Video transcript – Lower Reule

Our reporter Simone: Trevor can you explain where we are today and why we are here?

Trevor Nicholl: We are at Lower Reule bioenergy at Lower Reule Farm and we are going to have a visit to the anaerobic digestion to see how our food waste is treated.

Simone: How does the borough council’s new recycling waste service relate to the anaerobic digestion plant?

Trevor: We actually bring all our food waste here to be treated so that it is turned into electricity, heat and fertilizer that is used on the local farms.

Simone: What else is the energy used for?

Trevor: The energy is used at the moment to feed back into the national grid and at the moment it is used in about 500 households in Gnosall that’s just at the back of the farm. That will increase as they take in more food to up to about 15,000 properties.

Simone: Do you know how the anaerobic digestion plant actually works?

Trevor: Yes in a very simple way it works like a big cow, basically the food is bought in in a liquid form so it’s actually all cut up and mushed up before it comes in and that’s fed into a great big green tank, that tank is heated up and heated up over a number of days and that produces gas. That gas is then piped out of the plant as I said very much the same as cows then it is turned into electricity burnt into an engine to produce electricity. The other products that come out are the heat and that’s come through as well and the last one is the fertilizer and that’s come in and goes back onto the farm land.

Simone: What about the actual heat how do you think that will be used, when generated?

Trevor: Well what Lower Reule are looking to do with the heat is, one of the main crops that they grow is strawberries and they have a number of polytunnels that produce strawberries and what they are looking to do is extend the growing season for strawberries here and the other thing they are looking at is forced rhubarb and asparagus so it can actually be used again locally on the farm to grow local Staffordshire produce.

Simone: Fantastic!