British poultry plant shifts to sustainable energy

UK - A poultry plant in Norfolk, England, has installed a combination of pyrolysis and gasification technologies to process waste materials, the first time this combination of technologies has been used to provide this type of energy requirement, reports Simon Pitman.

The system devised by Banham Power, a division of Banham Poultry, will be able to generate all the electricity it needs to run its business and also provide a 2MW surplus to sell on. The technologies have been used successfully elsewhere but have not previously been put together to process this type of waste.

Banham Power development engineer Bob Waterson said: "Nobody has put all these parts together before, but we thought why can't we do it at our plant. Every abattoir could have its own generator on site - they could all have their own modular power plant providing all their electricity."

He is even confident the design can stretch beyond animal by-products. "Our design could even be used for burning car tyres for power," he added.

Banham Power says the technology is proven, and that in the UK the project is backed by the CRed carbon reduction campaign, the National Farmers Union, the poultry industry and Environment Agency.

Family-owned Banham Poultry employs around 750 people and its fully integrated business covers farming, processing and distribution of chickens. Birds are processed at a rate of up to 600,000 per week.

Source: foodproductiondaily.com
calendar icon 8 April 2005
clock icon 1 minute read
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