Anaerobic digestion plant planned for Beeley Wood

Plans have been submitted to develop an anaerobic digestion plant at the Beeley Wood Sustainable Business Park in Sheffield to replace a WWII-era factory and generate enough gas to power 2,500 homes.Plans put together by Pegasus Group on behalf of Beeley Wood Biogas Ltd detail have been submitted to Sheffield City Council to redevelop the land bordering Beeley Wood in the Don Valley.The site was formerly used by Union Carbide in the aftermath of World War II to produce carbon electrodes for the steel industry, graphite rods for the nuclear industry and related industrial products.The factory has now been mostly demolished, but remnant elements remain including three tall chimneys, a water tower and two large storage buildings.The new plant would receive commercial waste that has been accepted and de-packaged at the adjacent Waste Recycling and Destruction Ltd food recycling centre.Anaerobic digestion is the process where organic material is biologically treated in the absence of oxygen using naturally occurring microorganisms to produce biogas that will be injected into the national grid.The Beeley Wood plant would generate up to 7 million cubic meters of biomethane annually enough for the total gas requirements of 2,500 average family homes.The process would also generate 60,000 tonnes of solid and liquid digestate to be spread onto the local agricultural fields as high quality and cost effective fertiliser.The planners suggest that site has been carefully selected and is afforded with natural screening and any visual impacts.