On-farm anaerobic digestion and choice of system for AFBI-Hillsborough
Within
Northern Ireland’s housed livestock, cattle produce the greatest volume of manure that is potentially
available for on-farm anaerobic digestion (AD). On-farm AD of manures produced by housed cattle within
Northern Ireland
has significant potential to produce renewable energy and to assist in managing plant nutrients available
in the manures. Due to the many, as yet unknowns, wide scale adoption of on-farm AD within Northern
Ireland cannot yet be recommended. An on-farm AD will be installed at AFBI, Hillsborough as part
of the AFBI Renewable Energy Centre. The feasibility and precise requirements for on-farm AD in
Northern Ireland will be determined by research work with this digester. Because the on-farm digester
at Hillsborough will be used for research, the specification of the system will include technologies
that may or may not be required at farm level. The following summarises the specification for
the on-farm AD at Hillsborough that will be used to research the feasibility of on-farm AD in Northern
Ireland:
- Utilise dairy cow slurry – in the first instance
- Be
single stage mesophilic with the capability of inclusion of a second stage digester at a later date
- Will
include ability to add material such as farmyard manure and crop residues
- Will include
the ability to pasteurise and chop feedstock
- Will include a pre-mixing system for
feedstock
- Will be capable of including additional pre-treatment processes at a later
date
- Will include a centrifugal separator
- Will include a biogas
cleaning system
- Will include a combined heat and
power (CHP) unit for producing electricity and heat energy
from biogas
