Tomato planting has begun at the new British Sugar greenhouse in Wissington, Norfolk in what is thought to be the UK’s largest project for reusing heat and CO2.
The project will see extra British-grown tomatoes supplied to fruit and vegetable specialist The Greenery from the new £6m, 26 acre glasshouse that was built alongside the British Sugar processing plant at the firm’s subsidiary Cornerways Nursery.
The Greenery is one of Europe’s largest producers and importers of fresh fruit and vegetables, with an average turnover of just under €2 billion. As well as supplying produce to nearly all the major supermarkets, it also delivers to similar outlets in Europe, North America and the Far East.
British Sugar explained that the new greenhouse uses no fuel for heating, but instead takes advantage of the combined heat and power system in the adjacent British Sugar processing plant.
The CHP system is able to generate over 70mW of electricity to power the factory and approximately 100,000 homes in the vicinity. It also creates steam and high temperature water for sugar processing applications.
Cornerways receives low-grade heat from the CHP system in the form of hot water, which is then used to heat both the new greenhouse and the existing five hectares of glass next to it.
The site also sees a duct connecting the factory to the greenhouses providing around 2,400 cubic metres per hour of CO2-rich flue gas, some of which is absorbed by the tomatoes, aiding the growing process and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the factor.
Greenery UK managing director, Martin Brown, said the contract with Cornerways Nursery and its investment in energy-efficient production ‘means we can supply British supermarkets with a greater proportion of locally-grown tomatoes with excellent environmental credentials.’
“There is increasing demand from our customers and from consumers to cut ‘food miles’ and to improve environmental performance,” he added.
British Sugar’s head of horticulture, Peter Williams, said: “By continuing to develop the usage of low grade heat and carbon dioxide which would otherwise be lost to atmosphere, we are able to improve the overall cost effectiveness of our Wissington operation and reduce our environmental impact still further.”
He went on to say that the additional growing area would allow the firm to back The Greenery in delivering to the consumer ‘produce with provenance.’
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