My Fresh's on-site bioenergy plant

My Fresh supplies freshly prepared vegetables and ingredients to well-known UK food brands and retailers. At its Bedfordshire facility, trade effluent and organic residues from processing onions, garlic and potatoes are treated in our on-site Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant.

What we did

The plant installed by EnviroChemie UK handles solid process residues that are converted into a vegetable ‘soup’ and fed to the digester. By accessing the latent energy content of unwanted residues, the company has boosted the site’s power supply with renewable energy (overcoming a grid capacity issue), cut carbon emissions and improved resource use, replacing off-site disposal with a robust on-site solution.

The liquid digestion technology converts the vegetable co-products into biogas, supplied to a CHP unit, to help power the factory. The energy is derived from treating the chemical oxygen demand (COD) in feedstocks, which is reduced by over 95%.

The project was completed over two phases. Phase 1 involved refurbishing the existing aerobic plant, by adding a membrane based biological treatment module (MBR) to better protect the stream. Phase 2 was the construction of the AD plant. Following commissioning EnviroChemie has provided ongoing technical support.

Key components of this bio-energy plant are:

Feedstock supply Vegetable residues are dissolved and fed into digester. 

Anaerobic reactor 3,000m3 fully-mixed system optimises biogas output. 

Biogas handling Gas is cleaned and supplied to a CHP unit near factory. 

Digestate Dewatered sludge applied to grow crops on the adjacent farm.
The bio-energy plant combines an efficient solution for handling the vegetable processing residues with an attractive return on investment, enabling My Fresh to embrace the circular economy.

This approach to on-site bioenergy supply can be replicated on smaller sites with modular plant design.

  • Objectives

    Objectives

    • Meet consents for discharge to local river
    • Provide additional capacity to future-proof the plant
    • Project management & support throughout the project
    • To provide a holistic approach to managing the wastewater treatment on-site
    • Produce electricity to power site

    • Take into consideration potential grey water re-use in the future
  • Solution

    Solution

    • Robust liquid Anaerobic Digestion technology
    • Aerobic upgrade before the AD build
    • Supported project through planning process
    • Design and construction of plant
    • Management of the 2-phase project
    • Plant commissioning/optimisation


     

  • Benefits

    Benefits

    • Use of energy content in the residues
    • Boosting the site’s resource efficiency
    • Income from renewable energy generation
    • More efficient handling of process residues
    • Lower energy costs, increased power supply
    • Clean water discharged to nearby stream
    • Digestate used to fertilise nearby crops


     

Project Highlights

  • 400m3 liquid feedstock processed per day

  • 8,000+ tonnes solid residues processed/year

  • 500kW CHP supplying power to factory

  • Aerobic plant boosted with MBR unit

  • 20% reduction in site’s carbon footprint

  • £200,000 savings on disposal per year

Contact

General contact

General contact

+49 6154 6998 100