Amur Energy in South Milford is at the forefront of the Anaerobic Digestion AD marketplace, dedicated to driving innovation and unlocking the potential of AD.

Amur invested in its own anaerobic digester to produce biogas from food and beverage waste materials, as well as an on-site laboratory to analyse feed stocks and the offering of feedstocks and additives to the AD industry.

Project

Plastics can be a major problem within the anaerobic digestion industry.

In order to attain and maintain BSI PAS 110 compliance, the effective removal of oversize solids and plastic materials from the digestate, before disposal from site, is a prerequisite. Amur wanted to lead the way and future-proof the cleaning of the digestate to be able to meet not only current legislation but any lower levels that may be introduced in the future.

Solution

Following a long-term trial of various technologies at the South Milford site, Amur installed two MSE Hiller supplied Smicon MAS filter screw press units to treat the AD digestate produced at site prior to discharge and tanker haulage.

The digestate sludge at 4-6% dry solids by weight could be processed at up to 50 tonnes per hour and the oversize materials and plastics recovered are compacted within the machine and discharged as a stackable solid suitable for hauling by normal skip / trailer.

The recovered liquid digestate, which is then freed from much of the solids and oversize contaminants including plastics, is clean enough to meet BSI PAS 110. 

This material is a valuable fertiliser and soil conditioner and can often be recycled to land in accordance with the safe sludge matrix.

Testimonial

Site managers for Amur commented: “the project has been a great success and secures the quality of the digestate fertiliser outlet going forward. The MAS filter screen technology was chosen because of its relative simplicity which has proven to be the case and has provided a safe and reliable option for site”.