In what could be an increasing trend for the food industry, a new Build-Own-Operate renewable energy facility from BioWayste has begun producing electricity for the UK’s leading producer of fresh fruit products.

Rather than make a major financial outlay by building and operating its own treatment plant, Orchard House Foods have introduced a system that is designed and fully managed by BioWayste to convert rejected fruit, peelings and wash-water into electricity to help power the factory.

BioWayste take total responsibility for the system that includes two small footprint (14m by 3.5m) high-rate horizontal reactors that convert the fruit waste into biomethane.

Tim Verrinder, Managing Director of Orchard House Foods, commented:  

“We were the creators of the prepared fruit salad market, so it’s great to be first again with highly innovative waste-to-energy technology that gives us renewable electricity, as well as significantly reducing our carbon footprint and disposal costs.  Importantly, BioWayste’s Build-Own-Operate option also means that we’ve had none of the capital outlay”.

He added:  

“The very compact BioWayste design has also been a big selling point for us because unlike today’s typically large AD systems, we’ve been able to put the plant adjacent to our factories.  And apart from some organisation of the macerating process during installation, the BioWayste plant has required virtually no changes to our operational procedures”.

BioWayste, whose on-site technology is also successfully in use at the Bruichladdich whisky distillery, take responsibility for the waste, which was previously either sent to sewer or transported away - and was subject to ever-increasing fuel costs and rising charges from the local water company.

The BioWayste plant is currently handling around 1.5 tonnes of COD/day from the liquid waste stream and a further 4 tonnes of COD from the macerated fruit peelings.  This produces biogas to power CHP generators, supplying a total of around 200 kW of electricity back to the factory for use in the 24/7 production process. Heat recovered from the CHP engines is used to maintain the anaerobic digesters at their optimum 38oC.  At full capacity the plant is capable of handling nearly 7 tonnes of COD/day.  Waste volume has been reduced by 80%.