A proposed site for one of two new anaerobic plants in South Holland is set to be visited by county planners.
Members of the planning and regulation committee are recommended to visit the land to the East of Surfleet Bank and West of Woad Farm, Spalding.
The site is one of two proposed by Naylor Farms and the application dates back to 2023. The company’s other proposed anaerobic digestion site, off Rangell Gate, is not included in the planned site visit.
The county council consulted on the applications earlier this year.
The digestors will both be state-of-the-art, according to Naylor Farms, and if both are approved would create more than 50 jobs.
Members of the county’s committee will make a decision on the application for the Surfleet site on May 11. It will be accessed off the A16 where the Outer Dowsing Wind Farm relief road is proposed to be built.
The site would be a ‘significant and permanent development that would be located on land designated as within the open countryside,’ the report says.
“These developments will incorporate significant levels of vehicle movements and would import feedstocks of wastes and export fertiliser by products,” the report says.
Anaerobic digestion has to take place in a sealed vessel and generates a number of by products of its own.
Biogas, rich in methane, can be used to generate heat, for renewable electricity or vehicle fuel while carbon dioxide can be used, in the drinks industry, nutrient rich fibre (digestate) can be used as a soil conditioner and liquor can be used as liquid fertiliser.
“It is expected that proposals in rural areas justify the selection of the site in terms of the opportunities the site offers for treating agricultural wastes and the spreading of the end product on adjacent land,” the report says.
The site would receive 105,000 tonnes a year of ‘feedstock’ principally from processing, packaging and retailing food. There’s also the possibility of crop residues from local farms.
All feedstock would be collected within a 50-mile radius and would generate around 70Gwh of biomethane injected into the National Grid each year. Enough to power around 6,000 homes.
The other proposed site visit by committee members is to land west of Moy Park, Anwick. The planned facility would be fed by a chicken factory.
