| Renewables
North Wales on-farm AD plant first to obtain
ABP approval
Lodge Farm Biogas Limited, whose farm is home to freenergy’s first Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant, has become
the first on-farm AD facility to have been granted AnimalBy Products (ABP) approval by Defra.
ocated on the outskirts of
Wrexham, North Wales,
Lodge Farm was also the
first farm in the UK to
receive payment of the
Government’s Renewable
Heat Incentive earlier this
year. The 160kW fre-energy AD
plant has been operating
uninterrupted for over 5 years,
processing some 9,000 tonnes of
slurry and manure from its 650
dairy cows each year alongside
around 1,800 tonnes of chicken
litter.
ABP approval allows the plant
to receive and process Category 3
and permitted Category 2 animal
by-products for which Lodge Farm
Biogas is now in the final stages of
agreeing supply contracts with
food manufacturing companies
primarily located on the nearby
Industrial Estate. The addition of
ABP feedstocks will further
increase the energy output of the
L
plant whilst also enhancing the
nutrient content of the solid and
liquid digestates which are
produced by the AD process and
applied to the surrounding
farmland as fertiliser.
The fre-energy Digester
generates a reliable and constant
production of energy 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year, with a
generation capacity of 160kW of
electricity and 200kW of heat. In
addition to the small amount of
energy consumed to power the
plant, around one fifth of the
electricity and 50kW of heat are
used on site to power the farm
buildings, on-site engineering
business, artisan shops and f ɕ