SUPPLY – CHAIN OPPORTUNITIES Anaerobic Digestion Explained @Marches Biogas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJzjgC to5FM Rural Enterprise – On Farm Diversification Opportunity On Dairy farms the average Farm Business Income increased from £52,971 in 2010/11 to £58,124 in 2011/12, which is an increase of £5,153 per farm. http://www.dardni.gov.uk/farm_incomes_in_northern_ireland_2011-13.pdf Farming is typically asset rich cash poor and matching business diversification opportunities with the existing skill set within the farm management team can also sometimes be a challenge in terms of available free time and capital cost. Increasing farming incomes are constrained by a range of factors -: size of land holding, availability of con-acre, size of family engaged in the existing enterprise. While 500kW AD Biogas projects are stand alone businesses in terms of size and scale, requiring long term planning, crop management, harvesting and agronomy skills as well as a supply of cattle slurry the income return is significant over the life of the project. The 100Kw plants are a direct bolt-on to existing Dairy farm enterprises with a sufficient provision of cattle slurry (500 cow equivalent) the guaranteed annual income from this size of AD plant is £40,000 per year - £600,000 for the life of the project (15 years) The AAE business model includes 100% capital expenditure costs including NIE grid connection and associated charges. AAE £27 Million Investment 10 500kW Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Plants operatingor due to be completed by April 2015 Introduction of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC’s) Resulted in approximately 2000 Approved Northern Ireland Planning Applications for “Renewable Energy” projects between 2009 – 2013. Less than 5% of these applications were for On Farm Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Plants. A sample (85) taken between 2010-13 of AD proposals highlights a high % of successful applications were within highland farm land areas where there is raised awareness of Renewable Energy as a result of wind farms proliferating. Following the ROC’s ! County L’DERRY TYRONE Projects 13 9 32 ANTRIM 18 FERMANAGH 7 DOWN 6 ARMAGH 9 Total 85 LONDONDERR Y TYRONE 13 6 ANTRIM 7 FERMANAGH 18 32 DOWN ARMAGH Anaerobic Digestion by-products include liquid & biosolids with a 99% pathogen kill, this helps reduce the cross contamination of livestock when applied to grazing land. Anaerobic Digestion bio-solids are plant ready so they deliver available nutrients immediately and are more cost effective than spreading slurry. Future R&D will allow farmers the option to add value to the bio-solid portion of the digestate and sell this material to horticultural organisations currently migrating from the http://www.dardni.gov.uk/tb-slurry-lit-review.pdf use of peat and experimenting with biomass materials. Digestate Upgrading The first step in upgrading is usually dewatering of the digestate using a screw press or decanting centrifuge. This yields: a solid fraction, containing most of the phosphates and organic dry matter (ODM); And a liquid fraction containing most of the nitrogen and potassium. In Nitrate Vulnerable Zones we can remove the NVZ stigma from the N Ireland & UK farmers. Digestate Bio-solids Pelletised The Fluid Bed Dryer Excess Heat Utilisation AD facilities produce more heat than required for their own consumption. There are a range of options such as: The Fluid Bed Dryer or Where available Food Dairy Production Morocco is the Saudi Arabia of phosphate North America dominates global potash supply, and East Asian nitrogen. But phosphate depends largely on one country. More than 75% of global phosphate reserves are in Morocco, and the disputed areas of the Western Sahara it controls. Morocco also controls about a third of seaborne trade. Biogas Upgrading Biogas can be upgraded to Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) quality. This can then be used as vehicle fuel or mixed into an existing grid. There are several options for upgrading the biogas. Questions?