- Duty of Care
- Animal by-product Regulations
- Health and Safety
- Planning Consent
- Digestate Quality
- Excise Duty (if biogas is used as a road fuel)
Environmental Permitting
The storage of waste and its recovery using anaerobic digestion is regulated under the Environmental Permitting (EP) Regulations in England and Wales. The Environment Agency (EA) are the regulator and you can find an overview of environmental permitting here. The regulations are complex, so a good place to start is the EA's Getting the Basics Right. The application forms and guidance for how to fill them in are found here. If you have an enquiry about EP, contact the EA on 08708 506506 or enquiries@environment-agency-gov.uk. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate regulations for Pollution Prevention Control and Waste Management Licensing.
Animal By-Products Regulations
The Animal By-Products Regulations (ABPR) permit the treatment in approved composting and biogas premises of low-risk animal by-products and catering waste which contains meat or which comes from a premises handling meat. This waste must be pasteurised before it enters the AD plant. Slurry does not fall under ABPR. Read the Defra pages on ABPR in relation to composting and biogas production for guidance and FAQs before printing the application form. Although the forms are from Defra, you send the form to a local Animal Health Office to handle the assessment.
Health and Safety
Anaerobic digestion can be regarded as a chemical process with all the associated risks: flammable atmospheres, fire and explosion, toxic gases, confined spaces, asphyxiation, pressure systems, COSHH etc. In addition, it also incorporates gas handling and gas storage. Therefore, it is essential that thorough hazard and risk assessments are carried out at each stage of a project from design to installation to commissioning to implementation and operation.
Carry out risk assessments at each stage of the anaerobic digestion project
See the HSE pages on getting started in health and safety.
Consider the risks of fire and explosion
See the HSE pages on fire and explosion, particularly the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations.
Consider the risks of toxic gases in confined spaces
Anaerobic digestion produces hydrogen sulphide, a highly toxic gas. Read the HSE booklet Safe Work in Confined Spaces and, if your digester is on a farm, Managing Confined Spaces on a Farm.
Planning Permission
For information on AD and planning system, see the AD and Planning Permission page.
Digestate Quality
Standards and quality protocols for digestate can be found in the Digestate pages.
Excise Duty
If you are using biogas as a road fuel, the procedures to become compliant with HMRC for paying Excise Duty are all laid out here in HMRC Notice 76.
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