The project forms part of Yorkshire Water’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, and will see thermal hydrolysis used to break down the structure of sewage sludge prior to anaerobic digestion (AD), with the aim of producing a significantly increased biogas yield.
Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies has been awarded the contract of supplying the thermal hydrolysis technology to the Esholt wastewater treatment plant, which feeds biogas into combined heat and power (CHP) plant to produce green electricity and heat.
It is hoped this can then be fed into the grid to earn the company Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs).
The Esholt plant is expected to be completed in 2013 and have a throughput capacity of 30,000 tonnes of dry solids per year. Digestion is anticipated to generate enough biogas to run a 4.4MW CHP plant and generate 33GWh of electricity per year.
Carys Matthews