Work is underway on a £32m anaerobic digestion (AD) plant for ReFood in Dagenham, Essex.
The plant is being built at the London Sustainable Industries Park and is expected to be ready by summer 2017. More than 60 jobs will be created across logistics, sales and operations.
The facility has been designed to process 160,000 tonnes of food waste a year to generate more than 2,000cu m of methane gas an hour.
This will then be upgraded to natural gas quality, allowing it to be fed into the national grid.
Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, called the new site “a landmark achievement”.
“In London and the surrounding areas, a significant volume of food waste is generated every year and ReFood Dagenham will play a crucial role in recycling this waste.
“Our UK operations have grown by 250% since our first year of production in 2012 and we have ambitious plans to further build on this success.”
ReFood Dagenham will be the company’s third AD plant in the UK, coming after existing sites in Doncaster and Widnes.
The Dagenham plant, below, will also provide a transfer facility for Category 3 animal by-products currently carried out by ReFood’s sister company, John Knight.
The facility is scheduled to get underway in the autumn. This is the second time that John Knight’s 200-year-old operation has relocated since its formation: in 1880 the business moved from Wapping to Silvertown.
2000 refood plan dagenham
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