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New AD Plant For West Malling, Kent?


Pressure vacuum relief valves are set to be in high demand across South East England if the latest plans to introduce an anaerobic digestion plant in West Malling, Kent are realised.

The application is currently under consultation until the end of the month with stakeholders being invited to let the Environment Agency know if they should grant a permit for the new plant.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “We are considering the application from BioConstruct NewEnergy Ltd, but before we make any decisions, we want to give the local community an opportunity to give us their views. All responses will be reviewed in detail.

“They will help us to decide whether to grant the permit and, if we do, what conditions we would need to impose to adequately protect the environment and human health.”

If granted the new plant will process 75 tonnes of non-hazardous food and green waste a day.

Anaerobic digestion is a process by which biogas is captured from the breakdown of waste so that it can be used to create heat or electricity or even both, for industries and areas with heavy energy requirements.

AD is a great option for areas where there is a large energy requirement onsite, as it is much cheaper to use the energy created by the AD plant than pay for external fuel. It is also environmentally friendlier to not have to transport the biogas far which is why some farms and other industries find it useful to have an AD plant on site as a kind of microgenerator.