ADBA National Conference 2016 Review
“We have attended the ABDA National Conference for the last three years, both as delegates and exhibitors. For us, this was an excellent event. Within a single day we were able to meet with both existing and future customers along with the UK gas distribution companies. We’re now looking forward to the exhibition in July 2017.” Glen Lancaster, Sales Manager, Thyson Technology
“The day has been marked by some really good discussions. There have been several cross-fertilisations of ideas and technology, including two meetings which I have just set up. I have met more people than I expected to and it has been a very useful event.”
Dr Nick Cheffins, Principal Sustainability Officer, Lincolnshire County Council
Cost reductions could lead to an increase in the use of smaller on-farm plants, driven primarily by waste management and pollution control agendas. This is why the Asiantath Ynni Severn Wye Energy Agency is currently investigating ‘off-the-peg’ solutions for Welsh dairy farmers, as Associate Project Manager Andy Bull explained: “The Welsh Government is keen on promoting AD on dairy farms in particular. We lost the message of the other benefits of AD as we’ve concentrated so much on energy production.”
Green gas was also the subject of the first panel debate, which was chaired by Reed Landberg of Bloomberg News. National Grid’s Stuart Easterbrook said that there are ‘lots of ways to generate green electricity but very few ways to generate green gas’. And Chris Huhne, Former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and ADBA’s Strategic Adviser, stated: “AD is the low cost carbon cutter – cheaper than solar, offshore wind and new nuclear. With imports now more expensive due to the fall in the value of the pound following the Brexit result, prices for foreign gas are set to rise. AD is home grown and can be turned on and off – it will lower our import costs and has benefits over and above other renewables,” he argued, bringing the morning sessions to a close.
The future of on-site and farm AD The afternoon sessions began with a panel debate on the future for on-site and farm AD as incentives reduce. If end users such as businesses and farmers are to continue to invest in AD, then it was agreed that the cost of both the technology and regulation needs to reduce. Dr Alan Taylor of Aardvark suggested that developers need to move away from producing bespoke plants to cheaper solutions. He added that reduced subsidy support would force the industry to be less expensive. “We need a better understanding of the biology to get gains in gas production and there has to be a way of packaging up plants so that they are repeatable,” he suggested.
Food waste collection Delegates were also able to hear about how separate food waste collection schemes in the devolved administrations are working in practice, and what lessons can be learned for future policy making. Speakers from Biogen, Zero Waste Scotland and WRAP, among others, considered the possible implications of WRAP’s Consistency Framework report for the AD industry and the main challenges of getting more food waste out of the waste stream going forward.
What lies ahead for water and biomethane? The future of the water sector in the face of Water 2020, and how this may impact and benefit the wider organic waste sector – including AD – was also on the agenda. And there was a lively debate about the best use for biomethane, with many citing its flexibility and ability to replace natural gas in the UK’s gas grid for domestic heating. However, Tony Griffiths of Gas Alliance argued that, “Putting biomethane into the transport sector is the best bet for biomethane in the UK; certainly for the people who live here.” As well as the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits of using biomethane for transport, Tony pointed to the improvements in pollutants such as NOx and particulates, which are becoming increasingly problematic in urban areas, adding: “I think 2017 will see a big uplift in terms of biomethane.”
www.adbioresources.org adbioresources.org SPRING 2017 | AD & BIORESOURCES NEWS 17
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