A new biogas plant in Northern Ireland is set to produce energy from large volumes of chicken litter.

 

Construction has begun this week on the 3MW plant near the town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland, according to its developers Stream BioEnergy.

 

Once fully operational in early 2018, it will be capable of processing up to 40,000 tonnes of chicken litter every year - generating enough low-carbon electricity to power 4,000 homes.

 

"The plant will convert the chicken litter into biogas, which will be used to produce green electricity," explained Jørgen Ballermann, chief executive of biogas plant specialist Xergi, which is delivering the plant as well as being a shareholder in the project. "At the same time the nutrients become an environmentally friendly fertiliser that can replace chemical fertiliser for farmers," he said in a statement.

 

Stream BioEnergy and Xergi claim the new process is the first to run biogas plants using only chicken litter as feedstock, which can usually only be used in small quantities along with other feedstocks to produce biogas. "Our new process combines know-how and technology that has been developed over the last decade and it will provide a significant opportunity for the poultry industry not just in Northern Ireland but throughout the world," says Ballermann.

 

As well as producing green fertiliser, Ballermann says the plant will also improve upon the traditional practice of spreading the litter untreated on land, since nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen are more easily absorbed by plants once the litter has been through the biogas process. "This minimises the risk of the nutrients washing out from the fields into watercourses and causing an adverse impact on the environment, which is happening at the moment," he said. (businessGreen)