Anaerobic Digestors, does anyone know anything about them?

[ppppenguin]

That would be about 170 tons per day. Seems a lot but it's not that many truckloads.

[CambridgeWorks]

Thanks anyway.
Unfortunately, I am unable to find any data indicating physical size of the apparatus size relating to consumption in tons and output produced.
It doesn't seem to be a huge site anyway given the output as compared to other sites in UK.
I have spoken to one ward councillor today and she has already had another person raise concerns.
Rob

[CambridgeWorks]

Update!
Spoke to my wsrd councillor and he wss not even aware of this!
He suggedted I contact the olanning officer assigned to this application, which I did.
Found out today that time is slipping away fast. A deliberate ploy to hide it among the Christmas rush methinks.
The application was registered 18 December and hidden within correspondence to Anglian Water Authority  I have now found a letter stating the deadline for any comment is 14 January. This deadline is not shown within the actual general documentation.
I emailed the planning officer on this today and he is away until 8 January!
I will phone on Tuesday.
Rob

[CambridgeWorks]

TWO planning roposals in now, same farmer.
Went to a parish council meeting tonight convened for the second site out which is of town, near Surfleet, with the applicant answering questions and it was confirmed for the very first time both this and our close by proposal is for food waste.
28 lorry loads a day was stated. With my estimate of 30 tonners that is 840t / day. Only 8% of input tonnage will need transporting out it was said. Whatever that might be?? The resultant final digestate is to be consumed by maggots that will then be suitable for animal feed protein production. Both AD sites will also use a lot of commercial food waste. Do the production figures look acceptable? Well, I had come to the conclusion a week ago that food waste was really the only option. I had calculated that the 70GWh gas and 8GWh electricity a year would mean a total gas production of 94GWh, which given the site details was impossible using maize.
Using applicants figures 28 lorries a day (my figure of each 30T) results in 91.82GWh PA. Pretty close to my figures a couple of weeks ago before I knew all this!
BTW, there is a second site, same applicant, same capacity, approx 4 miles away, but more out in the countryside and maybe 0.5 to 1 mile from the village of Surfleet.
This looks to be the AD future given the forthcoming national household food waste collection being implemented. Keep an eye out for applications near you!

[BusyBee]

The general waste here goes for incineration / power but I have heard of seperation of household food waste. I am not sure what would actually happen if this came about but for limitation of smell and flies we do bag it up as it goes into the wheelie bin. The general approach by the council seems to be to put the onus on seperation and other processing of items onto consumers. It's sensible, as far as it goes, but, at times, it goes too far. There was a recent rule that old vapes, as they are electrical, should be taken to a main recycling site rather than put in general or other household waste. Now will that really happen?

Sorry I digress a little.

I think it useful to use waste for energy production but I would be less certain of having such sites close to the general population. Locally, as far as I know, sites are away from housing.

I will re-iterate that at times the stream of trailer loads of fuel for these is a niusance which in a quiet residential area would be noticed.

Tracy

[DrStrangelove]

Ah yes, vapes.

Always handy for setting the rubbish compactor on fire.

[CambridgeWorks]

Visited Boston on Tuesday, it is dereadful experience now, so run down, closed down shops, mainly £1 type shops and charity shops. Vomit on the pavement. I digress, this was because my main dealership was there to service my car.
On the twin lane inbound town centre,  near a roundabout a flashing blue led on the road caught my attention. A recently discarded vape.
As we walked the 400 yards from the garage into town, two more vapes seen on the pavement.
The first shop we entered, I remarked to the 60+ year old lady it was nice and warm under the hot air blast under the fan above the entrance. She agreed, but said her till position was also to observe shoplifters, but must never challenge them.
Upon our exit 5 minutes later, a youth wss seen exiteing and being pointed at by this same lady "Shoplifter" she shouted yo an assistant near him.
He calmly exited the shop clutching something near his chest. There were about 6 other customers inside at the time, 0910 on a quiet day.

Unfortunately both our planning applications are on grade 1 silt soil owned by the farmer applicant,, the best in the country for food production.
The planning committee are torn between preserving our precious countryside and providing cheaper green energy to comply with the net zero deadlines dictated by government. 
I wouldn't want their job, neither do I want 90+ GWh biogas energy industry plants consuming 300,000+ tons of food waste less than 500M from the town housing sites, schools, leisure and 80M wide nature rich riverside between us and them.
Rob

[CambridgeWorks]

Update.
I have spent well over 60 hours now on this subject doing research and compiling information.

