Enviro Engineering Credentials Triumph Again

HBPW’s renewable energy engineering credentials have been given another boost following work on an anaerobic digestion plant for one of the country’s leading organic waste collectors.

Olleco has 23 nationwide depots and not only distributes cooking oils to the catering trade, but also has a specialist fleet of vehicles for the collection of used cooking oil and food waste.

So, when it called in Buckingham Group Contracting to lead the development of a £10m AD Plant at its Aylesbury site, contractors looked to HBPW because of its experience on a range of similar projects.

Managing Partner, Paul Withers, said: “Obviously engineering challenges vary from site to site, however, there is no substitute for hands-on experience. We worked with the Clugston group and Kelda Water Services on Yorkshire Water’s ADP facility in Leeds, as well as Singleton Birch’s AD Plant on the surface of an old quarry in Lincolnshire, both challenging for different reason.

Artist impression of Olleco AD Plant

“In the case of Olleco it is a sizeable project featuring the construction of three large digester tanks and two further digestate storage tanks, both with associated formed reinforced concrete. They will be ‘fed’ by a mixture of food and dairy waste, the latter coming from the adjacent Arla Foods Dairy factory.

“HBPW was asked to design the temporary works to support the deep excavation for the receiving pit, where food waste will be deposited, which involved the design of a cantilevered sheet pile cofferdam, key to the wider completion of the project.”

Arla and Olleco want the digester to process 50,000 tonnes of biomass, collected from nearby shops, depots, restaurants and canteens, in order to power the dairy. They say the AD Plant will produce enough energy to offset Arla’s carbon footprint.

The temporary works in place

In their original statement to planners, Arla and Olleco said: “Arla’s philosophy has always been to make the Aylesbury dairy a show piece facility with leading environmental performance and the company has set the objective of achieving zero carbon status for the dairy.”

Anaerobic Digestion is a natural, decomposition process through which biomass – organic material from plants and animals – is converted into a variety of resources under oxygen free conditions.