Chickens to power and heat Gloucestershire town. Biogas CHP

Power (and Heat) generated from chicken litter after biogas plant opens in November 2010

Electrical Generation Side of Process

Cirencester in Gloucestershire is to become one of the first towns in the UK to benefit from power generated using chicken litter and other farming waste products. The Combined Heat and Power plant (CHP) which is due to open in November is being built on a farm to the south of the market town.

It will take animal waste as well as corn, wheat and grass from local farms and produce methane-rich biogas via a process of anaerobic digestion. This we believe is much more suitable than incineration.

The bio-gas will be used to power a Combined Heat and Power unit generating around 1MW of electricity, enough to supply 350 homes. 

The wasted heat energy (around 2MW) will be used for keeping the animal sheds warm, drying grain and local housing central heating and hot water. The utilisation of this form of energy as usable heat is what makes this system so attractive. Every bit of energy, whether electrical or heat is used, unlike in traditional power stations where the heat is ejected to the atmosphere via those vast cooling towers.

After the biogas is extracted the fibrous material left is spread on the land as fertilizer. Now that' what we call efficiency.

At Sun Earth Energy this same technology can be used in a town near you!!! Please contact us for details. And by the way some of the wasted heat from this process can be used for air conditioning for commercial offices. This can be especially useful in the summer months when less heat load is needed.