From Muck To Riches, and greener, too!

Experts at Carter Jonas are urging rural landowners to consider the potential income from the processing of slurry, food waste and abattoir waste through the development of on-farm biodigester plants. One plant could produce electricity for 600 homes per year.

Farming fortunes and farmland values are focused on maximising production currently but rural experts at Carter Jonas are urging rural landowners to consider the potential income from the processing of slurry, food waste and abattoir waste through the development of on-farm biodigester plants.

Buoyed by a recent fact-finding mission to Germany, where members of Carter Jonas’s Energy Team toured biodigester installations across a range of agricultural and farming operations, the property consultancy believes there is significant income to be made from the development of biodigester plants in the right location in the eastern region.

The process of anaerobic digestion (AD), which takes place in biodigester silos, has many potential sources of income for the owners:

Selling electricity into the National Grid
Selling Renewable Obligation Certificates to power companies
Charging gate fees to accept domestic, municipal and industrial organic waste for safe disposal
Selling excess heat produced from the AD process into community-based or small-scale, local industrial heating systems
Off-setting the cost of compound fertilisers

Calculations made by Carter Jonas, in consultation with Biogas Nord – a leading developer in the AD field, say that a 300KW plant could produce electricity for approximately 600 homes per year.

Such a farm-based plant could take in municipal waste which could capitalise on gate fees. Last May (2007) the local authority in Ludlow, Shropshire began kerbside collections of food waste for feeding into a local biodigester

Carter Jonas sees on-site biodigesters significantly reducing disposal costs for organic farming waste such as slurry, where 1 metric tonne of cow slurry could convert to around £6 worth of electricity.

Nutrient-rich fertilisers from the AD process are a bi-product which can also be used by the source farm or marketed to other users.

Another benefit of bio-digestion is that the process reduces odours from slurries.

The Government’s waste campaign WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) produced recent figures which report that the annual cost of food waste in the UK is £10 billion. This helps to reinforce the business case for biodigesters down on the farm, even to everyday country folk like those in Ambridge.

Iain Nott, an Associate in Carter Jonas’ Energy Team, commented: “We are 15 years behind Germany in seeing the potential of biodigesters to address not only aspects of the green agenda, but to shore-up the long term future of farming fortunes.

“Biodigester plants are no longer the exclusive preserve of those seeking an alternative country life. You know they are on the verge of becoming mainstream when they are a hot topic in The Archers and canny, hard-nosed, successful businessmen like characters Matt Crawford and Brian Aldridge are keen to see their estates and farms get a slice of AD action in Ambridge.”

Contact:
Iain Nott iain.nott@carterjonas.co.uk

FACT FILE:

• Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the naturally occurring process in which organic compounds are broken down, within the biodigester, by micro-organisms into biogas and nutrient rich fertiliser.
• Biodigesters take advantage of the energy that is naturally present in animal and food waste. Biodigester plants are, typically, a collection of 20 ft high silos which are embedded in the ground, with an inflated tarpaulin roof where the biogas made in the AD process is captured and stored until it is tapped for use in powering engines to produce electricity.

• Carter Jonas is a national firm of property consultants with 19 offices in England and Wales.
• Carter Jonas is a multidisciplinary firm, with divisions including: Residential, Rural, Commercial, Planning, Development, Building Consultancy and Minerals & Waste Management: www.carterjonas.co.uk.