Teagasc’s small-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plant located in Grange Farm, Co Meath, is set to produce biomethane which will be injected into the national gas grid.

The plant was originally designed to produce 175kWh of renewable electricity and 195kW of heat through a combined heat and power plant (CHP).

The CHP unit was placed on the market this month, having never been used.

Biomethane

In a recent webinar, Julian Beatty, managing director of Nova Q Ltd, said that the company has been working with Teagasc and Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) to install a new upgrader which will upgrade the biogas to biomethane (99% methane content).

When operational, the plant will produce over 60m3 of biomethane.

The biomethane will then be loaded into trailers and transported to the GNI grid injection point in Cush, Co Kildare. The plant is expected to be producing the gas by Q1 2022. It also intends on recovering the CO2 in the future.

Grass contracts

The digester, which consists of one 1,500m3 tank, will require around 12t of silage and 12t of slurry each day (this varies between summer and winter).

In 2020, Teagasc sought expressions of interest from farmers to supply grass silage as feedstock for the plant over a three-year period. Growers must use digestate from the plant as a fertiliser.

The total area required was 60ha located within a 10km radius. It had 15 responses, totalling over 700ha.

Teagasc has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that it intends to issue a formal tender for grass silage contracts in 2022.