Organic Farm Poised to Convert Farm Waste to Energy

The Advertiser announces that an organic farm intends to produce power for the national grid by using a digester to convert farm waste to energy:

Home Farm, at Newby Wiske, which is the northern base for Riverford Organic Farms, has applied to Hambleton District Council to install a sunken and domed 200kW anaerobic digester as part of a drive to diversify into rearing pigs.

Peter Richardson, whose family has farmed the land for three generations, wants to relaunch the pig-fattening part of his business following an upsurge in demand for home-produced high-quality meat.

Mr Richardson, who launched the organic business in 1996 and is part of the firm which supplies 40,000 boxes of vegetables to consumers every week, aims to use the digester to break down the anticipated 1,500 tonnes of farmyard manure from the pigs.

It would also be fed with up to 2,500 tonnes of grass silage and 500 tonnes of vegetable off-cuts produced on the farm and 2,000 tonnes of farmyard and chicken manure from nearby Maunby House Farm.

The digester would break down the organic matter into gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane, which can be used to drive engines to generate power, burned to produce heat or can be processed to be used as a natural gas or biogas for fuel.

It has been estimated 90 per cent of the power generated would be sold to the national grid, with the remainder being used within the 700-acre farm and the heat created within the farming complex.

The resulting matter is nitrogen-rich and could be used as a fertiliser and soil conditioner.