Severn Trent Green Power buys Andigestion

Severn Trent Green Power, the UK’s largest producer of renewable energy from food waste which has its headquartered at Chipping Norton and which is part of water authority Severn Trent, has acquired Andigestion Ltd, which operates two food waste anaerobic digestion plants in Gloucestershire and Devon.

This will bring an additional 45 GWh per annum of energy generation, increasing Green Power's output by 16 per cent. The acquisition is subject to regulatory clearance.

Andigestion opened its second site, representing a £12 million investment, at Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham in 2015, at the landfill site operated by Grundon Waste Management.

Severn Trent Green Power recycles more than 120,000 tonnes of green and food waste each year across five composting sites, all producing a number of premium grade compost products which are used by local farmers, commercial gardeners and local communities.

It operates two different types of composting facility across Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire -three Open Windrow Composting (OWC) sites that recycle green waste, and two In-Vessel Composting (IVC) sites that recycle a mix of garden and food waste.

Four of its five composting sites are in Oxfordshire and were built to service the long-term garden and food waste requirements of Oxfordshire County Council. It also receives garden waste from landscaping companies and commercial gardeners.

Its fifth composting plant (IVC) in Hertfordshire, was built to service the mix of the garden and food waste recycling requirements of Hertfordshire County Council.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) processes plant materials (biomass) into gas for heating and power. The gas is called methane or biogas. It is produced by bacteria, which digest biomass and produce methane as a by-product.

The UK produces more than 100 million tonnes of organic material that is suitable for treatment by AD. This includes 90-100 million tonnes of agricultural by-products like manure and slurry, 16-18 million tonnes of food waste (from households and industry) and 1.7 million tonnes of dry sewage sludge.

AD has been used for many years in the UK by the water industry. It currently treats 66 per cent of the UK's sewage sludge in AD plants.Beyond the water industry AD in the UK is in its infancy, but growing rapidly. There are currently 650 operational AD facilities (excluding traditional water treatment plants) in the UK. There are many more digesters that are currently in the 'planning' stage of development.