Richgro CHP plant

Waste to energy

The AD facility can process more than 35,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial organic waste a year, with the scope to handle 50,000 tonnes, therefore diverting this from landfill.

The facility’s de-packaging system remove contaminants to enhance the digestion process. The feedstock is then put into a blending tank to ensure that the PH balance, proteins fats and other organics are in a good ratio to aid digestion, which is checked by the on-site laboratory before being placed into a buffer tank. The buffer tank acts as a store for the organic matter for the intermittent feeding of the digesters throughout the day.

This organic matter is then fed into two 2,500 cubic meter capacity glass fused to steel digesters, supplied and constructed by Biodome Asia.

The feedstock passed into the primary digester has its own external heating system to maintain the temperature of the digesters, which utilises the co-generated surplus heat from the biogas CHP gas engine to maintain a temperature of approximately 36 degrees Celsius.

Landia supplied its externally-mounted GasMix system used for digester mixing. The system is not only easy to service, but also enhances the gas yield and reduces volatile solids. The gas is then cleaned up utilising a Uniflare flare stack before being turned into energy via Edina Group’s biogas CHP engine.

The MWM TCG 2020 V12 1.2MWe biogas CHP engine was containerised at Edina’s manufacturing facility based in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, before being transported directly to site. Edina commissioned and currently maintains the biogas CHP over a long term maintenance package.