Start Here - Who can benefit from Anaerobic Digestion?

Who can Benefit from Anaerobic Digestion? Print E-mail


Local Community

  • Potential for food waste collections
  • Energy from a local, renewable source
  • Potential for heat to harness for local use
  • New jobs
  • Cleaner environment
  • Reduced odours from slurry

Environment

  • Reduces emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas
  • Produces renewable energy
  • Reduces the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill
  • Produces fertiliser, reducing the demand for petrochemical-derived fertilisers
  • Can reduce nitrate pollution by decreasing run-off

Farmers and Energy Entrepreneur

  • Can be profitable
  • Supports livestock sector
  • Digestate provides more nitrogen to crops than slurry
  • Helps to deal with Nitrate Directives
  • Kills pathogens in the feedstock, reducing potential diseases
  • Kills seeds in the feedstock, preventing the spread of weeds

Government

  • Helps to meet environmental targets
  • Contributes to the renewable energy targets in the Renewable Energy Strategy
  • Helps to meet the Landfill Directive
  • Can help meet Nitrates Directive implementation requirements
  • Can help Local waste authorities with the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme

Industry

  • Better organics recycling is a good message for customers
  • Easier waste recycling compliance
  • Easier rodent and vermin control for food processing industry
  • Cheaper than incineration or landfill

 

 

Advantages of AD

  • It turns waste into a resource. Instead of sending waste to landfill, we can use it to produce energy and fertiliser.
  • It produces fuel. Biogas can be used instead of fossil fuels.
  • It produces fertiliser. Fertilisers are made from fossil fuels. The digestate from can replace some synthetic fertilisers.
  • It reduces our carbon footprint. The methane produced during AD is burned as fuel, and therefore releases CO2 into the atmosphere.  Because it comes from biomass, this does not contribute to climate change. However, if the same waste was left to degrade in a landfill site, the methane produced could escape into the atmosphere: methane has a global warming potential 23 times larger than that of CO2. Therefore, harvesting and using methane from biomass can help to prevent climate change.
  • It can benefit many different people.  AD potentially benefits the local community, the environment, industry, farmers and energy entrepreneurs and government.

 

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