Cheese-based gas to heat hundreds of Cumbria homes
A new government-backed green energy plant will start producing gas from cheddar manufacturing waste next month, which will heat hundreds of homes in Cumbria.
About £2 million a year in subsidies, which will be paid for by consumers through levies on their energy bills for the next 20 years, is expected to be given to Lake District Biogas, the developer that funded the upfront cost of the project. The government created a subsidy scheme to reward homes and businesses that produce energy from renewable sources, in order to meet EU renewable targets and UK climate change goals.
Clearfleau, the company that built the new plant, said the total amount of gas being fed into the gas grid each year would be equivalent to the annual gas needs of 4,000 homes.About 60 per cent of that gas is expected to be taken back out of the grid for the creamery’s own use in steam-making, leaving the equivalent of 1,600 homes’ annual gas usage circulating to homes and businesses in rural Cumbria.
The plant at the Lake District Creamery in Aspatria will produce cheese-based gas by pumping liquid whey residues that are left over from the cheese-making, together with water that is used to clean down cheesy equipment, into a giant tank.Bacteria then feed on the fats and sugars in the cheese residues over a period of 50 days, producing “biogas” – a mixture of methane and other gases – through a process of anaerobic digestion.The plant will produce about 1,000 cubic metres of biogas per hour.
Some of it will be used to generate electricity for a small power plant on-site while the majority will be “upgraded” by removing carbon dioxide to leave “bio-methane”, which is comparable in energy content to North Sea natural gas. This will be fed into the local gas grid to be used by businesses and homes. According to Richard Gueterbock, Clearfleau marketing director, it is the first plant in Europe to feed cheese-based gas into the grid.
The plant has recently finished construction and is now gearing up for full production, expected in about six week’s time.Gordon Archer, chairman of Lake District Biogas, said it had been a “major achievement” to complete the construction on time despite “the weather conditions in Cumbria this winter”, which saw the county hit by devastating floods.
Source: Telegraph