Bernard Matthews, the UK’s largest turkey farmer and supplier, is installing a biogas plant to improve the company’s waste handling and energy costs. The project underlines the wide scope of Xergi’s biogas technology for handling waste.
Xergi is to supply Holton Renewable Power Ltd., which is a joint venture between Bernard Matthews, the UK’s largest turkey business, and Glendale Power, a development company specialising in anaerobic digestion, with a biogas plant.
The plant will be located close to Bernard Matthews’ current processing site in Holton in Suffolk, with the biogas being generated solely from waste matter from the production plant.
Ability to handle its own waste
“The biogas plant converts the processing waste into an energy resource. Digesting the waste will also allow the company to handle its own material,” says Jørgen Fink, Sales Manager in Xergi’s International Sales Department.
So far, the company has delivered its waste to an external service contractor for processing, but with the biogas plant the business will be able to manage everything on site and will save over 1000 lorry journeys per annum.
The biogas will be used for the production of electricity and heating – supplying 16% of the company’s energy needs. It will also lead to a C02 reduction of 2,800 tonnes.
Great potential for waste handling
“The project shows the many opportunities provided by Xergi’s biogas technology in the handling of waste and other organic resources,” says Colin Steel Xergi’s Country Manager for the UK and Ireland.
“We have built an efficient plant based on vegetable waste with the grower Staples Vegetables, and now we will be building a plant based on waste from a turkey processing plant. This underlines the fact that our technology is able to create value out of waste and organic residue across a range of industries,” he says.
Mr Steel sees a great potential for businesses with a large amount of organic waste which can be handled and converted into a valuable resource for biogas production.
New standard concept
The Holton plant is based on Xergi’s new modular concept. The installed power output of the gas engine is 499 kW. This gives the company the opportunity to obtain a higher price for the green electricity which is based on the new British tariff for electricity produced from biogas.
The project has been developed in a close partnership between Xergi, Glendale Power, Bernard Matthews and H20K.