A Suffolk firm is to generate electricity and produce compost simultaneously.
The "organic waste refinery" is planned by Greenview Environmental for its site at Bury St Edmunds.
Itwill generate between one megawatt (MW) and 3MW – roughly within the range of a 25-metre wind turbine – though the exact amount will depend on how much waste is used.
Kitchen and garden waste will arrive at the plant, where it will be pulverised by a Tollemache machine specially adapted by Greenview and powered by biogas created on site.
The waste will then be heated to eliminate microbes so it can be used safely as compost.
Some will then be left in anaerobic digestion tanks where it will create gas which can be burned to generate electricity the company can sell to the national grid.
Greenview founder and chief executive John Jardine told New Energy Focus: "By creating a feed material with particles of less than 12mm there is a large surface area available for microbial action and this promotes fast anaerobic digestion which is a challenge for other systems"
