| Muck & Slurry
KIRK completes on Wilcross Farm project
KIRK ENVIRONMENTAL, part of KIRK GROUP, has completed their part of a new on-farm
Anaerobic Digestion plant for the production of electricity from crops and livestock
manures at the Wilcross Farm in
Gisburn, Lancashire.
he plant consists of one 300m³
Concrete Digestion Tank complete with
a 1430m³ industry-leading BIODOME®
double membrane roof. The crops and
livestock manures treated at the AD
plant come from a total of four farms
surrounding the site: Wilcross Farm,
Watt Close Farm, Yarlside Farm and Lane Ends
Farm.
T
KIRK has recently completed a number of
on-farm Digesters across the UK and has a
pipeline for many more.
The plant has been constructed adjacent to
a group of modern agricultural buildings at the
rear of Wilcross Farm. This site was chosen as
the location for the AD facilities mainly for its
central location in relation to the other farms,
but also because of good transport links
around the area, the absence of any significant
visually sensitive receptors and its close
proximity to a suitable connection point to the
National Grid.
The plant allows for all the forage produced
at the farms, together with the slurry provided
by their cattle contract to be treated in the
Digester. Overall the plant is currently treating a
40 | Farming Monthly | January 2015
total of approx. 10,000 tonnes of feedstock per
annum. This creates a total of 500Kw
renewable electricity which will be exported to
the National Grid. The land used to grow the
feedstock for the Anaerobic Digester will be refertilised each year using the digestate biproduct produced during the AD process.
KIRK has recently completed a number of
on-farm Digesters across the UK and has a
pipeline for many more as Agricultural AD
Plants are being adopted across the UK as part
of the Government supported drive for
sustainable renewable energy.
More information at www.kirk-group.co.uk or
www.kirk-environmental.com
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk