SUPPLY – CHAIN - OPPORTUNITIES

Anaerobic Digestion Explained @Marches Biogas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJzjgCto5FM

On Dairy farms the average Farm Business Income increased from £52,971 in 2010/11 to £58,124 in 2011/12, which is an increase of £5,153 per farm. http://www.dardni.gov.uk/farm_incomes_in_northern_ireland_2011-13.pdf

Farming is typically asset rich cash poor and matching business diversification opportunities with the existing skill set within the farm management team can also sometimes be a challenge in terms of available free time and capital cost.Increasing farming incomes are constrained by a range of factors -: size of land holding, availability of con-acre, size of family engaged in the existing enterprise.

While 500kW AD Biogas projects are stand alone businesses in terms of size and scale, requiring long term planning, crop management, harvesting and agronomy skills as well as a supply of cattle slurry the income return is significant over the life of the project.

The 100Kw plants are a direct bolt-on to existing Dairy farm enterprises with a sufficient provision of cattle slurry (500 cow equivalent) the guaranteed annual income from this size of AD plant is £40,000 per year - £600,000 for the life of the project (15 years)

The AAE business model includes 100% capital expenditure costs including NIE grid connection and associated charges.

Rural Enterprise – On Farm Diversification Opportunity

AAE £27 Million Investment

10 500kW Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Plants operatingor due to be completed by April 2015

Introduction of Renewable Obligation Certificates

(ROC’s) Resulted in approximately 2000 Approved

Northern Ireland Planning Applications for “Renewable

Energy” projects between 2009 – 2013.

Less than 5% of these applications were for On Farm

Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Plants.

A sample (85) taken between 2010-13 of AD proposals

highlights a high % of successful applications were

within highland farm land areas where there is raised

awareness of Renewable Energy as a result of wind

farms proliferating.

Following the ROC’s !

County Projects

L’DERRY 13

TYRONE 32

ANTRIM 18

FERMANAGH 7

DOWN 6

ARMAGH 9

Total 85

http://www.dardni.gov.uk/tb-slurry-lit-review.pdf

Anaerobic Digestion by-products include liquid & biosolids with a 99% pathogen kill, this helps reduce the cross contamination of livestock when applied to grazing land.

Anaerobic Digestion bio-solids are plant ready so they deliver available nutrients immediately and are more cost effective than spreading slurry.

Future R&D will allow farmers the option to add value to the bio-solid portion of the digestate and sell this material to horticultural organisations currently migrating from the use of peat and experimenting with biomass materials.

Digestate Upgrading

The first step in upgrading is usually dewatering of the

digestate using a screw press or decanting centrifuge.

This yields: a solid fraction, containing most of the

phosphates and organic dry matter (ODM);

And a liquid fraction containing most of the nitrogen

and potassium.

In Nitrate Vulnerable Zones we can remove the NVZ

stigma from the N Ireland & UK farmers.

Digestate Bio-solids Pelletised

Excess Heat Utilisation

AD facilities produce more heat than required for their own consumption.

There are a range of

options such as:

The Fluid Bed Dryer or

Where available Food

Dairy Production

The Fluid Bed Dryer

North America dominates global potash supply, and East Asian nitrogen. But phosphate depends largely on one country. More than 75% of global phosphate reserves are in Morocco, and the disputed areas of the Western Sahara it controls. Morocco also controls about a third of seaborne trade.

Morocco is the Saudi Arabia of

phosphate

Biogas Upgrading

Biogas can be upgraded to

Substitute Natural Gas (SNG)

quality. This can then be used

as vehicle fuel or mixed into an

existing grid. There are several

options for upgrading the

biogas.

Questions?