UK's First Biomethane Plant to Provide Gas to 56,000 Households

The first ever fully operational, commercial biomethane-to-grid plant in the UK has been installed and will provide gas to around 56,000 houses in the county of Dorset in South West England.

The Rainbarrow Farm anaerobic digestion plant will turn around 40,000 tonnes of organic matter into bio gas each year, which will then be added to the local natural gas grid.

The digester at the plant will process around 24,000 tons of maize, 10,000 tons of grass, 4,000 tons of potato waste, and small volume of chocolate and muesli waste, into biomethane. Biomethane is produced during the anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition of organic matter, and then once upgraded it is very close to methane, and similar to natural gas.

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The process of decomposition also produces digistate which is a solid/liquid product rich in nutrients and organic humus, and can be used as a great fertilizer.

The plant will produce around 859 cubic metres of biogas per hour, 23,000 tons of liquid digistate per year, and 8,000 tons of solid digistate. The whole installation will save around 4,435 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com