Tamar Energy today announced that its Basingstoke anaerobic digestion (AD) plant has achieved a key industry quality standard. PAS 110, the standard backed by WRAP and the British Standards Institute, ensures the quality and consistency of the nutrient-rich biofertiliser produced through the AD process.
The Basingstoke plant can process up to 40,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial food waste each year to generate 1.5 MW of renewable energy, enough for 3,000 households. Tamar’s agricultural AD plants at Retford, Nottinghamshire and Holbeach, Lincolnshire were awarded PAS 110 certificates in 2015.
Biofertiliser produced in the AD process has been proven in independent trials to improve crop yields and help users replace more costly, petro-chemical derived fertilisers. Tamar’s biofertiliser is used successfully by Worth Farms, its partner at Holbeach, on its potato and vegetable crops – saving a considerable amount on other fertiliser costs.
Dean Hislop, Tamar’s chief executive said, “AD offers the tri-fold benefit of being used to recycle food waste, generate renewable energy and produce biofertiliser. Biofertiliser offers several benefits to the farming sector, including cutting costs, increasing yields and returning important nutrients to the land. Having our plants PAS 110 accredited allows us to show our customers that the biofertiliser we’re providing is of the highest quality possible.”
The quality standard, known as PAS 110, is designed to give customers confidence that the biofertiliser they receive is fit for purpose and of the highest quality. It is achieved by demonstrating consistent quality in the biofertiliser produced at individual plants, across a number of criteria including the types of organic waste used in the AD process, the minimum quality and chemical content of the biofertiliser and the level of information provided to end users. Operators are required to provide three biofertiliser samples over an extended period for quality testing as well as demonstrating that their internal processes are robust enough to produce high grade biofertiliser.
Tamar is a UK operator of commercial AD plants and composting sites recycling nearly 500,000 tonnes of organic waste through its 11 sites. As well as the Basingstoke food waste plant, it has four other AD plants; Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire; Halstead, Essex; Holbeach, Lincolnshire; and Retford, Nottinghamshire.
