Biffa’s new flagship facility has the potential to bring major benefits to West Sussex, by significantly reducing the amount of black bag rubbish sent to landfill and using this to produce alternatives to fossil fuels.
This will help West Sussex to avoid the increasing financial penalties levied on waste sent to landfill and greatly reduce the carbon emissions produced when waste is landfilled.
The facility is anticipated to process approximately seven million tonnes of waste over its lifetime.
It will treat West Sussex’s black bag household rubbish and also some rubbish from businesses in and around West Sussex.
The process
Mechanical Biological Treatment is not a single technology, but rather a combination of sorting and treatment technologies. It is a proven and reliable way of handling waste and the specific technology planned for West Sussex is used on a number of sites in Germany.
The Process:
- Rubbish is delivered to the facility where it is shredded.
- The shredded waste passes over a series of conveyors and other sorting equipment, which separates out biodegradable waste that easily rots (mainly food waste) from other materials.
- This sorting process also separates out metals, which are sent for recycling.
- The remaining shredded material (mostly paper and plastic) is used to produce Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). The biodegradable waste that has been separated is broken down by bacteria in enclosed containers through a process known as anaerobic digestion. This produces two main products (see below for more detailed explanation):
- Biogas - a methane-rich renewable form of natural gas
- Digestate - a compost like material.
- The small amount of waste that cannot be used as a resource or recycled, will be landfilled, initially at Brookhurst Wood whilst capacity remains.
Computer generated image of Biffa's new West Sussex MBT Facility.
Rubbish as a resource
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)
West Sussex County Council will shortly begin the process of procuring an outlet for the RDF – possible uses include as a fossil fuel alternative for energy intensive industry or as fuel for an advanced thermal treatment facility.
Biogas
This methane rich gas will initially be used to generate renewable energy at the facility in a combined heat and power plant. This process will generate enough energy to power 7,000 homes. Some of this energy will be used to power the facility and neighbouring industry, with the remainder exported to the National Grid. In the future, the biogas has the potential to be cleaned and injected back into the national gas grid or to be converted into a fuel for vehicles.
Digestate
This compost like material will replace the use of soil as daily cover for the Brookhurst Wood landfill site. In the future, the digestate could also be used for land remediation or could be dried to create a fossil fuel alternative.
