F.L.I. Energy has announced today that it has begun construction at the Biomethane to Grid Anaerobic Digestion Ellough project, located in Beccles, Suffolk, UK. The project installed capacity will be 12MW of thermal energy.
Anaerobic digestion is the simple, natural breakdown of organic matter into carbon dioxide, methane and water by microorganisms. Through this process, the Ellough AD plant will produce approximately 2,000m3/hour of raw biogas. Following an upgrading process, principally consisting of CO2 and trace contaminant gases removal, the plant will deliver 1,100Nm3/hour of biomethane, equivalent to 12MW/hour green energy to the natural gas grid, enough to supply the needs of 7,000 local homes. The potential carbon saving of the project will amount to as much as 21,000 tonnes per year.
The project will use locally produced energy crops to generate raw biogas and in addition will deliver high quality organic fertiliser back to local farmers, significantly offsetting their reliance on chemical fertilisers.
“Injecting biomethane produced through anaerobic digestion into the gas grid has an array of benefits. It is one of the most efficient uses of biogas and reduces our reliance on imported fossil gas, thus contributing to meeting the UK’s renewable energy and climate change targets whilst improving our energy security. Biomethane from AD could potentially deliver 10% of the UK’s domestic gas demand”, commented F.L.I. Energy’s Managing Director Declan McGrath.
The Ellough project is developed and led by BioCore Environmental Ltd who through Cambridge based funding partner Eastern Counties Finance (E.C.F.) contracted F.L.I. Energy for a full EPC wrapped project delivery, including the design, construction and commissioning of the plant, as well as a five year maintenance and process analysis support contract. The contract scope includes detailed civil and process design, ground-works, site secondary containment bunding, drainage, silage clamp, digestate storage, AD plant technology, 500 kWe CHP, biogas upgrading, propane addition and biomethane network entry.
Peter Carey, Biocore Environmental’s Director commented : “This plant will provide a number of benefits to farmers in the region whilst contributing significant renewable energy to the local and national grid thus helping to meet the UK Government’s 20% renewable energy target by 2020. We are pleased to be working with F.L.I. Energy to deliver this significant project”.
As a leading UK based biogas plant contractor, this project represents a key reference in the rapidly emerging BtG sector of the AD market for F.L.I. Energy and builds on an impressive list of projects either commissioned or currently under construction
