Anaerobic Digestion at Camphill Community
Printer-friendly versionPrecise theme tackled by the practice:
Anaerobic Digestion
Objectives of the practice:
Ireland is considered to be among the countries of the EU with the greatest potential per capita for farm biogas. However, despite this potential, it was not until 1999 with the construction of Camphill digestion plant, that a decentralised anaerobic digestion plant was created in Ireland. The main aim of the project was to test the development and operation of a centralised anaerobic digestion plant in order to study the feasibility of using farm and industrial (from the agro-food industry) wastes as the basis of a profitable renewable energy enterprise.
Lessons learnt from the practice:
Centralised co-digestion of farm slurry with mixed food wastes has been sucessfully demonstrated. The electricity produced from waste treatment is used to meet the energy requirements (both heat and power) of the 90 people living in Ballytobin Camphill Community, estimated to be 150,000 kWh of electricity and 500,000 kWh of primary energy for heating per year. Four persons are employed full-time in operating and maintaining the biogas plant, collecting slurry, delivering digestate and processing compost. The small, centralised biogas plant is suitable to be replicated wherever a sufficient local demand for heat exists (e.g. residential communities, swimming pools & leisure centres or rural industrial operations).
Contact information:
Bio-energy and Organic Fertiliser Services - beofs.ballytobin@camphill.ie // Camphill Community - markdwan@ballytobin.ie
