Food waste recycling company ReFood has completed a £6-million expansion project at its anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in Doncaster.
The Ings Road plant, which has been undergoing an extensive development programme in the last year, has seen two new 3,700-tonne capacity digesters installed, alongside additional receiving and storage tanks, and two 1.1 megawatt hour gas engines.
The expansion has increased the plant’s annual food waste processing capacity from 45,000 tonnes to 160,000 tonnes, which will produce enough biogas to generate around five megawatt hours of electricity – enough to power more than 12,000 homes. It is thought that the expansion has made the Doncaster plant ‘the largest plant of its kind in the UK’.
Around 30 jobs were also created from the project, across transport, sales, administration, operations and maintenance roles.
Philip Simpson, Commercial Director at ReFood, commented: “We’re delighted to announce the official completion of our expansion project at ReFood Doncaster. Huge local demand for an integrated food waste collection and recycling solution has fuelled this multi-million pound investment project – just three years after we initially opened the site.”
He added that the AD process also produces a digestate, marketed as ReGrow, that can be used by local farmers as a PAS 110-certified fertiliser.
As well as the Doncaster plant, ReFood recently opened the ‘UK’s largest’ gas-to-grid AD plant in Widnes and is currently investing in a large AD facility in Dagenham, East London, which is expected to open later this year.
Find out more about ReFood.
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