Closed loop at Rogerstone Biogas Plant

Type of practice Recover

Name of practice Closed loop at Rogerstone Biogas Plant

Name of main actor RF Brookes and InSource Energy, UK

Type of actor(s) Company

Location United Kingdom

Stage of implementation End-of-life

Year of implementation 2011

What was/is being done? RF Brookes, ready meal facility set a target of sending zero waste to landfill by 2015. InSource Energy has partnered with RF Brookes at Rogerstone, South Wales to deliver on-site anaerobic digestion facilities to treat the food waste from the manufacturing process. The £5m facility is designed, built and operated by InSource Energy. The plant converts RF Brookes’ food waste into energy to help power the factory, which is a leading supplier of ready meals to Marks & Spencer. The plant takes food waste, effluent treatment sludge and also contaminated plastic, as its feedstock. The organics and inorganics are seperated. The organic waste is treated via anaerobic digestion processes to produce heat and electricity that powers the facility and is sold at a fixed, discounted rate to the host.

Outcomes and impacts The biogas plant built next to RF Brookes, supplies about 10 percent of the electricity required for food production in the factory. In the process, the biogas plant contributes to an annual CO2 savings of approximately 8,500 tonnes. RF Brookes save in excess of £150,000 per annum in waste disposal, heating and fuel costs. The plant also recycles 1000 tonnes per annum of contaminated plastics, which otherwise would have had to be sent to landfill. Approximately 4500 tonnes per annum of organic fertiliser by-product is created.