An email was sent yesterday to Sir John Hayes our MP. Some of the following is addressed.
The almost built cabbage protein factory had no mention whatsoever in that application of needing an AD plant on the adjacent field to provide energy. If it had suggested that fact I am certain it would never been passed with it being so close to town, literally on the edge of the town boundary.
Seems a crafty move to me. Build the plant then say the AD is needed to provide energy and as £35M has already been spent, It MUST be approved.
However, the factory is not a huge energy guzzler and 8GWh AD p.a. would leave a huge surplus to sell to the grid.
The 70GWh biogas would also be sold to the grid.
Thus, making the AD plant an energy providing commercial business, using food wsste wherby a charge is levied for such disposal, but the planning persuasion emphasis being required for the adjacent factory energy requirement that uses cabbages grown by the applicant.
That is really stretching the point of any agricultural connection to the AD!
An enquiry I made a week ago to National Grid about electricity supply capacity in the factory vicinity said until a request for supply was made, they couldn't say. No such request had been made yet. This being despite the factory construction progressing well.

There was a press notice on 4 Jan giving 21 days notice from that date for objection or comments. so now deadline is 25 Jan.

My new calculations use the commonly available google statements that each ton of food waste will produce around 300KWh of biogas.
Also, to produce 1 kwh of electricity requires 3 kwh biogas, 33% efficiency. My knowledgeable neighbour who is familiar with these generation plants says it is more likely a little under 40% efficiency. That means that 20GWh of biogas is needed for 8GWh electricity.
He also detailed some of the pollutants from the exhaust and the low frequency noise spectrum from the plant travelling quite a distance.
So, the site making annual total biogas production 90GWh required.
Using 300KWh per ton gives over 300,000 TONS PER ANNUM.
I cannot believe the conversion rate online is correct, not with that tonnage.
However, the stated 28 lorry loads a day could legally carry that axle weight, maybe not the M3 capacity though.

On another note, the application was validated 18 Dec 2023, meaning everything was checked as being in order for a valid application.
However, I have found several mistakes and need to speak to the planning officer concerned. Email can take up to 5 days to get a reply!
Our two ward councillors are hardly interested at all. One being a lady who visited us together with Sir John Hayes during her last local election campaign, spending 40 minutes drinking tea and chatting. Said she was busy working last weekend and would try to call on Monday. It is now Thursday.
We need their support to oppose this and a public meeting would be essential, but requiring a large hall to be hired.
Another important point is that it would be very difficult to site this AD any closer to the 3 town secondary schools, 2 primary and 1 special needs! There is just one primary school in town on the Western side.
This is as well as the thousands of residents living close by on the Eastern side.
Between the site and all the housing is the Coronation Channel, a wonderful elevated river bank walk together with wildlife and fresh air. Used by many people daily for exercise and especially dog walking. This being around 350M from the site.

A lot of my comments will form the basis of my objection. However, they must be kept very brief and to the point to have any notice taken of them.

Rob

[CambridgeWorks]

Just how inaccurate and false, missing or wrong information might be allowed before an already validated planning application could be made invalid and pulled, then requiring re-submission with the true information? Slightly, moderately or grossly inaccurate? Any learned comments appreciated. Time is running out!

To date, only ONE person I visited when distributing my own compiled and printed leaflets was aware of this application, despite living within 800M or less. This elderly lady knew because she had seen my facebook post!
Even the 4 local councillors are ignoring me !
Those i visited in  the up market area, some being  closest to this were unaware. However, I was invited in to a fantastic luxury property and this lady took another four of my leaflets to distribute around her Really interesting conversation around 30 minutes. Tonight, she copied her objection to me. It was phenomenal! Talk about all guns blazing!

[ppppenguin]

As I understand it, validation is a technical process. basically that the forms were completed correctly. It doesn't assess the veracity of claims.

Procedures vary from council to council, but you may want to try to speak at the planning meeting. In my council (Barnet) up to 2 speakers from the public are allowed a maximum of 2 minutes each. If more than 2 want to speak they have to sort it out between themselves as to who speaks. For a major application this is very restrictive. I know, I've spoken at a meeting and had to carefully write and rehearse what I wanted to say. Your council will be different.

If you speak, please remember to stick to valid planning objections. For example devaluing local properties isn't a valid objection. Here's a list from another council. It won't vary much: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/what_is_a_va...pplication But it seems that your main objection is that the application is materially incorrect.