Biowaste Treatment Plant

Property Services provided a Resident Engineer and Contract Administration to the project.

A new biowaste processing plant has been constructed at Lochhead Landfill facility near Dunfermline.

Around 20 bin lorry loads of food waste is loaded into each sealed concrete bunker. Pumps sprinkle microbes onto the heaps, which break down and digest the waste. Methane is produced during this process, which is captured, burned in Combined Heat and Power gas turbines. The electricity generated by the turbines is sold to the National Grid and the heat generated is fed into the district heating system serving the north of Dunfermline. The microbe soup is drained off and stored for the next batch and the residual solids turned into compost. The compost is screened and pasteurised before leaving the plant, which means that it can also be utilised as a high nutrient soil conditioner.

The plant has the capacity to process a minimum of 43,000 tonnes per annum. The new 4 bin collection scheme introduced into Fife assists to segregate household rubbish separately and the brown bin contents will be used in this plant, namely food and garden waste.

The plant is processing waste now, is getting up to speed and is going through its final very comprehensive testing phase.

It is hoped that when the public become more aware of this project, that they will continue to separate their rubbish into the 4 bins. Large areas of household collections in Fife already carry this out to a very high standard, higher than other Local Authorities both in the UK and also Europe, which greatly reduces the amount of rubbish that will need to be disposed in land fill pits.

Details

Location: Dunfermline

Value: £15,000,000

Start Date: July 2011

End Date: December 2013

Main Contractor: Lochhead Energy Ltd.