According to official figures released by NNFCC the anaerobic digestion industry in the UK has reached a “significant” milestone, as the number of AD plants outside of the water industry has passed 100 for the very first time.
There are now 106 anaerobic digestion plants outside of the water industry, processing up to 5.1 million tones of food and farm waste every year and with an installed electrical capacity of more than 88MWe. There are also more than a dozen other plants currently under construction.
Nearly half of the AD plants currently in operation are ‘community’ digesters, where food waste is collected from multiple sources, like supermarkets, hospitality providers and households, to be converted into heat, power and fertilizer.
A further forty per cent use ‘agricultural’ feedstock, like slurry, manure, crops or residues. The remaining digesters are ‘industrial’ sites treating on-site waste such as brewery effluent and food processing residues.
