LAWR

ENERGY RECOVERY Pressing issues under discussion An impressive line-up of industry experts will be speaking at the Energy Recovery conference, taking place at Birmingham's NEC from 1-3 April. he show is a must-see event and will provide practical, in-depth information on the energy recovery sector. What makes this year's show such an unmissable event, and better than last year, for LAWR readers is the free-to- attend keynote and seminar programmes and the opportunity to view a wide array of products and services from a vast number of exhibitors. Targeted at energy recovery stakeholders, this three-day event will cover the entire spectrum of advanced thermal treatment and pre-treatment processes, including pyrolosis, gasification and anaerobic digestion (AD). The topics of refuse derived fuel, solid derived fuel and biomass will also be touched upon. From policy drivers and legislation to behaviour change and corporate social responsibility, from infrastructure development and planning to community buy-in and engagement, the show covers everything you need to know. The seminar programme features contributions from many of the industry's leading voices, who will offer an overview of key issues shaping this sector. There are countless highlights, but here is a taste of what visitors can expect to find. Day One: Opening the seminar programme with a comprehensive session on energy from waste (EfW), MVV Environment's managing director Paul Carey and Veolia's energy director Doug Barlow will present on the issue of combined heat & power (CHP). Carey will put forward the energy from waste specialist's perspective on lessons learnt from delivering EfW CHP projects. MVV is the subsidiary company of German firm MVV Umwelt, which has vast amount of experience in building and operating waste management facilities in Germany and wants to bring this experience to the UK. Day One's mid-morning/early afternoon session will feature a presentation from Scottish Leather's Dr Warren Bowden. He will describe how the firm learnt lessons in developing, building, operating and running a self- funded gasification plant in the UK. Elsewhere, the afternoon session on AD in the city will examine the challenges, barriers and opportunities of AD working in an urban setting (see page 17 for analysis on urban AD). Day Two: The scope of the conference will be broadened when the perspectives on anaerobic digestion's role will be explored. Chaired by Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association's chief executive Charlotte Morton, top names such as Sainsbury's, Tamar Energy and Ricardo- AEA will be represented. During the session on making AD work for local authorities, the Waste & Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) food waste collections manager Chris Mills will be assessing the economics and practicalities of managing biowaste from households in the UK. Elsewhere, resource management heavyweights will be taking their places in the keynote stage ring. Experts including Welsh Assembly Government head of waste policy Jasper Roberts and Advanced Plasma Power's Rolf Stein will be analysing the future of energy recovery. Day Three: Day Three's session on feedstock supply and infrastructure capacity will attempt to answer the question on if 'we are heading for overcapacity and how can feedstock supplies be guaranteed?' Experts such as Eunomia's Dominic Hogg and Ricardo-AEA's Simon Gandy will give advice on the topic. There will also be an in-depth examination of the emerging circular economy and whether it poses a threat or an opportunity for the EfW sector. Finally, the seminars will close with a session on end-of-life options for plastic waste. It will be chaired by Ecolateral director Peter Jones. Until May 2008, Jones was a director of Biffa Waste Services. He now operates as a freelance adviser in matters strategic relating to the waste, carbon and materials efficiency agenda. Talks will be given on recycling and reprocessing techniques for plastics and composites and fuels from waste plastics. Plan your visit on www. sustainabilitylive.co.uk, where you will also be able to view the popular seminar programmes and book your free places for sessions in advance. 16 Local Authority Waste & Recycling March 2014 T Show preview March 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 17 ENERGY RECOVERY n Europe, anaerobic digesters are normally perceived to be sizeable installations, but by far the largest number of digesters in the world are small, using locally available feedstocks, and providing health benefits, fertiliser and energy to rural communities. But can such small local digesters be translated to a UK situation, where the drivers are completely different and rules more stringent? James Murcott, who has been building successful small farm digesters in the UK for 40 years believes they can. He says: "Small digesters fed on locally available feedstocks can offer renewable energy, excellent fertiliser production and a cost-effective organics treatment solution in many situations, both urban and rural." When Murcott moved off- grid a few years ago and wanted an AD system to suit his situation, he found that there were none on the market, so designed a range of 'micro' anaerobic digesters, ranging in size from .2m3 to 20m3, a number of which have been installed in urban situations, farms and smallholdings. Rokiah Yaman from London's Local Energy ADventure Partnership (LEAP) is enthusiastic about their use in an urban environment. He says: "Our vision is to see networks of cost- effective urban micro-AD systems running largely on local food and non-woody garden waste, such as lawn mowings. Such networks would provide low-cost, low-impact waste treatment systems, a closed-loop cycle that could support communities with education, employment and training opportunities, renewable energy and fertiliser for local food growing and urban greening projects. Businesses, schools, universities, social housing flats, allotments and even individual households could all host a digester and be part of the network." With the support of a number of visionaries, including WRAP and Camden Council, LEAP are currently setting up a number of micro-AD plants in Camden, with the first operational unit at Camley Street Natural Park, located a few minutes' walk from London's bustling King's Cross. Food waste for the micro-AD plant is collected from local businesses using specially-adapted bicycles. LEAP plan to use the digestate fertiliser in community growing schemes, small- scale growing trials, hydroponics, aquaponics, greenhouses and vertical growing trials in order to demonstrate its use in a wide variety of applications, particularly those suitable for urban Anaerobic digestion in the city Angie Bywater is a project manager at Methanogen. Working for over a decade within the anaerobic digestion (AD) industry, Bywater has a specific interest in micro and small-scale farm AD. She will discuss the challenges of dealing with digestate in an urban setting on Day One's Energy Recovery afternoon session (13.10pm-14.10pm). Here is a sneak peak about what to expect on 1 April. I situations. They plan to use the biogas in a number of ways, including polytunnel heating, trialling micro-biomethane upgrading and micro-combined heat and power (CHP). Almost 15m tonnes of the UK's food ends up in landfill every year, with London's food waste alone representing 6.3m tonnes of greenhouse gases. There are huge political, economic and environmental pressures to remove these organic materials from landfill and to reduce waste, with the London Plan specifically encouraging a proportion of waste treatment within the city itself. However, despite proximity to concentrated sources of feedstocks and significant energy demands, the construction of large AD systems in urban areas is extremely problematic due to high costs, public objection, lack of land space and the extra traffic involved in transporting feedstocks into the plant and the digestate fertiliser back to land. The profitability of such large plants is sensitive to transport costs, waste volumes, gate fees and renewable energy incentives. If, as required by the waste hierarchy, these organic waste volumes are reduced, such plants can quickly become unprofitable, with geographically co-located plants vying for increasingly reduced food waste volumes. I have been operating a small anaerobic digester in my urban back garden for more than two years, recycling around two tonnes of local food waste into fertiliser used for food growing, with the biogas being used for cooking and greenhouse heating. A micro-digester could also work well in rural areas, reducing food waste miles and providing fertiliser to farmers. Why transport small quantities of dispersed food waste many miles, when it could be used beneficially at a local level? I believe that small and micro-AD systems should be encouraged and incentivised, not only for renewable energy production, but for their larger greenhouse gas reduction and pollution mitigation potential. At any scale, anaerobic digestion is central to a sustainable food production system in a circular economy, and is far more than just a renewable energy technology.

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