ABP's British renewable energy division Olleco announced this week it has bought an industrial-scale anaerobic digester (AD) at Westcott Park, Buckinghamshire. The plant can process 96,000t of food waste annually and the gas it generates is burned on site to produce 3.2MW of electricity and 4.8MW of heat, which the company said was enough to power 6,000 homes.

This is Olleco's third AD in England. One of them in Aylesbury operates jointly with the dairy co-op Arla and produces heat, electricity and gas for the national grid.

ABP's renewable energy arm Olleco, collects waste food and cooking oil from shops and restaurants and converts it into biodiesel, biogas and biofertiliser. The company employs over 600 people at 15 locations across the UK.

Food companies have to look at this because of the bad press and the importance of climate change

ABP Food Group's sustainability manager John Durkan told the recent Bioenergy Future conference in Dublin that ABP's recently redeveloped Ellesmere beef processing plant recycled animal fat and cooking oil collected by Olleco to cover all its heat and 70% of its electricity needs.

"This is the first beef processing facility in the world to be carbon neutral certified," he said. "I firmly believe this is the future – food companies have to look at this because of the bad press and the importance of climate change."

UK focus

Yet ABP's renewables efforts are mostly focused on the UK at this stage. Asked by the Irish Farmers Journal if the company planned to develop the same model in Ireland, Durkan said it already operates a joint waste cooking oil collection service with Frylite. However, "the product goes to the UK".

Bioenergy incentives have been much more generous in the UK than in the Republic of Ireland in recent decades and ABP does not currently produce renewable energy commercially here.

"It should be established in Ireland. It is not viable at this point in time in the Republic of Ireland, it is in Northern Ireland," Durkan said.

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