£6m Doncaster AD Facility Expansion Project Completed

ReFood, the UK based food waste recycler, has completed a multi-million pound development project to expand its anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in Doncaster. The state-of-the-art site, which has been undergoing an extensive development programme since April 2014, is now the largest plant of its kind in the UK.

Almost doubling capacity, the facility is now capable of processing 160,000 tonnes of food waste from across the Yorkshire and Humberside region each year. Generating just under 5MWh of electricity via combined heat & power (CHP) in result, ReFood Doncaster will help to power more than 12,000 homes across the region with completely sustainable renewable energy.

Alongside two new 3,700 tonne capacity digesters, the £6m expansion work has seen additional receiving and storage tanks added to the site on Ings Road, alongside two 1.1MWh gas engines. In addition, 30 new jobs have been created from the project, across transport, sales, administration, operations and maintenance roles. 

Philip Simpson, commercial director at ReFood, commented: “We’re delighted to announce the official completion of our expansion project at ReFood Doncaster. Huge local demand for an integrated food waste collection and recycling solution has fuelled this multi-million pound investment project – just three years after we initially opened the site!

“Businesses across the region are beginning to appreciate the financial benefits of diverting food waste away from landfill and we’re pleased that ReFood Doncaster can continue to deliver these benefits to an ever-growing number of customers. As well as being a more financially-viable waste management process, food waste recycling is hugely beneficial from an environmental perspective.

“Alongside generating renewable energy, even the resulting digestate (created during the AD process) can be repurposed. In the case of ReFood Doncaster, this is used by a network of local farmers as a PAS 110 certified fertiliser to aid the growth of crops. Known as ReGrow, the industry-first sustainable biofertiliser not only replaces the use of chemicals, but also completely closes the food chain – from field to fork and back again.”

The ReFood Doncaster expansion forms part of the company’s wider investment plans. Alongside opening the UK’s largest gas-to-grid plant of its kind in Widnes last year, ReFood plans to invest in an additional site in Dagenham later this year.