McCain Foods is to add an anaerobic digester to its Cambridgeshire site, to turn its food-processing waste into green energy.
The system will be up and running in May.
The anaerobic digester will take waste water used to make chips, which is high in potato starch, and mix it with bacteria in a covered lagoon the size of two football pitches, it was reported in Recycling & Waste Management News and Information.
McCain Foods corporate affairs advisor Bill Bartlett said: “The anaerobic digester will take 77,000 tonnes of waste starch over a 27-day period, which is then fermented to produce methane. This methane is then captured under a cover and will power our site.”
The biogas will power a cogeneration system to meet 10 per cent of the Whittlesey plant’s electricity requirement.
The process will work alongside energy from its wind turbines, which will provide 60 per cent of the energy needed.
Bartlett added: “In a world of increasing energy costs, this initiative will save on energy costs and reduce our environmental footprint. From a business and environmental perspective it is a win-win situation.”
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