| Energy
Edina biogas CHP helps vegetable grower to
become energy self sufficient
Gilfresh Produce based in Loughgall, Northern Ireland, has made energy and efficiency cost savings by installing a
biogas CHP (combined heat and power) plant.
he family run
business grows
field vegetables
and salads on over
1,000 hectares of
land and the
company previously sent its
vegetable waste to neighbouring
farmers to be used for cattle feed.
By using this waste as feedstock
to power the site’s newly installed
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant,
Gilfresh produce their own on-site
electricity, generating enough to
power its production process and
export the surplus back to the grid
at a profit.
Gilfresh appointed Edina Group
due to its flexibility and extensive
service and maintenance coverage
of 30 engineers across Ireland,
with the contract to install a biogas
CHP (combined heat and power)
unit.
Sole distributor for MWM
manufactured gas engines in the
UK and Ireland, Edina Group,
supplied, installed and now
maintains the biogas CHP MWM
TCG 2016 V12 500kWe engine
over a long term Service,
Operation and Maintenance
contract.
With offices in Manchester and
Dublin, the MWM engine was
containerised at Edina’s
manufacturing facility based in
Lisburn, Northern Ireland less than
40 miles from the clients site and
delivered ahead of schedule.
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a
natural process which takes
organic matter and breaks it down,
producing a gas which is turned
into electricity. The biogas
produced can be burnt in a boiler
to produce heat, however, the
T
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
most efficient use of biogas is to
utilise an engine to produce CHP.
The biogas CHP plant was
commissioned in November 2015
and it is expected that the power
generated, through the biogas
CHP, equates to approximately
80% of their energy usage, with
the remainder sold to the grid as a
revenue stream. Further plans are
underway to recover the process
heat generated for use in their
office buildings and production
processes increasing the energy
efficiencies even further.
Thomas Gilpin, founder of
Gilfresh Produce, said “The biogas
plant will enable us to pursue our
growth course on the one hand,
and our ecological goals on the
other hand”.
Edina’s Sales Manager, Colin
McKibbin, concluded “Being a
local company, we were delighted
that Gilfresh Produce selected
Edina as supplier of the CHP unit
for their new Anaerobic Digestion
(AD) plant. The CHP is the most
critical component of an AD
project so it is important to select
not only the right product, but also
the best supplier with the required
resource and after sales support.
The client quickly identified that we
offered a market leading product,
with also having the largest service
team in Ireland based at our
service depot and manufacturing
plant in Lisburn less than 40 miles
from the Gilfresh site.”
Edina is a recognised supplier,
installer and maintenance provider
for natural gas and biogas CHP
(combined heat and power) plants
across a number of industry
sectors including food processing,
agricultural, healthcare, education
and the public and private sectors.
Offering full turnkey contracts
and customised container options
manufactured in-house, Edina
work closely with customers to
meet their requirements from initial
proposal to long term
maintenance support.
For more information, please
visit www.edina.eu
June 2016 | Farming Monthly | 41